Part of a cannon captured at the Battle of Shimonoseki

anonymous, 1865

The coat of arms of the Prince of Nagato are inlaid on this piece of cannon barrel. The Prince was one of the leaders of the group that opposed the opening up of Japan to the West. His troops therefore blockaded the Strait of Shimonoseki between Japan’s two main islands. In 1864 a punitive Western expedition brought an end to this blockade. This fragment was taken as booty by the Dutch navy.

  • Artwork typecannon
  • Object numberNG-MC-1189
  • Dimensionslength 24.5 cm x diameter 22.5 cm x calibre 10 cm x weight 69.8 kg
  • Physical characteristicsbronze and silver

anonymous

Part of a Gun

Japan, 1865

Provenance

...; transferred from the Ministerie van Marine (Department of the Navy), The Hague, to the museum, 1883

Object number: NG-MC-1189

Entry

Short section of the barrel of a bronze gun, showing a Japanese coat of arms with silver inlay. The coat of arms represents three suns surmounted by the character for the number ‘1’, and is identified as Naga-to boshi, the Kaye-mo (second coat of arms) of the Môri family of Hagi, Fu-Chû and Kiyo-suye.

In 1863 the Strait of Shimonoseki in Japan was closed by the Prince of Nagato: he fired on a French vessel and later severely damaged the Dutch steamer Medusa. The Strait was forced open again by an international squadron in 1864, and this piece was taken from one of the coastal batteries and taken to the Netherlands as a trophy. The Prince of Nagato, Lord of Chosu, was also a member of the Môri of Fu-Chû.

Literature

F. de Casembroot, De Medusa in de wateren van Japan in 1863 en 1864, The Hague 1865; J.M. Obreen et al., handwritten inventory list for items 944 to 1431, 1884, manuscript in HNA 476 RMA, inv. no. 1089, no. 1189; V.F. Weber, ‘Ko-ji Hô-ten’. Dictionnaire à l’usage des amateurs et collectionneurs d’objets d’art japonais et chinois, 2 vols., Paris 1923, no. 345; A.J. Vermeulen, De schepen van de Koninklijke Marine en die der gouvernementsmarine 1814-1962, The Hague 1962, p. 85; M. van den Brandhof, Vlaggen, vaandels en standaarden van het Rijksmuseum. Een geïllustreerde catalogus, Amsterdam 1977, no. 166; H. Stevens (ed.), The Art of Technology: The Navy Model Collection in the Amsterdam Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam/Wormer 1995, pp. 56-57; A.A. Lemmers and G. Boven, Nederland en Japan. Bijzondere betrekkingen 1600-1868, Den Helder 2000, pp. 26-28, 30; A.J. Hoving, Message in a Model: Stories from the Navy Model Room of the Rijksmuseum, Florence, OR 2013, p. 208; J. de Hond and M. Fitski, A Narrow Bridge: Japan and the Netherlands from 1600, Amsterdam 2016 (also published in Dutch as De smalle brug. Japan en Nederland sinds 1600), pp. 144-63

Citation

J. van der Vliet, 2016, 'anonymous, Part of a Gun, Japan, 1865', in J. van der Vliet and A. Lemmers (eds.), Navy Models in the Rijksmuseum, online coll. cat. Amsterdam: https://data.rijksmuseum.nl/200100963

(accessed 8 December 2025 15:52:40).