Kaizoku (Sea Pirates) vs Kozoku (Lake Pirates)

Last Sunday, I visited Ogoto Spa, and enjoyed having Japanese lunch and soaking in a hot spring. Near Ogoto, there used to be three villages, each on a small bay; Hon-Katata, Ima-Katata, and Kinugawa. The three villagers were collectively called Katata people. Katata people were also called “Kozoku” in Japanese. What did the word “ko-zoku” mean then? As you may know, “kai-zoku” in Japanese meant pirates. The Japanese 2 syllables “zoku” means robbers, and “kai-zoku” means sea robbers, or just pirates. Then, “ko-zoku” means lake pirates, though I don’t know you had lake pirates or river pirates in the Western world. Katata people or Kozoku were the most prosperous and powerful in the Middle Ages. They were organized around Izu Shrine on the lakefront of Lake Biwa. From ancient times, Lake Biwa used to be an important inland waterway. Tax rice and other provincial products from Hokuriku Region used to be landed at Tsuruga Port on the Sea of Japan, carried by men or horses to Shiozu Port, the northernmost port on Lake Biwa, and then shipped to Otsu Port, the southernmost port just across a hill from Heian-Kyo Capital. Lake Biwa has North Lake and South Lake, and Izu Shrine is placed on the narrowest part of the lake. The location enabled Katata people to check water transportation along Lake Biwa. They charged check point fees and guarding fees, as their counterparts on the sea, pirates, did along the Seto Inland Sea. Katata people were so much flourished during the Middle Ages that 1,000 families were said to have lived there with many temples and shrines built by them. Even Oda Nobunaga and Toyotomi Hideyoshi, who were unifying the nation at the end of the Warring State Period, valued them highly enough to authorize the people to keep doing their “business” on the lake.