Kakuta Haruo---Decoding Japan---

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Location: Sakai, Osaka, Japan

Friday, December 30, 2016

The Water Transportation in the Kanto Plain and the "Piracy" there (3)

     In Medieval Kanto, political authority was exercised by a range of quasi-territorial and overlapping agents, such as Kanto Deputy Shogunates, Kanto Deputy Shogunate Regency, Provincial Guardian Samurais, Manorial Steward Samurais, and leftovers of ancient religious institutions.  City-state-like merchant communities, which could be found in Medieval Western Japan, were yet to be seen, though.  If the transition from ancient times to medieval times is characterized with a decentralization of power and authority, the region was really a showcase, with the outcome of blood feuds.

     Then, how the piracy in the region was decentralized?  We can find a good example in the case of the Yanada Family.  Then who were the Yanada Family?  And where did they come from?  To answer those questions, let’s go back to the 11th century, at the end of the ancient aristocracy.


     Minamoto Yoshiie (1039-1106) fought from place to place in Kanto.  In the process, he might have protected the newly cultivated land in Ashikaga County, Shimotsuke Province.  His fourth son, Yoshikuni (1091-1155), contributed the land to Anrakuju-in Temple, which had been built by Emperor Toba (1103-1123), and the land was authorized as Ashikaga Manor.  The manor was actually run by a local powerful family, who called themselves Fujiwara and claimed to be the posterity of Fujiwara Hidesato (?-?), who had suppressed the revolt of Taira Masakado (?-940) in 940.

Thursday, December 29, 2016

The Water Transportation in the Kanto Plain and the "Piracy" there (2)

     Katori Sea has been named as such by today’s historians.  It used to be called “Uchi-umi” (literally: Inland Sea), “Nagare-umi” (Flowing Sea), or “Nasaka-umi” (Reverse-waving Sea).  Kinu River ran into the sea along with other smaller rivers such as Kobai and Hitachi Rivers.

     Katori Sea was largest at the beginning of Jomon Period.  More than 80 dugout canoes have been excavated in Kaiso area alone, which bordered south on Katori County.  80 corresponds to about 40% of all canoes excavated in Japan.  Today’s inland area where Katori Sea used to be has more than 100 place names which have either “fune” or “funa” (boat), or “tsu” (port).


     Katori Shrine ruled 24 ports in Shimousa Province, and 53 ports in Hitachi Province.  Scatters of medieval documents suggest that the shrine governed sea people there as fishermen and as sailors, and even put up some river checkpoints along the rivers running in the Kanto Plain, and even sea checkpoints at least at today’s Katsushika in Tokyo Prefecture and Gyotoku in Chiba Prefecture both along the Edo Bay.  Those checkpoints collected tolls and taxes, which, in Western Japan, pirates along the Seto Inland Sea did.  That is, Katori Shrine used to be doing a kind of semi-governmental piracy.

Wednesday, December 28, 2016

The Water Transportation in the Kanto Plain and the "Piracy" there (1)

      The Satomi Clan can be considered the easternmost clan that had sea forces.  The clan used to be based in the Boso Peninsula.  The north-easternmost tip of the peninsula is Cape InuboThe Black Japan Current, which runs along the Japanese Archipelago from the south, departs the islands east toward U.S.A. off the cape, where the Kurile Current, which runs from the north, meets the Black Japan Current.  Navigation methods and needed skills might have been quite different beyond the junction of the two sea currents.  As you have seen, Kumano Pirates sometimes exported some of their human resources and affected other sea people in other parts of Japan.  But Cape Inubo was the dividing line for them.

     Just to the north of Cape Inubo, there used to be an orifice of a big inland sea, Katori Sea.  On the peninsula between Katori Sea and the Pacific Ocean, Kashima Shrine was located.  On the southern coast of Katori Sea, there stood Katori Shrine.

     Kashima Shrine was officially considered and actually worked as the gateway for the ancient Yamato central government to intrude into the north-eastern part of Japan, which would be later called Mutsu Province, or to subdue and rule Emishi, who were not subject to the imperial central government yet.


     Katori Shrine used to be the gateway to the Kanto Plain, and governed the water transportation on Katori Sea.  Hasetsukabe Atahiohohiro of Inba County, Shimousa Province, expressed Katori Sea in his tanka poem included in The Ten Thousand Leaves, the oldest collection of Japanese poetry, “A wave suddenly washed over a bow. The draft unexpectedly fell over me.”  After the poem, he had to go far away to Kyushu as “sakimori” to defend Japan.

Saturday, December 24, 2016

The Satomi Sea Forces (8)

      Under the Edo Shogunate, the Satomi Clan got feudatory to the Tokugawa Clan.  At the beginning of the shogunate, Satomi Tadayoshi (1594-1622) got drawn into power struggles around Okubo Tadachika (1553-1628), his grandfather-in-law and one of the consuls of the shogunate.  After Tadachika’s downfall in 1614, Tadayoshi was transferred to Kurayoshi, Hoki Province, along the Sea of Japan.  After his death in 1622, the clan line was severed.

Friday, December 23, 2016

The Satomi Sea Forces (7)

      The peace treaty with the Hojo Clan in 1577 didn’t mean that the Satomi Clan gave up their ambition for Kazusa Province.


     Mangi Castle was along Isumi River in the south-eastern part of the province.  The castle was owned by the Toki Family, who had gone over to the Hojo Clan after the Second Battle in Konodai in 1564.  In 1588, the Satomi Clan crowded around the castle with 3,000 troops by land and 2,600 by sea.  They were, however, driven off by Toki Yoriharu (?-?).  In 1589, the clan attacked the castle again, only to be beaten back again.  In 1590, the national situation swept the regional situation.  The Hojo Clan was destroyed by the Toyotomi Clan, and the castle was seized by the Tokugawa Clan.  The Satomi Clan was able to survive but was shut up just in Awa Province again.  The Toyotomi and Tokugawa Clans, that were allying temporarily at that time, had a decisive battle to unify the whole country later in 1600.

Saturday, December 17, 2016

The Satomi Sea Forces (6)

      In 1574, Yanada Harusuke (1524-1594), a standard-bearer of anti-Hojo forces, surrendered Sekiyado Castle, which Hojo Ujiyasu (1515-1571) had valued, “To occupy the castle is as valuable as to win one province.”  The castle was at the junction of 2 major river systems in the Kanto Plain, Tone-Watarase river system and Kinu river system, and was an important point of the water transportation in the region at that time.


     After the conquest, the Hojo Clan started its full-scale invasion of Boso Peninsula.  The Izu Sea Forces of the clan defeated the Satomi Sea Forces, and the Hojo Clan gained the naval superiority in Edo Bay.  In 1577, the Satomi Clan had to accept a peace treaty, and substantially retreated from Kazusa Province.

The Satomi Sea Forces (5)

      In 1539, Satomi Yoshitaka (1507?-1574) attacked Ariyoshi Castle in Kazusa Province, which was on the Hojo Clan’s side.  In revenge, in 1540, the Hojo Clan started attacking the Satomi Clan’s stronghold domain, Awa Province, with the Izu Sea Forces.  Between 1541 and 1542, Yoshitaka had to move his headquarters from Inamura Castle in Awa Province to Kururi Castle in the inland-most center of Boso Peninsula in Kazusa Province.  Did he advance into another larger province?  Or did he have to retreat his defense line from the seashore?

Friday, December 09, 2016

The Satomi Sea Forces (4)

      In 1523, Ise Ujitsuna (1487-1541), the son of Shinkuro (1432-1519), changed his surname to Hojo.  In 1532, as Ujitsuna was joining forces with Ashikaga Takamoto, Kanto Deputy Shogun in Koga, Ashikaga Yoshiaki, Kanto Deputy Shogun in Oyumi, was becoming the only choice for Satomi Yoshitoyo (?-1534) to face the Hojo Clan.  In 1534, however, or as a result, Satomi Yoshitaka (1507?-1574), Yoshitoyo’s cousin, launched coup d’etat against Yoshitoyo with the help of Ujitsuna.

     However, Yoshitaka was always under the pressure of Oyumi Kanto Deputy Shogun, and went over to Yoshiaki’s side.  In 1538, Oyumi and Koga Kanto Deputy Shoguns clashed against each other in Konodai.  Yoshiaki was killed in the battle, and Koga’s side won.  The biggest winner in the battle was Ujitsuna.  He made Takamoto his puppet, and grabbed the hegemony over all the southern part of Kanto but Awa Province.  The minor second winner of the battle was, ironically enough, Yoshitaka, who belonged to the loser’s side.  He could secure Awa Province at least, and could get rid of Oyumi Kanto Deputy Shogun, who had been a pain in the neck.  In the aftermath of the battle, the Hojo Clan and the Satomi Clan were to fight against each other head-to-head.


     By that time, the Hojo Clan had destroyed the Miura Clan, and organized their own sea forces.  Some of the Miura Sea Forces fled to Awa Province, and got hired by the Satomi Clan’s vassals, such as Masaki Michitsuna (1492?-1533).  Or Michitsuna himself might have been a surviving retainer of Miura’s.  Anyway, from that time on, the Izu Sea Forces of the Hojo Clan and the Satomi Sea Forces were to face each other head-to-head across the Edo and Sagami Bays.

Friday, December 02, 2016

The Satomi Sea Forces (3)

      While the Satomi Clan was developing its own history, the Kanto region was plunging into another epoch under the Muromachi Shogunate.  Kanto Deputy Shogun used to be based at Kamakura.  The fourth deputy shogun, Ashikaga Mochiuji (1398-1439), turned against the central shogunate in Kyoto in 1423.  He was defeated, and his son, Shigeuji (1434-1497), got based at Koga in Shimousa Province.  The central shogunate sent Ashikaga Masatomo (1435-1491) to Kanto, appointing him as a new deputy shogun in Kanto, but he couldn’t enter Kamakura, obstructed by some powerful Kanto samurais, and got based at Horigoe in Izu Province.  That is, the Kanto deputy shogunate was divided into 2.


     In 1517, when Ashikaga Takamoto (?-1535) was Koga Kanto Deputy Shogun, his younger brother, Yoshiaki(1493?-1538), turned against Takamoto, and got based at Oyumi in Shimousa Province.  That is, the Kanto deputy shogunate got devided into 3.  Meanwhile, the Uesugi Clan, which was hereditary for the butler-ship of the Kanto Deputy Shogun, was keeping its own authority.  In short, Kanto got into a mess.  And, to make the matters worse, Ise Shinkuro (1432-1519) came from Kyoto to make a warring-states-period hero, and joined in the mess.