Takashima-Style Cannon

This cannon, likely made in the final decades of the Edo period, was produced by a student of Takashima Shudan, a gunsmith from Nagasaki who devoted himself to understanding Western firearms after becoming alarmed by Japan's military technology gap. Shudan acquired guns from Dutch traders on Dejima, taught himself to replicate them, and in 1834 founded the Takashima School of Gunnery. In 1842 he was arrested and imprisoned in Edo for promoting Western technology, a fate that reflected how threatening his ideas were to the authorities. He remained imprisoned until 1853, when Commodore Perry's arrival made the government reconsider. Pardoned, Shudan went on to become a military instructor for the Tokugawa shogunate.