The Otomo Clan and their Smuggling (7)

     Seeing the development of the situation from Otomo Yoshishige’s angle, Yoshishige grabbed a good chance to organize an official mission to Ming almost a century after the mission to Ming in 1453.  However, Ming government considered that Yoshinaga usurped the Ouchi Clan, and refused to issue a tally.

     From 1555, the Mori Clan started invading the Ouchi Clan’s provinces, and, in the early spring of the year1557, Ouchi Yoshinaga was forced into the westernmost corner of Nagato Province, the westernmost province in the mainland of Japan, was cheated by Fukubara Sadatoshi (1512-1593), a vassal of the Mori Clan, let Naito Tokoyo (1536-1557), a vassal of the late Sue Harutaka (1521-1555), commit harakiri suicide on April the 2nd, and then was forced to kill himself on the 3rd in Kozan-ji Temple.  Otomo Yoshishige left Yoshinaga in the lurch, and captured the Ouchi Clan’s Chikuzen and Buzen Provinces in Kyushu Island through luck.

     After the fall of Ouchi Clan, the Japanese western warlords as well as the Otomo Clan lost a prospect for sending an official mission to Ming and devoted themselves to smuggling more than ever.