Guns are one of the many things that Portugal introduced to Japan. A Portuguese cohort drifted into Tanegashima with two guns. One of them was bought by a Sakai merchant, leading to mass production. But how was Sakai capable of manufacturing guns? Let us unravel that history while you look upon the monument inside the park.

Let us journey back to the Kofun Period. In Sakai, there were craftsmen skilled in making tombs. They gradually gained the technology to cast iron and copper to create metal goods and formed a guild of craftsmen. Guns were dismantled after their arrival in Sakai, with each part handed to different experts to copy from. Division of labor and their iron-casting technology made it possible to mass-produce guns they had just seen for the first time. Thus, Sakai became Japan’s foremost firearms manufacturer.

It was the best of times for Sakai, the golden days. But were they truly so wonderful? That depends on who you ask. Most of the money was in guns, and merchants built their fortunes as arms-makers, giving them reputations as “merchants of death.” Grudges cling to such weapons of murder. Perhaps the moats encircling the city were not built to keep the city away from outside interference, but because the city needed to defend itself from the outside world.