2013 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Ancient / Medieval Japan and Asia from the Perspective of Sulfur Trade
| Project/Area Number |
23520847
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Japanese history
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| Research Institution | Kobe Women's University |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Project Period (FY) |
2011 – 2013
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| Keywords | 硫黄 / 硫黄の道 / 火薬 / 火器 / 朝鮮 / 琉球 / 宋 / 明 |
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| Research Abstract |
The purposes of this study is to consider globally the historical change in trade patterns of sulfur, which in an indispensable ingredient of gunpowder, including Japanese sulfur, in 10th to 16th century Asia.
As a result, it became clear that there was the monopolar trade structure in which large amount of sulfur flowed from Asia into China, which monopolized gunpowder and firearms technology, during the 10th to the 13th centuries.
And during the 14th to the 16th centuries, the trade structure of sulfur largely changed from monopolar to multipolar one because of the breakdown of the monopoly of firearms technology by China and the spread of that technology to some parts of Asia.
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