The Ouchi Clan and their Smuggling (16)

     The Ouchi Clan hired central Buddhist priests such as Sakugen to import know-how of sending missions to Ming, and might have called up samurais of other Western warlords for guarding the mission ships to show off their supremacy.  The deployment of those other samurais, however, leaked out the know-how of maneuvering Ming officials and getting along during the mission or commercial stay in China.  After the collapse of the Ouchi Clan in 1551, those Western warlords tried to send their own (false?) missions to Ming to profit from trading if their legitimacy was admitted by Ming officials; if not, from smuggling; in the worst case, from pirating as Wokou.