The Sagara Clan and their Smuggling (5)

     New Ichiki-maru set sail to Ming, not to Ryukyu, on March the 2nd, 1554, and sailed back home at Tokubuchi Port on July the 12th, 1554.  Only 4 months!  It means they didn’t, or couldn’t, visit Beijing.  It means they might not have been recognized as a national official mission.

     Anyway, however, what made it possible for the Sagara Clan to try trading with Ming?

     Previously in 1546, Sagara Yoshishige (1489-1546) wrote a letter dated July the 12th to his adopted-son, Haruhiro (1513-1555).  The letter reads that silver ore was found in Miyahara on July the 6th.  On the 18th, it was refined into about 100 grams of silver.

     In the Sagara Clan’s domain, there used to be 2 Miyaharas; one was in Kuma County in the mountains, the other in Yatsushiro County along the seashore.  There used to be a copper mine at Fukada near Miyahara in Kuma County.  The mine output copper the most between 1704 and 1735 during Edo Period, but was closed in 1740.  The silver mine Yoshishige mentioned might have been at Miyahara in Kuma County.