09 What Were Smuggled between Japan and the Continent

 

Sulfur, One of the Most Important Smuggled Goods 

 

     Daijo-in Temple in Nara, stored many diaries dated from1065 to 1504.  One diary recorded the tribute cargo of the mission to Ming in 1543, which was the largest mission with 9 ships and 1200 members.  They carried 238.5 tons of sulfur, 92.7 tons of copper, 63.6 tons of red dye, 9500 Japanese swords, 417 Japanese halberds, 1250 fans, etc. in total.

 

     Sulfur accounted for the largest portion of the cargo.  Each of 9 ships carried 26.5 tons of sulfur in average.  However, Mission Ship No.6, which was owned by the Otomo Clan, loaded the largest amount of sulfur; 54.1 tons.  The amount shows the superiority of the clan’s procurement power over sulfur.

 

     What was sulfur for?  If you make gunpowder with 75 percents of niter, 15 percents of sulfur, and 10 percents of charcoal, 54.1 tons of sulfur alone can enable you to produce 360 tons of gunpowder.  In Japan, they used to use about 3 grams of gunpowder to make a shot.  120,000,000 shots!  If you can kill one person by shooting a couple of times, you can cause the death of tens of millions of people.  It’s more than massacre.  The sulfur was offered to Ming government as the mission was approved by them as an official one.  If not, the mission had to sail south to sell, or smuggle, the sulfur to someone else along the Fujian coast.

 

     Let me show a couple of other examples of trading sulfur.  In 1465, the Otomo and Shimazu Clans offered 24 tons of sulfur for the mission to Ming in 1468.  The managers of the Muromachi Shogunate received the sulfur at Moji and Hakata.  6 tons of the sulfur was to be offered to Chenghua Emperor (1447-1487, reigning 1464-1487), and the other 18tons was to be sold in Ming.

 

     For the mission to Ming in 1484, Ashikaga Yoshihisa (1465-1489, reigning 1473-1489) wrote a letter to Otomo Masachika (1444-1496), ordering to offer sulfur as usual, and, as a messenger, dispatched Chen Zutian (?-?), a great grandchild of Chen Zongjing (1322-1395), a doctor under the Yuan Dynasty who came into exile in Chikuzen Province, Japan, after the collapse of the dynasty in 1368.  Each generation head of the Chen Family called themselves Chen Wuiro.  A Japanese sweet, uiro, was named after them.

 

     We can trace exporting sulfur to China back to the end of the 10th century.  Under the Song Dynasty (960-1279), firearms were deployed and used more and more often in battles and the usage of gunpowder expanded.  The Song central government imported sulfur as munitions from other Asian countries and put the imported sulfur under the central control.

 

     Later,  while the Southern Court and the Northern Court were fighting each other for the right to the throne in Japan, Prince Kaneyoshi (1329-1383), the South court’s Commander in Chief to Subdue Western Japan, offered horses, swords, armors, sulfur, etc. in 1379, and horses, sulfur, swords, fans, etc. in 1380 to Hongwu Emperor, the founder of the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644).

 

     Tribute, offerings, whatever you may call it, sulfur was one of the most important exported goods from Japan for centuries.  Other exported goods included swords, halberds, amours, horses…..  Missions to China sound more like merchants of death.  No wonder those missions opened up the floodgates for Later Wokou, who smuggled munitions around the East China Sea.

 

     The National Museum of China has preserved a picture in which a battle between Wokou ships and Ming ships were painted.  Infrared photographs revealed that one of the Wokou ships was flying a banner which read “Koji san nen”, or the third year of Koji (1557).  It was in 1557 that the Otomo Clan sent a mission to Ming which was not admitted to be an official one by the Ming officials.  The question is whether the picture is unrealistic and unreliable, Wokou pretended the mission, or the mission turned into Wokou after the denial.

 

 

Sulfur and the Shimazu Clan

 

     Shunkan (1143-1179), a priest, conspired a rebel against the Taira Clan, and was exiled to Kikai-ga-shima Island in 1177.  In the Tale of Heike, or the Tale of the Taira Clan, he described the island, “No crops are raised in this island.  Those who are mature enough climb up the mountain, pick up sulfur, see traders from Kyushu, and exchange sulfur with food.”

 

     Sulfur was not mined, but excavated.  Kikai-ga-shima is presumed to be Io-jima Island, literally Sulfur Island.  The island used to be the main sulfur production area for the Shimazu Clan even through the Edo Period.  The island is located 110 kilometers south of Satsuma Peninsula, and has an area of 11.74 square kilometers with a population of 128 today.  Mt. Io-dake (703 meters), literally Sulfur Peak, is the highest mountain there, and it is still an active volcano.

 

     Then, what was sulfur used for in Ancient Japan?  Although we don’t have written records of that time, we can surmise through Medieval documents.

 

     Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto has preserved various historical records.  One of them reads that Shinju-an Temple, one of the branch temples of Daitoku-ji Temple, purchased lighting strings and sulfur each with 10 coins in 1493.  Nyoi-an Temple had a black lacquered box of sulfur in 1509.  Choro-ji Temple in Settsu Province newly bought a box of sulfur and lighting strings in 1528.  Those records indicate that sulfur used to be used as firelighters as it was in the Edo Period.

 

     As the export of sulfur to China, which used to be called tribute or offering though, expanded, manufacturing sulfur transformed into a military industry.

 

     On various occasions, the Shimazu Clan offered, presented, exported, and maybe smuggled their sulfur from Io-shima Island and other active volcanos in their domain.  Let’s examine some instances from written historical documents.

 

     On February the 28, 1374, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the 3rd shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate, wrote to Shimazu Ujihisa (1328-1387):

 

     “For sulfur, I sent Bonsho Priest to you.  The order is strict.  Details will be told by the priest.”

 

     Later, Yoshimitsu thanked Shimazu Motohisa (1363-1411) for 1.5 tons of sulfur, and gave him a set of armor and a sword.

 

     With that amount of sulfur, we can deduce that it was for military supplies.

 

      In 1424, Ino Sadatsura (?-1455) was appointed one of managers of the Muromachi Shogunate.  His job was to regulate foreign relations including procuring tribute, or export products.

 

     On September the 11th, 1431, he wrote a letter to Shimazu Tadakuni (1403-1470) on behalf of Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394-1441, reigning 1428-1441), the 6th shogun, who restored the shogunate from the mess after the death of the powerful 3rd shogun, Yoshimitsu (1358-1408, reigning 1368-1394).

 

     “Here I pass down the order to you that you should prepare 90 tons of good sulfur, and should transport it without delay.”

 

     In 1434, the foreign shipment office was established within the shogunate government, and Sadatsura was appointed to be its first manager.  The military production and exportation of sulfur was further institutionalized.

 

      Shuryu (?-?), one of the chief traders in missions to Ming in 1477 and in 1484, wrote to 2 vassals of the Shimazu Clan on September the 29th, 1474:

 

     “As I have not had a particular topic, I have not written to you for long.  It has been against my will.  However, as a mission to Ming was ordered now, I have to visit you next spring.  Although it is an official task for me, I have to ask you to take care of everything.

 

     “As for the task, an official order letter to procure sulfur was already issued to your clan.  Although you were ordered to transport the sulfur to Hirado in the letter, as the mission will sail off from your province, it should be kept at Bo-no-tsu Port.  I will tell you details.  I am looking forward to seeing you.”

 

     It seems that the profession of the exportation of sulfur as ammunition had been established and structured.

 

     Later, even at the end of the Warring State Period and at the beginning of the Edo Period, sulfur was still important, and the Shimazu Clan presented sulfur to people of importance at the time as gifts.

 

      Shimazu Yoshihiro (1535-1619) presented 90 kilograms of sulfur to Fukushima Masanori (1561-1624).

 

     Shimazu Iehisa (1576-1638) presented 600 kilograms of sulfur and other gifts to Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-1616) in 1609.  Ieyasu had won the Battle of Seki-ga-hara in 1600, and had been appointed as a shogun in 1603.  Iehisa also presented 3 tons of sulfur to Fukushima Masanori (1561-1624), in 1617, 2 years after the Toyotomi Clan had been destroyed by Ieyasu.  Masanori was one of the best generals and also one of the most powerful daimyos at the time.

 

     On July the 21st, Ieyasu wrote a thank-you letter to Iehisa for 1.2 tons of sulfur.

 

     On December the 18th, Ieyasu wrote another thank-you letter to Iehisa for 300 kilograms of sulfur.

 

     On February the 7th, Tokugawa Iemitsu (1604-1651), the 3rd shogun reigning 1623-1651, wrote a thank-you letter to Iehisa for sulfur and other gifts.

 

     We should be terrified if we had political leaders who are pleased to be presented with pure plutonium 239.

 

 

Sulfur and the Otomo Clan

 

     The Otomo Clan fell at the end of the Warring State Period, and their records and documents have not been preserved well as the Shimazu Clan’s have.  We should make speculation from their scattered records and documents about where and how they procured their sulfur.

 

     The Otomo Clan moved from Eastern Japan to Bungo Province at the end of the 13th century.  We can find 2 documents left which imply how the clan’s control over sulfur progressed.  The 2 documents are the lists of the territories and the businesses which were under the direct control of the clan, or more precisely, of the mainstream family of the clan.  One document was recorded under Otomo Ujitoki (?-1368) in 1364, another was recorded under his second son, Chikayo (?-1418), in 1383.  The family’s estate, surrounding territories, important ports and stages, etc., were listed.

 

     The first list in 1364 included, oddly enough, a mountainous valley, Yufuin, along with other rich paddy field areas and port towns.  Under the Yufuin entry, 3 villages were added as a supplementary note; Namiyanagi, Shukuri, and Tsukahara.

 

     Namiyanagi lies north upstream of Yufuin Valley at the west foot of Mt. Yufu-dake.  The mountain is at an altitude of 1583 meters.  Tsukahara is further north-west upstream in the highlands surrounded with Mt. Yufu-dake, Mt. Tsurumi-dake (1374 meters), and Mt. Garan-dake (1045 meters).  The 3 mountains are active volcanoes.  Especially Mt. Garan-dake emits gasses and vapor even today, and also known as Mt. Io, literally Mt. Sulfur.  You can find natural crystalized sulfur around the crater.

 

     The second list in 1383, of course, included Yufuin, under which 9 villages were added as a supplementary note; Namiyanagi, Shukuri, Tsukahara, Aragane, Amama, Araki, Yamasaki, Ishimatsu, and Sadatsune.

 

     Shukuri, Tsukahara, Araki, Yamasaki, Ishimatsu, and Sadatsune all lie in Yufuin Valley.  Aragane and Amama are further north-west upstream of Tsukahara, and the road through the 3 villages leads to Moji over a mountain pass via Ajimu and Usa in Buzen Province.  The increase of the number of villages in the list might mean the strengthening direct control of the Otomo Clan over the area as well as the better knowledge of the area.

 

     During those 2 decades, in 1364, Otomo Ujitoki (?-1368) was fighting for the Northern Court against the Southern Court.  In 1374, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408) strictly ordered Shimazu Ujihisa (1328-1387) to offer sulfur.  Both of them were fighting for the Northern Court, and Yoshimitsu might have given the Otomo Clan the same order.  In 1379 and in 1380, Prince Kaneyoshi (1329-1383), a commander of chief in the Southern Court, offered sulfur to Ming.  In 1383, Otomo Chikashige (?-1418) was fighting for the Northern Court against the Southern Court and his elder brother, Ujitsugu (?-1401).  And, in 1392, Yoshimitsu finally dissolved the Southern Court, and unified the two courts.

 

     China pulled a large amount of sulfur from Japan.  Japanese national hegemons at the time pushed a large quantity of sulfur to China to obtain political mileage, certain statuses in East Asia Tribute System, and to obtains certain economic gains, and trade margins.  The push worked as pulls on Japanese local hegemons.  The local hegemons tried to procure sulfur from volcanoes in their domains.  Thus, the exportation and production of sulfur became institutionalized and structured as an ammunition industry, whether the concerned local people realized the transformation process or not.

 

 

For Other Daimyo Smugglers; It All Started with Silver

 

     In 1546, Sagara Yoshishige (1489-1546) wrote a letter dated July the 12th to his adopted-son, Haruhiro (1513-1555).

 

     “This must be really a good omen.  Tens of thousands of good signs.  So valuable!  I had silver ores shown to an engineer, Doun.  He said the ores were better than those which were mined at Ikuno, Tajima Province.  I am more than satisfied.  Silver ores are rarely found in Japan, yet some are found at our time in our province.  It is just beyond our luck.  You should carefully imagine how greatly we are blessed with everything, and should, needless to say, try having our family thrive.  Last year, an imperial messenger visited us.  It was beyond our expectations.  It did look good to other clans.  It is obvious that we have got an extraordinary luck full of wonder.  I told the engineer to hurry, and he replied immediately that he understood it.

 

     “I still attach another sheet to tell it was at Miyahara on July the 6th in 1546 that the silver ores were found.  You should understand my intention, and should never lose the information.  The sheet of the record should be kept for the future.

 

     “I am waiting for another good news.

 

     “With best regards,

 

     “July the 12th,

 

     “Yoshishige”

 

     Another historic document tells us that Yoshishige actually got “another good news” that the ores were refined into about 100 grams of silver on July the 18th.

 

      To thank the divine protection that the clan found the silver mine, Haruhiro renewed thereby shrines.

 

     Now, you can easily understand how happy they felt on finding silver ores.

 

     In the 16th century, for Japanese missions to Ming, silver was the means of payment for necessities of life during their stay in Ming.  They had to anchor and wait in Hang-zhou Bay for months before they were allowed even just to sail into Ningbo Port.  During those months, they had to buy food and daily necessities at Aoshan or Dinghai in Zhoushan Island with their silver.

 

     The silver found at Miyahara enabled the Sagara Clan to send their own “mission” to Ming with an old out-of-date tally, although it failed as a mission without enough certification only to turn to be a smuggler.  That type of localization of originally national central missions to Ming was started successfully by the Ouchi Clan.  Then how did the Ouchi Clan gained their silver as the capital of trading?

 

     The Iwami Silver mine was developed in 1527.  The Ouchi Clan was ruling the area then, and Hakata merchants might have financially supported the development.  However, technically speaking, it was Mishima Seiemon (?-?) who developed the silver mine.  He brought 3 engineers, Yoshida Mitsuemon (?-?), Yoshida Tozaemon (?-?), and Obeni Magoemon (?-?) from Sagi Copper Mine in Izumo Province to open the mine.

 

     Seiemon and Oda Toemon (?-?), an agent of a Hakata merchant, Kamiya Jutei (?-?), brought rice and coins to purchase silver ores, which were taken away somewhere else at first.  To where?  We have 2 interesting records in the Annals of the Joseon Dynasty.

 

     On January the 10th, 1528, Bag Gyeson and others were arrested for secretly refining lead ores containing silver at Hwang Yunbich’s house in Seoul.  On August the 2nd, 1539, Yu Seojong, a local official in Jeonju, Jeola Province, was arrested because he had secretly bought lead ores containing silver from Japan, refined at home, and taught the skill to some Japanese people.

 

     In 1533 at last, refining silver became possible around Iwami Silver Mine.  Keiju, or Geongjang if he was a Korean, was brought to the mine from Hakata on August the 15th.  He introduced cupellation, which enabled bulk production of silver.

 

     Once cupellation was introduced into Japan, it quickly spread to other silver mines in the country.  As early as in August of 1542, silver ores were first dug on the south slope of Mt. Shiro-yama in Ikuno, Tajima Province, which later became one of the most well-known silver mines in Japan.  Mine workers and engineers arrived at Ikuno from Iwami Silver Mine, and a gallery was opened.

 

     At the time, merchants managed silver mines, and daimyos and local samurais put taxes on the management.  Thus, silver was, in one sense, shared between merchants and samurais.  In 1530’s and 40’s, silver used not to be used as domestic currency at first then, and rather flew out abroad in exchange for foreign products.

 

     Now that Japan became able to complete whole operations in silver production, some daimyo warlords and merchants started trying to trade with their silver in their hands.

 

     For example, in 1538, 225 kilograms of silver was brought to Joseon by a mission who claimed to be an envoy from Sir. Shoni.  Who was Shoni then?

 

     Muto Sukeyori (1160-1228) moved from Musashi Province in Eastern Japan to Kyushu in March, 1195, as a vassal of Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199), who opened the Kamakura Shogunate.  Sukeyori was appointed “Dazai shoni” of Dazai-fu in October, 1226.  Dazai-fu used to be an ancient regional government in Kyushu which was also responsible for the diplomacy of Ancient Japan.  The chief executive officer of Dazai-fu was called “Dazai sochi.”  The position later became an honorary post for central aristocrats.  The subordinate but practical executive officer was called “Dazai daini,” which only central noblemen could be appointed to be.  Sometimes, a local subordinate officer, “Dazai shoni,” had the practical executive power of the regional government.  Anybody without a central aristocratic order could be appointed “shoni,” so it was the highest rank in Dazai-fu samurais could normally acquire.  After 1226, the Muto Family called themselves Shoni.

 

     It might have been Shoni Tokihisa (?-1559) that sent the mission with 225 kilograms of silver in 1538.  However, his father, Sukemoto (1491-1536), was defeated by Ouchi Yoshitaka (1507-1551), and was cornered in killing himself in 1536 without the rescue corps from his main vassal, Ryuzoji Iekane (1454-1546).  And Tokihisa himself was in exile at the time, so it could have been Iekane who sent the mission, assuming Shoni’s name.  Iekane had been a vassal of the Shoni Clan, but had secret communication with Yoshitaka, and was overthrowing the Shoni Clan.  Or Hakata merchants just did their jobs in the middle of, or taking advantage of, the confusion.

 

     In April, 1542, Anshin, a priest who claimed to be an ambassador of the king of Japan, brought about 3 tons of silver to Joseon.  Was it possible?  As Iwami Silver Mine alone produced 38 tons of silver per year at its peak, 3 tons of silver was possible, but an ambassador of the king of Japan was not.  He was a false ambassador made up in Tsushima Island.

 

     Anshin (?-?) belonged to Hanchu Sect of Chan Buddhism, or Genju Sect of Zen Buddhism in Japanese.  The founder of the sect was Zhongfeng Mingben (1263-1323), who lived at the beginning of Yuan Dynasty, China.  Several Japanese monks studied and trained under him, and formed Genju Sect back in Japan.  The sect formed a part of Rinka Zen, and were supported by merchants and peasants as well as the lower layers of samurais.  Those people preferred pragmatic benefits to pedantic understanding.  And Genju Sect provided them.

 

     Koshin Sektei (1481-1564) was a bigger-name Genju-Sect priest.  He was the 12th-generation major pupil of Zhongfeng, and was also the ambassador, or senior envoy, of the mission to Ming in 1539.

 

     Koshin and Anshin both worked for Shofuku-ji Temple in Hakata at least for a certain period.  Shofuku-ji Temple was founded by Eisai (1141-1215) in 1195, and practically is the oldest Zen temple in Japan.  Genju-an Temple was first built at Maidashi near Hakata in 1336, and was moved into Shofuku-ji’s property in 1646 by Oga Sohaku (1610-1647).  He worked for the Macau branch of his father’s transnational trading for 8 years.  Back in Hakata, he became a businessperson with powerful connections with the Kuroda Clan, who was ruling Chikuzen Province.

 

     What were those two false missions to Joseon going to purchase for their silver?  It was mainly cotton cloth; high-tech products for Japanese people at the time.  Hemp cloth used to be used even among ordinary noble people in Japan, and silk cloth was just super luxurious, while cotton cloth was rather new products.

 

     Cotton was introduced to China during Tang or Song Dynasties.  It was in 1364 that cotton was brought to Goryeo, Korea, by Mun Igjeon (1329-1398) against the rules under Yuan Dynasty, China.

 

     After Goryeo, Joseon became a Confucianism society with an agriculture-based national ideology.  Commerce was despised.  Bartering was common, and cotton cloth, hemp cloth, and rice played a role of a kind of currency.   Their agriculture-based economic system was more radical than that under the Edo Shogunate in Japan.

 

     The Joseon ruling class might have been scared of the shadow of possible mercantilism and commercialism to emerge.  In other words, they really knew well the power of the glitter of precious metals.  The arrival of additional silver stimulated popular greed for silver all the more.  A large amount of silver newly produced in Japan plunged East Asia into the age of great smugglings.

 

 

Japanese Silver Attracted Foreign Smugglers

 

     Zheng Shungong (?-?) was born in Xin’an District, Guangdong Province, China under Ming Dynasty.  He was sent to Japan by Yang Yi (?-?), the military governor of Zhejiang Province, although he was not an official.  He was heading for Kyoto, but reached Bungo Province by accident, and confined to Ryuho-an Temple, a branch temple of Kaizo-ji Temple in Usuki County.  He was sent back to China in 1558, accompanied by the Otomo Clan’s priest, Seiju, who had studied in Daitoku-ji Temple in Kyoto.  By the time he returned to China, Yang Yi had been replaced by Hu Zongxian (1512-1565), who had sent Chen Keyuan and Jiang Zhou to Japan in 1556.  The two first visited Goto Islands in Japan, and met Wang Zhi and Mao Haifeng, famous Chinese Wokou chiefs who were based in the island.  Chen returned to Ming to report, but Jiang went to Bungo Province, and stayed there.  He sent his priest messenger to Yamaguchi and admonished Ouchi Yoshinaga (?-1557) to crack down on Wokou.  Otomo Yoshishige (1530-1587), who was ruling Bungo Province at the time and was an elder brother of Yoshinaga, might have been dubious of Zheng, or been more familiar with personnel changes in China, or just found Jiang easier to handle.

 

     Zheng later wrote and compiled a book of 3 volumes, “Riben Yijian” (A Look at Japan), presumably by the end of 1560’s or the beginning of 1570’s.

 

     According to Zheng Shungong, many Fujian people were sailing to Japan as early as in 1534, hearing from Japanese priests that they could gain massive profits from trading with silver.

 

     Even Annals of the Joseon Dynasty’s entry dated June the 25th in 1544 recorded the fact that Fujian people were sailing to Japan to trade silver.

 

     In Japan, a Chinese private trading ship, that is, a smuggling ship, was recorded to have reached Suo Province in 1539.  Later, some others got to Jingu-ji Bay in Bungo Province, Hirado in Hizen Province, Tane-ga-shima Island in Osumi Province, Akune in Satsuma Province, Amakusa in Higo Province, Saiki Bay in Bungo Province, and as far as Ise in Ise Province.  Silver obviously attracted Chinese smugglers.

 

      Zheng Ruoceng (1503-1570) was born at Kunshan, Jiangsu Province.  He finished writing and composing “Chouhai Tubian” (Maritime Strategy and Charts) in 1561.  It was published in 1562 under the support from Hu Zongxian (1512-1565).  Zheng Shungong’s “Riben Yijian” and Zheng Ruoceng’s “Chouhai Tubian” both aimed for eliminating Wokou.  They were respectively supported by Yang Yi and Hu Zongxian, who were both high officers in southern China.  Yet they could not work together.  They seem to have suspected that others were conspiring with Wokou to gain profits.  Even Hu, who replaced Yang, was later suspected of collusion, was purged, and had to kill himself in jail.  Can Hu Jintao (1942-), a direct descendant of Hu Zongxian and Ex-President of People’s Republic of China, survive today’s purges?

 

     From song Dynasty on, the dominant class in China had been landed gentries.  Once they passed the Imperial examinations, they could make high-ranking officers of the central government.  There, they played power games to get promoted and to maximize their family profits.  They would retire, once one of their sons passed the Imperial examinations.  They would retreat to their own estate, and concentrate on managing their estate to maximize their family profits.

 

     One way to maximize their family profits was to patronize and protect smugglers against local authorities.  As the ex-officers of the central government, or as a father of the current officers, the gentries were rich and powerful enough to bribe and scare local authorities into overlooking smugglers.

 

      Wang Zhi (?-1560) was born in She County, Anhui Province, China.  According to Zheng Ruoceng, Wang moved to Guangdong in 1540, built a huge ship there, smuggled illegal goods prohibited by Ming government with Japan and Southeast Asia countries, and made an enormous fortune.  According to Zheng Shungong, Wang visited Hakata in 1545, brought Sukezaemon and 2 other Japanese merchants to Shuangyu, Zhejiang Province, and smuggled with them there.

 

     Under the embargo policy of Ming government, Wang Zhi, who called himself a sea trader, smuggled niter, sulfur, silk, cotton, etc. across the East China Sea and the South China Sea along with other Chinese smugglers such as Xu Dong (?-1548?), Li Guangtou (?-1548?), Chen Sixi (?-1551), Xu Hai (?-1556), and Ye Zongman (?-?) while Ming government officers such as Zhu Wan (1494-1550), Yu Dayou (1503-1579), and Hu Zongxian (1512-1565) kept attacking them.

 

      Those Chinese smugglers were based in islands along the coasts of Zhejiang and Fujian Provinces.  They conspired with Chinese landed gentries at the time in the provinces.  The gentries were retired central bureaucrats, whose sons were either central bureaucrats who had passed the Imperial examinations or those who were preparing themselves to pass the examinations, and were accordingly more powerful than local authorities there.

 

     Japanese silver not only caught up Chinese smugglers and their supporters, coastal Chinese landed gentries, but also inevitably involved high-ranking authority officers because of smugglers’ illegal actions and occasional violent conducts.  The conflict between utilitarian landed gentries and militant authoritarian ones made central Court power games ever severer and more complicated.

 

      Zhu Wan (1494-1550) tried to solve the conflict in a militant and authoritarian way.  In 1548, he sent a fleet to Shuanyu, the largest base of smugglers, in Zhoushan Islands, Zhejiang Province, felled the port, and captured and killed many smugglers including Xu Dong.  Li Guangtou and Wang Zhi narrowly  escaped from the perish though.

 

     Zhu’s achievements and the contribution to the country, however, angered utilitarian landed gentries, and he had to commit suicide in 1550.  After his death, in 1550’s, there came Jiajing wokou raids.  Was it because of Zhu’s success, which ironically scattered left-over smugglers along Zhejiang and Fujian coasts out of any control?  Or was it because of militants’ lost to utilitarians, which accordingly weakened the military actions against smugglers?  Who knows?  However, during the great wokou raids, even utilitarian landed gentries’ estates were attacked by wokou.  Those gentries were, accordingly, losers too.

 

      After the fall of Shuanyu in 1548, Wang Zhi (?-1560) moved his base to Lie Port, Jintang Island, still within Zhoushan Islands, Zhejiang Province.  The port was attacked by Yu Dayou (1503-579) in 1553, and Wang fled to Japan.

 

     Previously, in 1540’s, some of the silver mined and refined in Iwami Silver Mine flew out into Korea.  It didn’t take so long for Japanese silver to drain off into China.  Those days in China, more taxes were supposed to be paid with silver than before, while the production of silver in China was sluggish.  The thirst for foreign silver was burning.  Direct non-stop marine transportation routes across the East China Sea were opened up.  The Chinese junk ships on those direct routes arrived in Japan at Hirado, for example, in the northwestern tip of Kyushu Island, which used to be ruled by the Matsura Clan.

 

     In 1550’s, Chinese smugglers from Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangdong Provinces flocked to Japan with an eye to its silver.  Although they were heading for Hirado, some of them, unluckily, got astray and got washed ashore either in the north on the Korean beaches or in the south on small islands around the southern part of Kyushu, on Tanega-shima Island, for example.  In Korea, those ships were reported and recorded as wrecked Tang ships.

 

 

What Were Smuggled to Japan

 

     Both Chouhai Tubian by Zheng Ruoceng (1503-1570) and Riben Yijian by Zheng Shungong (?-?) had similar entries both of which had the same title Wo Hao (literally Japanese Favorites).  They listed 22 exports wihich were smuggled by Wokou.  As for 8 of them, their prices in silver were entered: silk, cotton, crimson strings, mercury, needles, iron pots, old coins, and medicinal herbs.  The entries are the evidence that they were traded for silver.

 

     The Nabeshima Clan took over the Ryuzoji Clan, who had been ruling Hizen Province in Kyushu Island during the Warring States Period, in 1607.  The Hirayoshi Family, who used to be a charted merchant for both the clans, has kept their own historical texts, and one of them reads as follows:

 

     “In the middle of Tensho years (in 1580’s), on our way to Kyoto in the Seto Inland sea, around No-shima, Kuru-shima, and Inno-shima Islands, pirates formed gangs, killed those who were sailing up or down along the sea corridor.  Everyone who came or went along the corridor was suffering.  We could not even meet the requires and orders of Lord Naoshige (Nabeshima Naoshige, 1538-1618).

 

     “The judicial officer sent out a ship, and sent a messenger to a pirate boss to take the complaint to him.  The boss replied, ‘Let’s put other provinces’ ships aside.  If you would like your ships from Nabeshima’s domain in Hizen Province pass through the area with no problems, you should hand over one kan (about 4 kilograms) of silver as a reward.’  The both sides consented, and handed in signed documents to each other.  They gave us 20 ship banners, and we handed over one kan of silver.  Thereafter, the clan’s couriers and the domain’s trading ships as well can now sail through the area with the ship banners.  Lord Naoshige seems more than satisfied.”

 

     Thus, some of the silver which were circulating along the smuggling over the East China Sea found their way to the Japanese pirates along the Seto Inland Sea, namely the Murakami Clan.

 

     The Murakami Clan, who commanded the Seto Inland Sea as pirates, could gain silver, which used to be not only the large-denomination currency in Japan but also the international currency, and imported goods such as carpets.  During the Warring States Period, each warlord could assure merchants of the freedom and security of their economic activities only within his domain.  For some merchants who were trading in wider areas, pirates were, ironically enough, indispensable for their secure commerce.  Once those warlord domains were unified under the Toyotomi Clan, however, the Murakami Clan had to give some of their silver and carpets to officers of the Toyotomi Regime as bribes to secure their business, or their goodwill.  That is, pirates were to be “pirated” this time.

 

     In 1585, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) brought Shikoku Island under control, and allocated the island to his vassals.  He demanded to demolish some castles and fortresses too.  In the process, the Noshima Murakami Clan lost their rights and interests one after another.

 

     First, in November, 1585, Kobayakawa Takakage (1533-1597), one of Hideyoshi’s vassals and the new ruler of Iyo Province under the Toyotomi Regime, ordered the Noshima Murakami Clan to demolish Mushi and Nakato Fortresses, 2 strategic points along Kurushima Strait.

 

     In 1586, the Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1536-1598) mounted a massive campaign to bring Kyushu Island under control.  Most pirates along the Seto Inland sea, including the Noshima Murakami Clan, were mobilized for the campaign as naval forces.  In 1587, Hideyoshi conquered the island.

 

     After the conquest, in 1588, Hideyoshi ordered that there should not be any piracies or robberies in any province.  It was his first prohibition order on piracy.  The Fukahori Clan was one of those who were punished for violating the order.

 

    The Fukahori Clan descended from one of the branch families of the Wada Clan, which used to be one of the good clans at the beginning of the Kamakura Period.  The family moved to Fukahori, Iumi-no-sho Manor, Kazusa Province, and called themselves Fukahori since then.  After Jokyu War in 1221, the family was appointed as a steward samurai in Tohachi-ura, Sonogi Manor, Hizen Province, Kyushu.  This time, Tohachi-ura came to be called Fukahori.  As Fukahori was located at the south mouth of Nagasaki Bay, during the Warring States Period, the Fukahori Clan came to collect taxes from trading ships which visited Nagasaki.  If a ship refused to pay, they attacked the ship and robbed its loads.  That is, the clan turned pirate.

 

     Nagasaki had been made up of just remote fishing villages.  However, since the bay was suitable for big ships to be anchored in, Omura Sumitada (1533-1587) decided to open the area for foreign traders in 1570, and started building a port town there.  The first Portuguese ship visited the port as early as in 1571.  From that time on, Fukahori Sumitaka (?-?), who had been adopted by the Fukahori Clan from the Saigo Family in 1565, kept attacking Nagasaki.

 

     In 1570, Saigo Sumitaka (?-?), Fukahori Sumitaka’s biological brother, attacked Omura Sumitada, and Fukahori Sumitaka attacked Nagasaki Sumikage (1548-1622), who was subordinate to the Omura Clan and was ruling Nagasaki,  in response to his brother’s military operation.  In 1572, Fukahori Sumitaka attacked the Omura Clan with Saigo Sumitaka, Goto Takaakira (1534-1583) and others at Sanjo Castle, and burned down the fortress and church in Nagasaki.  In 1573, he made a night raid on Nagasaki at high tide with 60 boats, and burned churches down.  In 1574, he burned down the fortress, the port town, and Todos os Santos Church.  From 1577 till 1580, he attacked Nagasaki every year.  In 1580, Omura Sumitada, at last, gave up defending Nagasaki, and contributed the town to the Society of Jesus.

 

     In 1588, Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) usurped Nagasaki from the Society of Jesus, put it under the direct control of his clan, and destroyed the fortress there.  The Fukahori Clan might have been “taxing” trading ships.  Fukahori Sumitaka (?-?) was accused of his piracy, had his estate confiscated, and had his castle demolished.  He moved to Kase Manor, Saga County, Hizen Province.  Later, in 1592, he became a vassal of the Nabeshima Clan, and his descendant family provided chief retainers for the clan during the Edo Period.

 

     At the same time, the Noshima Murakami Clan was accused of their piracy, and it was then that they presented, in vain, their silver and carpets as bribes to some chief vassals of Hideyoshi; such as Mashita Nagamori (1545-1615), Toda Katsutaka (?-1594), and Asano Nagamasa (1547-1611).  Nagamasa’s great-great-grandson was Asano Naganori (1667-1701), who drew his sword and attempted to kill Kira Yoshinaka (1641-1703) in the Corridor of the Pines at Edo Castle, which caused the Ako Vendetta, or the Revenge of the Forty-seven Ronin.  If Naganori had been disliked by Yoshinaka for his insufficient presents (bribes?) as some half-fictionalized stories tell us, it’s an irony of fate.

 

     The Noshima Murakami Clan’s silver and carpets were of little effect, or might not have benn sufficient enough.  They had to leave their base, Noshima Island in Iyo Province along the Seto Inland Sea, and move to Kafuri, Chikuzen Province.

 

     Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) forced pirates along the Seto Inland Sea and around Nagasaki into submission, gained naval supremacy on the waters between Kyoto and the East China Sea, and controlled the water transportation there.  He established the claim on imported silk to purchase it first.

 

     An entry dated December, 1480, of Daijo-in Temple’s notebooks wrote, “Nothing is more profitable for trading ships to China than silk.  You can purchase the amount of copper a horse can carry for 10 thousand copper coins in Bizen Province or Bicchu Province.  If you exchange the copper with silk at Ningbo in China, you can sell the silk for 40 to 50 thousand coins.”  Another entry dated April, 1495, of the notebooks wrote, “3 big ships are to come back to Japan this year.  Sakai merchants loaded each ship with goods worth 10 million copper coins.  those goods will sell for 30 to 40 million coins.  A profit of tens of thousands of coins in total!”  Kuzuha Sainin (1395-1486) was even reported to have said, “As I buy 600 grams of silk in China for 250 coins, I can sell the silk for 50 thousand coins.  A profit of 20 times.”  Sainin’s father was said to come from “Tenjiku” (India, Java, or Arabia) while his mother was from Kuzuha, Kawachi Province.  Considering the international smuggling networks he had had, a profit of 20 times might not have been exaggeration.

 

     Now, had the sea around Japan become pacific?  Not really.  On October the 3rd, 1589, Hideyoshi issued a letter to the Matsuura Clan, saying, “I have already ordered that not only all the provinces but also all the waters around Japan should be peaceful.  To answer China’s entreaty, we loaded presents to them on a ship.  When the ship left last spring, however, we heard that it was robbed by pirates whose leader called himself Zhiguai in your domain’s sea.  You should arrest Zhiguai and all the others on the pirate ship, and send them to us.”  In September, 1591, Hideyoshi issued copies of a letter to daimyo lords in Kyushu, pointing out, “As a Chinese captain built a ship, and was preparing to sail to China to trade, a Portuguese ship attacked it in Satsuma Province.”

 

     As Hideyoshi had conquered Japanese pirates, he now faced Chinese and Portuguese pirates.

 

     Hideyoshi had learned from Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) a lot.  Nobunaga was Hideyoshi’s predecessor as a ruler of Japan as well as Hideyoshi’s master until Nobunaga’s sudden death in the Honno-ji Incident at the hands of Akechi Mitsuhide (1528-1582).  Nobunaga put a high priority on commerce as well as on military affairs, and he instituted a free market system, built roads and secured waterways.  Nobunari Oda (1987- ), a famous figure skater, claims to be Nobunaga’s 17th generation descendant.

 

     Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) half put an end to the Warring States Period (1467-1568) and half unified Japan.  He killed his younger brother, Nobukatsu (1536-1557), and unified Owari Province in 1559.  He knew quite well of the importance of gaining naval supremacy of water and controlling water transportation from the very beginning.  As soon as he unified Owari Province, one of his vassals, Senshu Suetada (1534-1560), trapped the pirates around Hazuzaki, the southern tip of the Chita Peninsula, the southernmost part of the province, between Ise and Mikawa Bays, into obeying him.

 

     Suetada took advantage of being a chief priest of Atsuta Shrine in Owari Province, one of the oldest shrines in Japan, and proposed a business talk to the pirates to buy wood through them from Kii Province to rebuild the shrine.  As the pirates believed in the shrine heartily and also found it a good deal, they sailed all their boats off to Kii to meet the request.

 

     Suetada secretly set fire to pirates’ village, whose security was weak then.  Besides, he innocently started to fight the fire with his men, rescued the pirates’ families, and took good care of them.  The pirates returned to find their village burned out, and to know Suetada helped their families.  They thanked Suetada for his rapid and conscientious responses, and handed wood over to him for free.  As the villagers were hardly able to get by without their homes, Suetada gave them land to live on away from the sea.  Thus, he cleared pirates from Hazuzaki.

 

     Suetada was killed in the Battle of Okehazama as he attacked, with no more than 30 men, the advance troop of Imagawa Yoshimoto (1519-1560), who was leading no less than 20-25 thousand men in total to mount a military expedition to Kyoto to dominate the whole country.

 

     After the victory in the Battle of Okehazama, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) married his younger sister, Oinu(?-1582), to Saji Nobukata (1550-1571), who was the chief of the Saji Sea Forces, which were controlling the water transportation in Ise Bay.

 

     Nobukata took part in the First Siege of Nagashima in 1571, supposedly supporting Nobunaga’s troops from the sea, and was killed in the battle, which Nobunaga lost.

 

     In 1574, Nobunaga mounted the Third Siege of Nagashima to win, employing more powerful sea forces, the Kuki Clan.  However, Nobunaga did not forget Nobukata’s support.  When Nobukata’s son, Kazunari (1569-1634), came of age, Nobunaga married his niece, Ogo (1573-1626), to Kazunari.

 

     In the earliest months of the year 1569, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582) sent his vassals to 2 port towns at the east end of the Seto Inland Sea; Amagasaki, Settsu Province, and Sakai, Izumi Province, to force them pay taxes.  Amagasaki citizens refused, and the port town was burned out on March the 6th.  Sakai citizens yielded.  Imai Sokyu (1520-1593), one of the richest merchants of Sakai, was appointed magistracy, and Matsui Yukan(?-?), a merchant from Nobunaga’s hometown, Kiyosu, Owari Province, was appointed local finance officer.  Thus, Nobunaga grabbed the international smuggling networks Sakai merchants had.

 

     When Nobunaga sent gifts to Eastern warlords to placate them, he presented imported goods.  For example, he gifted, according to Imai Sokyu’s notes, gold-brocaded satin damask, a tiger hide, crimson strings etc. to Date Terumune (1544-1585), Ou Province, and satin damask, crimson, hides of a tiger, a leopard, and an orangutan etc. to Shiratori Nagahisa (?-1584), Dewa Province.  The notes tell us that a tiger hide cost about 2kilograms of silver or about 1 ton of rice.

 

     There seems to have been wide preferences for imported goods among warlords, and presenting imported goods might have been an effective way to conciliate enemy warlords.  They might have been more effective against Eastern warlords who had fewer chances to purchase those imported goods directly by themselves.

 

     Those luxurious goods such as what Oda Nobunaga presented to other warlords were recorded as imported ones fairly well, but there were some others which were smuggled into Japan secretly.  They were munitions.  Being merchants of death always paid well, has always paid well so far, and, I’m afraid, will pay well for the foreseeable future.

 

     Let me talk about niter first.  We have a few pieces of written supporting evidence of its import to Japan.

 

     One of the written texts the Mori Clan has kept reveals that they had to purchase niter to attack Susuma-numa Castle in Suo Province in 1557.

 

     In 1567, Otomo Sorin wrote a letter to Bishop Carneiro in Macao, requesting him to forbid exporting niter to the Mori Clan so that the Otomo Clan could beat the Mori Clan to spread Christianity to the Mori Clan’s domain, and to have the captain-major there sell 120 kilograms of niter to his clan annually, promising to pay 4 kilograms of silver or more for the niter.

 

     Later, during the Edo Period, after the national isolation policy was instituted by the Tokugawa Clan, the Maeda Clan developed an efficient method to produce niter in their mountainous area, Gokayama, but, till then, extracting niter from aged dung and droppings was not sufficient for an estimated 0.5 million matchlock guns in Japan.

 

     Let me talk about iron next.

 

     In 1543, Tanegashima Tokitaka (1528-1579) bought 2 matchlock guns from Portuguese traders.  He had Yaita Kinbe (1502-1570), a sword smith, copy the guns.  At first, Kinbe only could make defective ones, which were called “tanegashima hari.”  He, or Japanese people at large, did not know how to cut screws, and welded the tail end of guns instead of using screws, which left the guns difficult to clean up and, thus, easy to misfire or to blow up.

 

     Next year, those Portuguese traders brought a gun smith.  Kinbe learned very quickly from him how to cut screws, and made tens of matchlock guns within a year.

 

     By the end of the 16th century, each warlord had come to have thousands of matchlock guns.  Japan had come to possess as many as 0.3-0.5 million guns in total.  Japan was fairly good at import substituting industrialization even at the time.

 

     The problem was iron.  Being handmade, each matchlock gun weighed different, from about 1 kilogram to 5 kilograms.  Let me make a guess from leftover average ones that they used about 3 kilograms of iron in average.  0.5 million guns means 1500 tons of iron.  Even after World War II, Japan had to industrialize itself by the processing trade due to its scarce natural resources.  Iron sand and simple furnaces could not provide that much iron within half a century.

 

     In 1574, Xie Jie was appointed vice ambassador to Ryukyu by Ming government.  After returning from Ryukyu, he wrote books about Ryukyu.  Later in 1595, he published Qiantai Wozuan, a kind of a reference book to show how to face Wokou problems.  At the time, pubulishing books about Japan was popular among intellectuals because of Wokou.  In the book, he wrote that Japanese people buy even a small iron pot for 2 coins.  Annals of Ming Dynasty wrote in 1612, 3 years before Tokugawa Ieyasu destroyed the Toyotomi Clan, that iron could be sold in Japan for the price 20 times as much as in China.

 

    Zheng Shungong (?-?) wrote in Riben Yijian, “Irons from Bungo, Ecchu, Bicchu, and Mutsu Provinces are good.  They can make swords, but cannot make guns.  They are too fragile.  Guns are made from Thai or Fujian irons which are smuggled into Japan.”  He also listed the gun maker towns; Bonotsu in Satsuma Province, Hirado in Hizen Province, Funai in Bungo Province, and Sakai in Izumi Province.  All the towns listed were port towns, and, besides Bungo, all the other places were far from iron mines.  Considering the fact that water transportation used to be far more efficient way to carry heavy materials than overland, the list supports the supposition that matchlock guns used to be made from imported irons.