Kakuta Haruo---Decoding Japan---

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Location: Sakai, Osaka, Japan

Monday, October 20, 2014

Japanese Pirates in the Beginning of the Heian Period [2-4]

The orders issued in 862, in 865, and in 866 didn’t do their works, and the central government issued another in 867, saying, “These years, we have ordered and warned governors to chase and arrest pirates, and to investigate and police wicked and wild people. Yet, we hear ferocious criminals come about, and robberies break out. All the travelers by water and by land are afraid of being attacked. This is really due to the governors’ dereliction of duty to liquidate them. It is legislated to form a joint surety group of 5 households, choose a head of it, and have them watch one another.” The order did not stop here and continued delivering detailed instructions, “In sordid places such as markets, ports, and arterials, maneuvers should be employed, detectives should be placed, bounties should be offered, and pardons should be dangled to leave no place for wicked and wild people to stay.” The contents of this order may imply 2 facts. First, the central government considered vagrancy as a breeding ground of piracy. Second, some governors might have accumulated certain experience on dealing with pirates. The accumulation, in turn, might have made it possible for the central government to share the effective practices.

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Japanese Pirates in the Beginning of the Heian Period [2-3]

After the year 862, orders for chasing and arresting pirates were issued in 865, in 866, in 867, and in 869 almost in succession. These years is considered to be the first rise of Japanese pirates. On April the 11th, 866, for example, the central government ordered the provincial governors of Settsu, Izumi, Harima, Bizen, Bingo, Aki, Suo, Nagato, Kii, Awaji, Awa, Sanuki, Iyo, and Tosa to chase and arrest pirates, and said, “On May the 20th, 862, and on June the 28th, 865, documents which tells you that you should chase and arrest pirates were issued. Yet, even today, we hear that groups of pirates are coming about and never stop plundering and looting. This is due to the situation that governors have not worked hard enough to liquidate pirates. If a governor does not investigate and arrest pirates, and leave them committing father atrocities, it will be the governor who will be charged. He cannot be pardoned. The number of those arrested should be reported in a written form.” This document clearly describes the order issued in 862 was the very start of those for chasing and arresting pirates. It demands to report the number of pirates arrested, and that implies governors had been given authority to decide who were pirates and who were not. We will see how giving this kind of authority actually worked later.

Saturday, October 11, 2014

Japanese Pirates in the Beginning of the Heian Period [2-2]

Japanese pirates made their major debut on May the 20th, 862. One document says: “These days, pirates frequently form groups, kill travelers, and rob varieties of goods no matter they belong to the government or civils. According to the Bizen government, ‘80 koku’ of tax rice was robbed by pirates at last. They were sending the tax rice to Kyoto. They loaded the rice on a boat, and forwarded the boat with pullers tugging it with ropes. They, however, encountered pirates, were robbed of everything, and got 11 of their men killed. The governors of Harima, Bizen, Bicchu, Bingo, Aki, Suo, Nagato, Kii, Awaji, Awa, Sanuki, Iyo, and Tosa were promptly ordered to send their men to chase the pirates.” It is not clear how much rice “80 koku” represented at the time in Japan. In today’s sense, 1 koku = 10 to = 100 sho = 1000 go, and 1 go of rice weighs about 150 grams, but metrology differs from a time to another, and from a country to another, say in China. They might have been using a different metrology. I also wonder if they could load 12 tons of rice on a boat in Japan in the 9th century. However, the robbery of that much tax rice must have been such a shocking news that the central government issued an order for chasing and arresting pirates for the first time in the Japanese history. The document also suggests that the number of pirates who had become organized was increasing, and their piracy was becoming more common and persistent.

Monday, October 06, 2014

Japanese Pirates in the Beginning of the Heian Period [2-1]

It is from the year 838 that we can find the term “pirate” appear in official documents. In the year, governors along the Seto Inland Sea were ordered to arrest pirates, exactly just pirates. The day before the order was issued, however, governors around Kyoto were demanded to severely accuse bandits who openly set fire and killed people. And two days after the first order with the term “pirate”, imperial guardsmen were detached around Kyoto to chase and arrest those bandits. That implies pirates are only a part of major social unrest. After these actions, the authorities tried to chase and arrest bandits in 849 and in 857, but we can find no order against pirates until 862.

Saturday, October 04, 2014

Japanese Pirates in the Beginning of the Heian Period [1-5]

In 669, an order was issued to register all the people and cut off bandits and tramps. In 697, an imperial order commanded governors to register people during the winter, and to examine and arrest tramps. Those orders suggest that the ruling noblemen at the time were equating tramps with bandits. The noblemen perceived the free movement of ruled people negatively. With their negative perception in mind, we are going to see chronologically how piracy in Japan started and what actions the authority took against it in Japanese Pirates in the Beginning of the Heian Period [2-x].

Friday, October 03, 2014

Japanese Pirates in the Beginning of the Heian Period [1-4]

Now, we find daily necessities such as rice and regional goods including salt on board. If we are lucky enough, we can find a few valuable foreign-imported goods such as incense aboard. Are we ready to have pirates then? No, not yet. Even Captain Cook could not conduct piracy by himself. He had to have his minions. In other words, the Japanese ancient centralized bureaucratic rule needed to have been loosened enough to supply rowers and as such. Let me introduce 2 Chinese poems composed by Sugawara Michizane, one of the most famous Japanese poets in Japan. The two, along with the other 8, are supposed to have been composed in the winter of the year 886. The series of 10 Chinese poems all describe poor people under his ruling as a governor in Sanuki, one of the regions along the Seto Inland Sea, just east to Iyo:

To whom winter comes faster?
To repatriated tramps winter comes faster
They don’t have a clan to rely on
And are assigned along the names they give
But the land granted is too poor
Their bodies become thinner and thinner
Unless the governor rules them with mercy
More and more will certainly take flight
To whom winter comes faster?
To hired rowers winter comes faster
They don’t know how to farm
They are hired as a day laborer
And have little land to farm
They row only to be poorer
They don’t mind winds and waves
But only hope to be hired everyday