Japanese Repeating Crossbow

It is also known as the zhuge nu or cho ko nu named after zhuge liang who is often claimed as the inventor.

Japanese repeating crossbow. A repeating crossbow excavated from a chu tomb. There is a magazine containing a number of bolts on top of the bow and the mechanism is worked by moving a rectangular lever forward and backward. In the recent war between china and japan 1894 95 the repeating crossbow was frequently seen among troops who came from the interior of the first named country. Gujin tushu jicheng.

Japan doesn t seem to have adopted the crossbow at any time in its pre gunpowder history. According to the wu yue chunqiu history of the wu yue war written in the eastern han dynasty the repeating crossbow was invented during the warring states period by a mr. The repeater crossbow 連射式ボウガン rensha shiki bōgan is a deadly weapon created by godot and adjusted by rickert for guts. The first type of crossbow found in japan was excavated in shimane prefecture and dates back to the yayoi period probably around the 200 300 a d.

A repeating crossbow is a crossbow where the separate actions of stringing the bow placing the bolt and shooting it can be accomplished with a simple one handed movement while keeping the crossbow stationary. The draw back to the weapon is its very limited range. Its basic design has remained relatively unchanged until it fell out of use around in the early 20th century. While zhuge liang made use of them archaeological finds date back the invention at least 6 centuries before his time to the period of chu.

I find this very confusing mainly for two reasons. Just push the lever forward and back and it will fire a steady stream of arrows until the magazine is empty. Perhaps one of the most famous and long lived of chinese weapons the repeating crossbow dates back from the 4th century b c. At least i ve never seen a crossbow depicted in japanese history bows and spears certainly but not crossbows.

I the interchange of technology and ideas between japan and china. And ii the existence of the chinese repeating crossbow as early as 300bc. This instructable will show you how to make a repeating crossbow also called a zhuge nu or chu ko nu this is a type of crossbow invented in china thousands of years ago that is like an ancient submachine gun. It was also know as ishiyumi written either 弩 or 石弓 shudo 手弩 doshu 弩手 or dokyū 弩弓.

Shudo is the japanese name for hand held crossbows but it is not the only one.