Japanese Pirates’ Medieval Times (4) ——The Trials and Errors by the Kamakura Shogunate (3)——

In 1318, the Kamakura Shogunate sent delegates to 12 provinces around the Seto Inland Sea and along the Pacific Ocean as their 4th step; Harima, Bizen, Bicchu, Bingo, Aki, Suo, Awaji, Awa, Sanuki, Iyo, Tosa, and Kii. The delegation stayed there until the next year, 1319, and, during their sojourn, they helped provincial commander samurais to charge deed documents to manorial steward samurais, and tried to put all the forces together to chase and arrest pirates. However, the very fact that the delegates demanded written documents from subordinate samurais implies that those samurais were in cahoot with pirates. One example of this step was Ijichi Nagakiyo, who was a magistrate in the Rokuhara office of Kamakura Shogunate, and two others. All the three were sent to Bingo Province as a delegation. They tried to arrest pirates at the Onomichi Bay in Ota Manor, the lord of which was Koya-san Temples, but could not accomplish the task due to the protest by the temples. The acting provincial commander samurai, Marukiyo, helped the process. After the departure of the three, he invaded Onomichi Bay, burned more than 1,000 houses there, and carried out all the properties and belongings on 10 big boats which had been prepared to arrest pirates. Marukiyo was a man of very contradicting deeds. He also salaried well-known pirates in the Seto Inland Sea areas, such as Shinkaku, Takao, Yoshimura, and etc. He also didn’t hesitate to accept bribes. For Marukiyo, those who were working and fighting for Koya-san Temples were pirates, while, for the temples, Marukiyo himself was a chief of pirates. In 1319, the delegation was replaced with a honorable respected samurais in each province. The new delegates mobilized not only subordinate samurais but also people in concerned manors, placed marine guard checkpoints, and started coast guarding by themselves. The checkpoints’ vestiges have been identified at Akashi and Nageishi in Harima Province, at Kamekubi on Kurahashi Island in Aki Province, in Suo Province, and at Kutsuna in Iyo Province. The fifth step, which was taken in 1324, was far firmer. The Kamakura Shogunate, or more precisely Hojo Regency Regime, proposed to central noble clans that provincial commander samurais should request manor owners and administrators to turn in pirates. If not, the samurais should invade the concerned manor, appoint an arbitrary samurai as a manorial steward, and, at worst, condemn the manor.