by Elio — To­wards the end of the 16th cen­tury, the ruler of Japan, Toy­otomi Hideyoshi, be­gan a move­ment that led to the ban­ning of firearms in that coun­try. Not that these weapons hadn't worked; on the con­trary, at that time the Japan­ese made some of the best guns in the world. Many rea­sons have been put for­ward for this unique and dras­tic ac­tion, the most ro­man­tic be­ing that the...