The Transformation of Pirates at the End of the Ancient Japan (3)

Then, there cam Taira Kiyomori. In his days, we can find few articles on piracy. He placed his west base around Miya-jima Island, and built a beautiful palace-like sea shrine on the island itself, Itsuku-shima Shrine, which is one of the World Heritage sites today. His east port near the Heian-kyo Capital was based O-wada Port in today’s Kobe. He repeatedly “payed homage” at the shrine from the capital via the port. He found no pirates along the sea in his prime. That means he had conquered all the pirates there. Does that mean we had no pirates at all then? Some other central noble clans and big temples used to have manors or “donated” estates along the Seto Inland Sea those days, but many of them were complaining of fewer annual tributes being sent to the capital. For them, Taira Kiyomori was the one and biggest pirate.