Japanese Pirates’ Medieval Times (14) ——Kono Clan, a Supplier of Legends and a Religion (1)——

Kono Michitaka (?-1379) surrendered to Southern Court in 1365, and escaped to Kyushu, counting on Prince Kanenaga (?-1383), who had been sent there as a western general of the court in 1342. However, interestingly enough, it was Kono Clan who later provided legends and a religion to the sea people, or more precisely to the powerful families, in the Western Seto Inland Sea to bundle them up. Kono Clan used to be called Ochi Clan as they lived in Ochi County, Iyo Province, or rather Ochi County came to be named so as Ochi Clan came to live there. According to one legend, their ancestor, Ochi Miko, was a grandson of Emperor Korei, a legendary 7th-generation emperor. Miko’s mother, Waki Hime, had been picked up from a boat from Yue Province, China, by a fisherman named Goro Tayu. A Chinese character “yue” can be used as one of several ways to represent Japanese “ochi.” Another more fantastic legend tells us that Masumi, who was a master of archery, fought against invaders from Baekje (18 BC-660 AD), Korea, by order of Emperor Suiko (554-628). They came with an ironman as their general. Masumi only just killed him by shooting his only weak point, the bottom of his foot. Some invaders surrendered to Masumi, and became fishermen in the Western Seto Inland Sea. So, all the fishermen there obeyed Kono Clan. A third legend gives us another international account of the clan’s character. Ochi Morioki took part in Battle of Baekgang in 663, and had got a boy, Tamazumi, by a Chinese woman there. He also had an elder boy, Tamaoki, in Japan. Tamazumi later came to Japan, his father’s homeland, from Yue Province, China, and met Tamaoki in Namba, the nearest sea port from the Heian-kyo Capital.