Japanese Pirates’ Medieval Times (9) ——Kobayakawa Clan: A Case of Samurais from the East (5)——

What kind of shift which caused the change of the character of Kobayakawa Clan was occurring around the Seto Inland Sea? Put simply, ownership of lands and people had been changing; from ancient public ownership to medieval private one. Tax rice and salt, for example, had become commodity rice and salt. In ancient times, pirating meant pirating taxes, which might have damaged local and central governments, but those governments would never stop, as the matter of course, taxing, or at least trying to tax. In medieval times, however, pirating meant pirating commodities, which could just hinder trading, and might decrease marine transport. That meant less opportunities to pirate.      What sea people and powerful families in and around the Seto Inland Sea were facing was a kind of a “pirate dilemma.”  If you were an only pirate in your region, you could build a fortune, more than a fortune, as Taira Kiyomori (1118-1181) did during the latter half of his life at the end of ancient times.  If all the players in the region were pirates, no one would dare to trade through the region, and you could find no ship to rob. Pirates were to learn how to maximize their takings out of marine transport.      Kobayakawa Clan tried to occupy the islands between Aki and Iyo provinces across the Seto Inland Sea to control all the sea freight through the waters.  That attempt would eventually turn out to be impossible.  There were just too many small islands to occupy one by one, and too many straits to watch for smuggling and piracy.      It was sea people that would arrive at a solution to the pirate dilemma:  to form a network among would-be pirates, and to rake off profits from trading ships, evenly and fairly.  The question is what could hold the network together, and what might be a fair cut. We have to see what was happening on land to approach the answers.      What was the shift of land ownership like at the time? In the middle of the 14th century, a social class called “koku-jin” (namely “provincial people”) emerged.  A “provincial person” was a lord of an estate and neighboring vicinities.  Ancient manors used to be developed outside government-owned land, and were sometimes scattered disregarding the topography of the region.  Pieces of land rewarded to steward samurais as vassals of Kamakura Shogunate were sometimes scattered disregarding geopolitics of the region.      By the middle of the 14th century, government-owned land had been diminished, manorial ownership by ancient noble clans had been weakened, and hierarchical up-and-downs had been played.  As a result, land ownership had been centered around some powerful lords of estates.      Government-owned provincial land was easily taken over by provincial guardian samurais, but ancient ownership over manors did not die out so instantly.  There could have been some resistance against samurais who newly arrived from the East.  In the face of samurais, even descendants of those who had been categorized as villains by Fujiwara Yasunori (825-895) needed to be supported by farmers.  In other words, medieval farmers, unlike ancient ones, had finally come to have the choice: to choose gentler hands.  By supporting ancient forces, farmers could have gained some better conditions.  However, to support sometimes meant to fight with spears in their hands.  Farmers living in an estate’s vicinities also had become a source of combatants for the lord of the estate in case of emergency.      With physical strength, even a farmer could become a samurai.  A local samurai could become a lord as far as he was resourceful.  Seeds for the Warring States Period, the world in which inferiors overpowered superiors, were sown.      That was the case even on the sea.

Japanese Pirates’ Medieval Times (8) ——Kobayakawa Clan: A Case of Samurais from the East (3)——

Kobayakawa Clan’s 5th head, Tomohira, following Kamakura Shogunate’s orders, actively performed series of crackdowns on pirates around Nuta Manor. In 1314, he rounded up Uemon Goro and Saemon Jiro, and, in 1319, he even arrested a pirate of Iyo Province, Yagoro Hideie. Iyo Province was on the opposite side of the Seto Inland Sea from Aki Province. Kobayakawa Clan must have got control over some pirate(-like) people around Nuta Manor to execute these duties against pirates. During Tomohira’s time, Kamakura Shogunate collapsed in 1333. Kobayakawa Clan, however, didn’t stop their jobs even during the disorder in Nanboku-cho Period (1334-1392), or Northern and Southern Courts Period, before the establishment of Muromachi Shogunate by Ashikaga Clan. Tomohira’s 3 successors tried to expand their advance into Geiyo Islands, which spread in the Seto Inland Sea between Aki (=Gei) and Iyo (=Yo) Provinces, even more eagerly and freely. Tomohira’s grandson, Sadahira, inherited the patrimony from his father, Nobuhira, on October the 10th in 1341 as the seventh head of the clan. Sadahira had participated in Genko War (1331-1333), which terminated Kamakura Shogunate, in 1333 at the age of 16. In 1342, Sadahira moved his men south to cross the Seto Inland Sea with a reminder from Muromachi Shogunate in his hand, although the shogunate was still fighting against Southern Court over the national domination. They occupied Ikuchi-jima and Yuge-jima Islands, and invaded Inno-shima Island. They later went further down to Osaki-kami-jima, Osaki-shimo-jima Islands, and even advanced to Iyo-o-shima in the territory of Iyo Province, which was ruled by Kono Clan then. Kono Clan was too busy being under the pressure from the east, Hosokawa Clan. Sea people living around Geiyo Islands, who would be organized as Murakami Clan later, were still competing and fighting with one another. Kobayakawa Clan at the time were also developing rice fields with the cooperation of traders in Nuta bazaar, and put Setoda Port on Ikuchi-jima Island under their rule The port used to be one of the most important ports in the Seto Inland Sea to wait for the changes of tidal currents. The rule over the port enabled the clan to keep the hegemony over the control of the transportation structures in the sea, and, later in Muromachi Period, to trade even with Korea. By this time, Kobayakawa Clan seemed to have already changed their character significantly from eastern samurais fighting on horses. Their entrance into the Seto Inland Sea, however, was performed with the leverage as a manorial steward samurai. That means they eyed sea people from “outside.”

Japanese Pirates’ Medieval Times (7) ——Kobayakawa Clan: A Case of Samurais from the East (2)——

Kobayakawa Clan lasted from the beginning of Kamakura Period to the beginning of Edo Period for 17 generations; 1 Tohira, 2 Kagehira, 3 Shigehira, 4 Masahira, 5 Tomohira, 6 Nobuhira, 7 Sadahira, 8 Haruhira, 9 Mochihira, 10 Hirohira, 11 Takahira, 12 Sukehira, 13 Okihira, 14 Masahira, 15 Shigehira, 16 Takakage, and 17 Hideaki. As you may guess from their names, the last 2 heads were adopted to Kobayakawa Clan from other clans; the second last one, Takakage, from Mori Clan, the most powerful clan around the Seto Inland Sea then, and the last one, Hideaki, from Toyotomi Clan, the ruling clan in Japan at the time, so, by blood, the clan continued for 15 generations to the end of the Warring State of Period. The first head of newborn Kobayakawa Clan, Tohira, came to Nuta Manor, Aki Province, with his father, Sanehira (?-1191.11.25?). Tohira’s grandson, Shigehira, inherited the patrimony from his father, Kagehira, in 1206, and built Takayama-jo Castle in the same year, which would be the clan’s stronghold until 1552 for 13 generations. Shigehira also further exploited Nuta Manor in cooperation of Saionji Clan, an ancient noble clan. They built embarkments at the mouth of the Nuta River, and developed extensive rice fields called Nuta 1000 Cho Da, nominally (about) 1000-hectare rice fields in Nuta. He laid the foundations for the growth of Kobayakawa Clan thereafter.

Japanese Pirates’ Medieval Times (6) ——Kobayakawa Clan: A Case of Samurais from the East (1)——

Dohi Sanehira (?-1191.11.25?) and his son, Tohira (?-?), did good jobs during the Genpei War (1180-1185), conflicts between Taira Clan (=Pei) and Minamoto Clan (=Gen) at the end of Ancient Japan, or at the beginning of Medieval Japan. They were from Dohi County, Sagami Province, and followed Minamoto Yoritomo (1147-1199.1.13) when he took up arms against Taira Clan in 1180. In 1184, Sanehira became a general pursuer in Bizen, Bicchu, and Bingo Provinces. Tohira was later appointed as a manorial steward samurai of many manors in Bingo and Nagato Provinces, as well as that of Nuta Manor, Takehara Manor, and others in Aki Province. After Tohira, they started calling themselves Kobayakawa as Sanehira was the second son and had lived in Kobayakawa village near Dohi County in Sagami Province. Kobayakawa Clan, however, had no way but retreat from most of those manors only to be a steward samurai of Nuta and Takehara Manors as the alliances between ancient central forces and local powerful families were still so strong around the Seto Inland Sea. Tohira, staying neutral, survived a military conflict between Hojo and Wada Clans in Kamakura in 1213, after which Hojo Clan established their regency regime. Tohira built Seishin-ji Temple in 1219 for his wife, who died young, and both Sanehira and Tohira themselves seem to have died in Nuta Manor.