What do you think this is？
In the 16th century (1543), two guns (matchlock guns) were introduced by Portuguese people boarding on a ship that was shipwrecked on Tanegashima Island（southwestern islands off kyushu）in Japan.
From the following year, Ashikaga shogunate commanded to produce these guns here in Kunitomo-cho, currently Nagahama City, Japan.
With the advent of guns, the way of battle during the Sengoku period of Japan (the period of the warring states) has dramatically changed. Please see the last picture.
This is a matchlock gun performance held on October 12th in Nagahama City, Shiga Prefecture, Japan. Three preservation societies of matchlock guns participated in this performance. They use rolled up tissue paper for safety instead of the usual bullets.
However, this gun was very inconvenient compared to modern guns.
Before firing a gun, a lit rope was attached to a mechanism outside the barrel, and when the trigger was pulled, the lit rope ignited the gunpowder and a bullet was fired. In the following photo, shooters are trying to attach a lit rope to the gun (red arrows).
The mechanism of a matchlock gun.
A matchlock gun is functionally a weapon, but structurally it can be considered a machine. A shooter clamped a lit rope between the black part indicated by the orange arrow. When the trigger is pulled, this black part falls and ignites the gunpowder.
A battle scene using matchlock guns during the Sengoku period (the period of the warring states), a period from the end of the 15th century to the end of the 16th century. The army on the right only have spears and swords, so they can be no match for the left army. This picture is exhibited in Kunitomo museum of matchlock guns.
But during the Meiji Restoration in the late 19th century, it is said that many modern guns were introduced from post-Civil War America, then these modern guns made the matchlock gun completely obsolete.
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