Inventor of the Murata Rifle. Tsuneyoshi Murata, an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, realizing that in the event of conflict with a foreign power the Japanese military would be entirely dependent on imported arms set about designing and developing a rifle that would be a completely Japanese manufactured item. Having traveled to a number of European countries with the aim of weapons research he later designed his first rifle adopting a number of features from both French and German arms. His first design, a single shot rifle called the Meiji Type 13 Murata, came in two calibers – 8mm and 11mm. His design was later improved with the type 22 able to take a tubular magazine which allowed the user to load between 5 and 8 bullets. First produced in 1880 and used during the Russo-Japanese War 1904-05, the Murata rifle was later replaced by the Arisaka in 1905 a rifle that was first produced in 1897, but continued to see some service with the Imperial Japanese Army until 1919.
Inventor of the Murata Rifle. Tsuneyoshi Murata, an officer in the Imperial Japanese Army, realizing that in the event of conflict with a foreign power the Japanese military would be entirely dependent on imported arms set about designing and developing a rifle that would be a completely Japanese manufactured item. Having traveled to a number of European countries with the aim of weapons research he later designed his first rifle adopting a number of features from both French and German arms. His first design, a single shot rifle called the Meiji Type 13 Murata, came in two calibers – 8mm and 11mm. His design was later improved with the type 22 able to take a tubular magazine which allowed the user to load between 5 and 8 bullets. First produced in 1880 and used during the Russo-Japanese War 1904-05, the Murata rifle was later replaced by the Arisaka in 1905 a rifle that was first produced in 1897, but continued to see some service with the Imperial Japanese Army until 1919.
Bio by: Shane König von Castlemaine
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