The Chiga Sea Forces (1)

The Chiga Family used to be a branch family of the Ochi Clan in Iyo Province. According to one legend, the Ochi Clan’s ancestor, Ochi Miko (?-?), was a grandson of Emperor Korei (?-?), a legendary 7th-generation emperor. Miko’s mother, Waki Hime (?-?), had been picked up from a boat from Yue Province, China, by a fisherman named Goro Tayu (?-?). A Chinese character “yue” can be used as one of several ways to represent Japanese “ochi.” Another more fantastic legend tells us that Ochi Masumi (?-?), who was a master of archery, fought against invaders from Baekje (18 BC-660 AD), Korea, by order of Emperor Suiko (554-628). The invaders came with an ironman as their general. Masumi only just killed him by shooting his only weak point, the bottom of his foot. Some invaders surrendered to Masumi, and became fishermen in the Western Seto Inland Sea. So, all the fishermen there obeyed the Ochi Clan. A third legend gives us another international account of the clan’s character. Ochi Morioki (?-?) took part in Battle of Baekgang in 663, and had got a boy, Tamazumi (?-?), by a Chinese woman there. He also had an elder boy, Tamaoki (?-?), in Japan. Tamazumi later came to Japan, his father’s homeland, from Yue Province, China, and met Tamaoki in Namba, the nearest sea port from the Heian-kyo Capital. Another scratch legend says that the Ochi Clan was descendants of Xu Fu (255 BC-?). In 210 BC, during Qin Dynasty, Xu Fu went on his second voyage to search for medicine of immortality in the east, only never to return. Some, both in China and in Japan, believe he landed in Japan. One of his supposed landing spot was Kumano. You can easily guess that the legendary story was brought to the Ochi Clan by Kumano Sea People.