Military Arsenal - Gunkosho

Japanese: 軍工廠 - ぐんこうしょう

A general term for national military factories that manufactured and repaired weapons (including warships, aircraft, gunpowder, and fuel) for the Japanese Army and Navy, and manufactured materials for weapons (special steel, steel materials, etc.) from the Meiji Restoration until World War II, and played a central role in Japan's military production. They are broadly divided into Army Arsenals and Navy Arsenals. Both were established by the Meiji Restoration government by taking over shipyards and weapons factories built by the former shogunate and powerful feudal domains in the southwest. The Army started out with the Tokyo Artillery Arsenal (1868, focused on rifle manufacturing, based on the Edo shogunate's Sekiguchi Manufacturing Works) and the Osaka Artillery Arsenal (1870, focused on artillery manufacturing, based on the Heijo-shi which had moved the machinery and workers of the Nagasaki Ironworks to Osaka Castle).While carrying out repairs and replicas of imported products, the Army imported labor and technology from Europe and the United States.By 1887-90, it was able to mass-produce a certain level of weapons, and the Murata rifle (improved from the 13th year (1880) to the 18th year (1889) to the repeating rifle (1889)), 7 cm breech-loading field guns and mountain cannons represented the technological achievements of this period.

Source: Heibonsha World Encyclopedia, 2nd Edition Information

Japanese:

明治維新以降第2次世界大戦時までの日本陸海軍の兵器(軍艦，航空機，火薬，燃料を含む)の製造･修理，兵器素材(特殊鋼，鋼材等)の製造等をおこなった国有軍事工場の総称で，日本の軍事生産の中核を担った。陸軍工廠と海軍工廠に大別される。両者とも，明治維新政府が旧幕府，西南雄藩が建設した造船所，兵器工場を接収および新設して出発した。陸軍は東京砲兵工廠(1868年，小銃製造中心，幕府の関口製作所が母体)，大阪砲兵工廠(1870年，火砲製造中心，長崎製鉄所の機械と職工を大阪城内に移した造兵司が母体)を起点とし，修理と輸入品の模造をおこないつつ，欧米から労働手段･技術を輸入して，1887‐90年には一定の兵器の量産が可能となり，村田銃(十三年式(明治13年)→十八年式→連発銃(明治22年)と改良)，7センチ後装式野砲･山砲はこの時期の技術的到達点を示している。

出典　株式会社平凡社世界大百科事典第２版について　情報

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