Nunobiki Maru

Nunobiki Maru (布引丸, literally, Drawn Fabric) was a Japanese steamship known mainly for her attempted delivery of arms, most notably powerful Murata rifles, from Japan to the Philippines, a key event in Japanese–Filipino relations during the Philippine–American War.

In 1899, Filipino diplomat Mariano Ponce gained the aid of Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen in finding a way to procure arms.

[4] Sympathizing with the Filipino cause as well, Miyazaki and Nakamura managed to make an arms purchase amounting to 155,000 yen with Japanese trader Kihatiro Okura.

Nunobiki Maru was foundered when she was 110 km (60 nautical miles) from the Saddle Islands at the mouth of Yangtze River.

[4] Meanwhile, after the disaster that struck Nunobiki Maru, Miyazaki expressed his suspicion that Nakamura's intentions were driven more by profit than altruism, and came to state to Sun that the arms were defective and that ship herself might have been in bad condition when she set sail.

Yaroku Nakamura was instrumental in the delivery of arms to the Philippines .