Kakuta Haruo---Decoding Japan---

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Location: Sakai, Osaka, Japan

Saturday, January 31, 2015

The Ancient Japanese Good-Family Clans and Piracy (4-2) ——The Fall of Silla Connections (2)——

On September the 7th, 831, the central government issued an order to Dazai-fu, a special regional bureau in Kyushu which handled foreign affairs, over trading with Silla people. They worried that “benighted common people” preferred foreign goods to domestic products and bade to purchase them to raise their prices. Dazai-fu was supposed to select good foreign products first, and then to let common people purchase the rest freely under the supervision of Dazai-fu. However, Funya Miyatamaro conducted one of his private (contraband?) trading with Jang Bogo at the end of the year 840 or the beginning of the year 841, and paid to Jang in advance. According to Shoku Nihon Koki, Jang was assassinated in 841, and Funya failed to get goods he had paid for. After Jowa Incident, Funya Akitsu, the Director General of the Crown Prince Household Agency, was captured, implicated with the Crown Prince Tsunesada, and was sent to Izumo Province. Whether rulings on Funya Akitsu and Funya Miyatamaro were conspiracies by Fujiwara Clan or not, Funya Clan was losing their footing in the ancient Japanese aristocracy. The entry dated December the 29th, 843, in Shoku Nihon Koki writes about Miyatamaro’s case; “Funya Miyatamaro’s treason deserves a death penalty, but will be commuted into exile to Izu Province. Among his 2 sons, Tadamoto, with a government post, should be exiled to Sado Province, and Yasutsune, without a government post, should be sent to Tosa Province. Among his 2 butlers, Wanibe Fukunaga should be exiled to Echigo Province, and Maki Maro to Izumo Province. Shinei, a priest who got implicated, should be exiled to the same place as Maki Maro. Yako Ujio, an informer, will be especially conferred a lowest rank of nobility and be appointed as a lowest officer in Chikuzen Province. It started from his information.” Funya Miyatamaro was, holding arms in his residences in the Heian-kyo Capital and Namba Port, accused of having contrived treason. His possession of those residences along with his office in Chikuzen Province suggests that he had built a network between the Heian-kyo Capital, via Namba Port and the Seto Inland Sea, and Hakata Port. The network might have extended to Silla and beyond through Jang Bogo’s own network. He might have disregarded Dazai-fu’s prior claim and control on imported goods. Above all, his connection with Jang Bogo, a Silla trader with political influence, and with the Crown Prince Tsunesada through his kindred, Akitsu, must have been a menace for Fujiwara Yoshifusa, whose sister, Junsi, was the Emperor Ninmyo’s wife. Yoshifusa might have made the best of the Empror’s love for his son, the Prince Michiyasu, who eventually became the Crown Prince after Jowa Incident. Funya Clan might have had their young members and butlers stationed along the Seto Inland Sea as parts of their marine transport network. What did they, a good-family clan’s subordinate members, do after the fall of Funya Clan? Piracy?

Friday, January 23, 2015

The Ancient Japanese Good-Family Clans and Piracy (4-1) ——The Fall of Silla Connections (1)——

Jowa Incident broke out in July, 842. I don’t describe its details here, but, consequently, the Crown Prince Tsunesada (the second eldest son of the Emperor Junna) was dethroned, Tomo Kowamine was banished to Oki Island, and Tachibana Hayanari died in Totomi on his way to Izu Peninsula, his place of exile. In August, the Prince Michiyasu (the Emperor Ninmyo’s son and Fujiwara Yoshifusa’s nephew) became the Crown Prince. Just after the ruling on Jowa Incident, on August the 15th, the premier issued an order over the incoming of Silla people. The central government meant to be afraid, or just was by way of being afraid, that Silla people were spying under the veil of trading, and decided no to allow them to stay in Koro-kan officially nor to let them inhabit in Japan.

Sunday, January 18, 2015

The Ancient Japanese Good-Family Clans and Piracy (3-4) ——“Goko” or Belligerent Hire (4)——

On February the 19th, 838, the central government ordered the provincial governors in Sanyo-do and Nankai-do Regions to arrest and crack down on pirates. 5 days later in the same year, on February the 15th, Emperor Ninmyo ordered that the 4 servants of Sai-in (the emperor’s younger sister) should be given official certificates as the lower-ranking officials of 2 princes (the emperor’s younger brothers) and Junna-in (the former emperor, the emperor’s uncle) are given. The 20 servants of Saga-in (the late emperor but one, the emperor’s father) should be treated in the same way. The 2 orders should be interpreted to have gone hand in hand. Provincial governors and local officers were, I mean, supposed to distinguish lawful hire and unlawful one, based on whether central noble families’ envois have official certificates or not. Without an official certificate, envois were regarded as practicing belligerent hire, or, at worst, as pirates.

Monday, January 12, 2015

The Ancient Japanese Good-Family Clans and Piracy (3-3) ——“Goko” or Belligerent Hire (3)——

“Goko” was prohibited with premier orders three times, in 835, 849, and 867. In October, 835, as extorting gangsters had belligerently hired transporters, carts and horses, and had tormented people, the belligerent hire was prohibited. If the belligerent hire should be practiced by someone related with Saga-in Temple or Junna-in Temple, their names would be reported to the temples’ deacons. If the belligerent hire should be practiced by government officers or noble families’ chamberlains, they would be punished on the spot. In September, 849, the prohibition of belligerent hire was announced again. Yet, even in 867, government officers and noble families’ chamberlains were still forcibly hiring people in Yamazaki and Otsu, so belligerent hire was totally prohibited. Saga-in Temple, today’s Daikaku-ji Temple, was originally built as villa for the retirement of Emperor Saga(785-842, reigned 809-823). Junna-in Temple used to be villa for the retirement of Emperor Junna(786-840, ringed 823-833). Those temples, or the two emperors after their retirement, were possessing incipient manors, and their rice and et al. must have been carried to the capital.

Sunday, January 11, 2015

The Ancient Japanese Good-Family Clans and Piracy (3-2) ——“Goko” or Belligerent Hire (2)——

When government servants attached to a government department A were employed by another government department B, the employment was called “wa-ko”, literally contract hire. When neighborhood people were employed by a government department, the employment was called “wa-ko” too. Basically, “wa-ko” was the employ on compact between an employer and an employee with, sometimes but unnecessarily, better pay. If “wa-ko” was forcibly practiced by someone like central noble families or temples, the employment was called “go-ko, belligerent hire.

Friday, January 09, 2015

The Ancient Japanese Good-Family Clans and Piracy (3-1) ——“Goko” or Belligerent Hire (1)——

The central government issued an order March the 27th, 867, saying, “In sordid places such as markets, ports, and arterials, maneuvers should be employed, detectives should be placed, bounties should be offered, and pardons should be dangled to leave no place for wicked and wild people to stay.” Why in “markets, ports, and arterials”? Why not on remote islands? The start of ancient Japanese piracy had something to do with the rise of marine transport along the Seto Inland Sea. In 756, the central government decided that the tax rice from Sanyo-do and Nankai-do Regions be sent to the capital by rowboat, and had provincial governments build dockyards and ports along the Seto Inland Sea. As the marine transport was improved and institutionalized, more and more boats and rowers were needed. At the same time, as we have already seen, the enclosure of seashores along the Seto Inland Sea was progressing. The closed-out fishermen were inevitably to be organized as salt-production laborers or rowers. However, as it was ancient times, scrambles over transportation did not raise their salaries, if any, but worked to “go-ko” in Japanese, or literally “belligerent hire” over them.

Tuesday, January 06, 2015

The Ancient Japanese Good-Family Clans and Piracy (2-4) ——The Enclosure and the Salt Production around the Seto Inland Sea (4)——

The entry dated May the 19th, 844, of Shoku Nihon Koki shows us another example of the relation between a good-family clans and salt production. Awaji Province said, “More than 3,000 fishermen and others came from another province with a central noble family’s official document. They gathered on beaches and coves, violated local people, and cut down trees. They gather like clouds, vanish like mist, and never stop violating. Furthermore, our official residences and stables are all by the seaside, crowd together like scales, and have a threat of fires. It is difficult to destroy them. We have worked hard to stop them, but but our province is not powerful enough. We request the central government to ban them altogether with an official administrative document.” As the “fishermen” were felling trees and the provincial officers feared fires, there’s strong possibility that the “fishermen” were producing salt. The entry suggests that officers of such a small province as Awaji were timid of central noble families, and, practically, could do nothing. Another interesting implication of the entry is the distinctions between violent fishermen and pirates, who were both on board. The phrase “pirates” had already appeared in an official document for the first time as early as in 388. It seems provincial officers could not conclude violent fishermen to be pirates unless they robbed provincial governments of tax rice.

Saturday, January 03, 2015

The Ancient Japanese Good-Family Clans and Piracy (2-3) ——The Enclosure and the Salt Production around the Seto Inland Sea (3)——

Two of the wooden labels excavated out of the Heijo-kyo vestige support what Nihon Koki’s entry dated November the 14th, 799 tell us: salt used to be payed as taxes around the Seto Inland Sea. The two dated to have been written sometime between 735 and 747. One reads, “Bizen Province, Kojima County, Kamo Village, Kamonao Kimimaro, Cho salt, 54 liters.” The other reads, “Bizen Province, Kojima County, Kamo Village, Miyamuraji Otokimi, Cho salt, 18 liters.” The two wooden labels tell us that salt production was not confined to domestic kitchen use. http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/備前国