Japanese Pirates’ Medieval Times (12) ——The Rise of Sea People (3)——

Kumano sea people entered Jisho-Juei War (1180-1185) on the Minamoto side, one of the two major military noble clans at the time. The war broke out at the end of Ancient Japan and led to the fall of Taira Clan, the other major military noble clan. The sea people had started their organized “labor” much earlier, and appeared on the sea between Kii Province and Shikoku Island as pirates, stretching their action even into the eastern part of the Seto Inland Sea. Kumano sea people were militarily active even 2 centuries after the war. They not only sent Wakiya Yoshisuke (1307-1342), a western general of Southern Court, to Iyo Province in 1342, where and when he died at the age of 38, with the support by the sea people of Nushima Island in Awaji Province and those of Kojima Island in Bizen Province, but also shipped Prince Kanenaga (?-1383) to Kyushu Island in the same year, teaming up with Kutsuna Clan in Iyo Province. Kanenaga was another western general of Southern Court, and died at the age of 55 or 56 in Kyushu. Kumano sea people actually went into battle for themselves, mobilizing other sea people as well. In 1347, for example, they formed a navy of thousands, invaded deep into Kagoshima Bay, and attacked Tofuku-ji Castle, which Shimazu Clan, who belonged to Northern Court, had captured in 1341. By a curious coincidence, Tofuku-ji Castle had been built in 1053 by Haseba Nagasumi, who claimed to be the fourth descendant from Fujiwara Sumitomo, the first pirate king in Japan.