The Sagara Clan and their Smuggling (6)

     We can find another piece of supporting evidence that the silver mine was at Miyahara in Kuma County.  Miyahara Village used to have Nakashima-Kirishima Shrine, and neighboring Okamoto Village used to have Ofuki-Kirishima Shrine.  The two were built at the beginning of the 9th century.  It is recorded that Sagara Haruhiro (1513-1555) renovated Nakashima-Kirishima Shrine sometime between 1532 and 1555, Ofuki-Kirishima Shrine in 1548.  In his above-mentioned letter, Sagara Yoshishige (1489-1546) requested Haruhiro to thank the divine protection that the clan had found the silver mine.  Haruhiro probably might have followed his advice 2 years after the letter.

     In the 16th century, for Japanese “missions” to Ming, silver was not only exports but the means of payment for necessities of life during their stay in Ming.  For example, the mission organized by the Ouchi Clan in 1549 had to anchor and wait in Hang-zhou Bay for months before they were allowed to sail into Ningbo Port.  During those months, they had to buy rice, alcoholic drinks, dried fish, vegetables, beans, tauco or tauchu, shaobing, green onions, potatoes, bamboo shoots, oranges, tofu, firewood, incense sticks, sickles, pots, straw mats, and paper at Aoshan or Dinghai in Zhoushan Island with their silver according to a record preserved by Myochi-in Temple.