The First Uprises of Japanese Pirates

     Pirates in Japan were very active twice at the beginning of the Heian Period:  first, in the middle of the 9th century, and, second, in the middle of 10th century.  The two confrontations against the sauthorities forced the central government to realize the critical situation, to face it, and to stabilize it.

     The second series of incidents, including Fujiwara Sumitomo’s rebellion, have been widely studied.  They were not only active but also well-organized enough to attack provincial governments’ offices around the Seto Inland Sea and even Dazai-fu, a special regional agency of the central government which handled diplomacy and defense in Kyushu, the westernmost main island in Japan, that is, the closest main island to Korea and China.

     The first pirate uprisings, on the other hand, have come to be regarded as pre-stages or signs of the second, as the researches over the second have, ironically enough, progressed and deepened.

     Pirates in the middle of the 9th century, however, must have had their own historical and regional characteristics, and should be analyzed as such independently.

     Why, in the first place, were Pirates Crackdown Orders declared at the time?  What were their articles like?  How were those articles organized and composed in one order?  How were those orders carried out?  These are the questions which have been paid little attention to.  The existence of pirates itself has never been questioned, even less has their relationship with the pirates from Silla, one of the three countries in the Korean Peninsula at the time, been questioned either.

     I would like to pick up the frequent divisions of counties and the increase of county officials around the Seto Inland Sea in the middle of the 9th century first.  Silla pirates started looting and plundering provinces along the Japan Sea and their outer islands in the second half of the 9th century.  What is the relation between those Silla pirates and “pirate problems” in Japan?

      First of all, as far as pirates are supposed to be those sailing on the seas, attacking other boats and stealing things from them, there must have been other boats to be attacked and those boats must have been carrying things.  Then, what boats were carrying what things in the Seto Inland Sea in the 9th century?  Things carried officially are comparatively easy to grasp.

     The Japanese ancient centralized bureaucratic government had been established in 645.  They imposed 3 types of taxes: So, tax rice; Yo, labor duties; Cho, tax cloth.  All the taxes were supposed to be carried to Kyoto by Yo itself.  That is, all the taxes were carried on taxpayers’ shoulders.

     As boat-building skills improved, and navigating skills matured, water transportation might have increased so much as the government could not ignore within a century.  As early as in 756, the central government ordered the regional governments around the Seto Inland Sea to send their tax rice to the capital by rowboat, and added, if the tax rice on a boat was lost, 30% of it should be taxed again to the original taxpayers and 20% to the forwarders according to the order issued in May, 735.  111 years after the establishment of the tax system, Yo also had become rice, and all the tax rice including Yo came to be carried by rowboat around the Seto Inland Sea.

     A kind of the maritime insurance system introduced above, worked as breeding ground for the corruption

and bribery among high-ranking officials engaged both in forwarding and in receiving tax rice.  Worst corrupt officials in provincial governments might have conspired with those in the central government, have made up maritime accidents, have taxed that 30% to the original taxpayers, that is farmers, again, and have shared 130%-20%=110%.   Better ones might have just shared 100%-30%-20%=50%.

     Was private trade nil at the beginning of the Heian period?  By no means!  The government order in 756 itself implies there had already emerged forwarders fully enough to carry all the tax rice from the Seto Inland Sea provinces presumably between the harvest and the start of the rainy season of a year at the longest.

     According to the order issued in 796, traders from Kaya Port in Buzen Province, Kunisaki and Sakato Ports in Bungo Province had been supposed to get a pass at Dazai-fu and show it at Moji Checkpoint along a narrow channel between Kyushu and Honshu Islands on their way to Kyoto.  It means that they had to sail back west to sail east for Kyoto.  As late as by the year 746, however, some forwarders had come to be found shipping their provincial goods to Kyoto without calling at Moji.  In 796, at last, the central government gave up, and approved the traffic deregulation.  Traders could now directly sail to Namba, the largest sea port at the mouth of a river from Kyoto to be checked by a provincial officer there.

     Commercial shipping was not only between the capital and provinces.  Before 716, for example, private sailing had been forbidden between Bungo, the easternmost province on Kyushu Island, and Iyo, the westernmost province on Shikoku Island, and there used to be forts on each side to force the rule on traders.  An order in 716, however, allowed a ship to sail between the 2 provinces if a higher-ranked nobleman (higher than the 5th in the ranking system at that time) was on board.  This was another example of water traffic deregulations.

     These deregulations imply that even some high-ranked noblemen found their interests in freer water transportation.

     Rice and provincial goods, such as salt, were indispensable for people’s daily life, but bulky.  Weren’t there anything more valuable and handy?  There could have been!

     In 866, some Tang people, Chinese people in today’s sense, were reported to have come all the way to Kyoto with no pass issued in Dazai-fu.  There could have been more Tang people with passes.  They used to be called trading visitors.  What were they trading then?

     It is worthwhile to notice that in 874, a document tells us, Okami Mii, an officer in Iyo Province, and Taji Yasue, another officer in Bungo Province, were officially sent to Tang to purchase incense and medicine there.  Another document tells us that at least Taji came back to Japan on board Tang trader’s ship in 877.

     Diplomatic relations with Silla had been broken off in 779, and the Japanese missions to Tang China had been stopped in 810.  Yet, noblemen’s need for advanced and sophisticated foreign-imported goods was neither broken off nor stopped.  The end of official exchange of ministers might have rather encouraged private trading.

     Now, we find daily necessities such as rice and provincial goods including salt on board. If we are lucky enough, we can find a few valuable foreign-imported goods such as incense aboard.  Are we ready to have pirates then?  No, not yet.  Even Captain Cook could not conduct piracy by himself.  He had to have his minions.  In other words, the Japanese ancient centralized bureaucratic rule needed to have been loosened enough to supply rowers and as such.

     Let me introduce 2 Chinese poems composed by Sugawara Michizane, one of the most famous Japanese poets in Japan, to see the supply-side conditions.  The two, along with the other 8, are supposed to have been composed in the winter of the year 886.  The series of 10 Chinese poems all describe poor people under his ruling as a governor in Sanuki Province, one of the provinces along the Seto Inland Sea, just east to Iyo Province:

To whom winter comes faster?

To repatriated tramps winter comes faster

They don’t have a clan to rely on

And are assigned along the names they give

But the land granted is too poor

Their bodies become thinner and thinner

Unless the governor rules them with mercy

More and more will certainly take flight

To whom winter comes faster?

To hired rowers winter comes faster

They don’t know how to farm

They are hired as a day laborer

And have little land to farm

They row only to be poorer

They don’t mind winds and waves

But only hope to be hired everyday

     In 669, an order was issued to register all the people and cut off bandits and tramps.  In 697, an imperial order commanded provincial governors to register people during the winter, and to examine and arrest tramps by September.  Those orders suggest that the ruling noblemen at the time were equating tramps with bandits.  The noblemen perceived the free movement of ruled people negatively.  With their negative perception in mind, we are going to see chronologically how piracy in Japan started to appear in historical documents and materials and what actions the authority took against it.

     It is from the year 838 that we can find the term “pirate” appear in official documents.  In the year, provincial governors along the Seto Inland Sea were ordered to arrest pirates, exactly just pirates.  The day before the order was issued, however, provincial governors around Kyoto were demanded to severely accuse bandits who openly set fire and killed people.  And two days after the first order with the term “pirate”, imperial guardsmen were detached around Kyoto to chase and arrest those bandits.  That implies pirates are only a part of major social unrest.  After these actions, the authorities tried to chase and arrest bandits in 849 and in 857, but we can find no order against pirates until 862.

     Japanese pirates made their major debut on May the 20th, 862.  One document says:     “These days, pirates frequently form groups, kill travelers, and loot varieties of goods no matter they belong to the government or civils.  According to the Bizen provincial government, ‘80 koku’ of tax rice was looted by pirates at last.  They were sending the tax rice to Kyoto.  They loaded the rice on boats, and forwarded the boats with pullers tugging it with ropes.  They, however, encountered pirates, were robbed of everything, and got 11 of their men killed.  The provincial governors of Harima, Bizen, Bicchu, Bingo, Aki, Suo, Nagato, Kii, Awaji, Awa, Sanuki, Iyo, and Tosa were promptly ordered to send their men to chase the pirates.”

     It is not clear how much rice “80 koku” represented at the time in Japan.  At the beginning of Meiji Period, 1 koku equaled 10 to = 100 sho = 1,000 go, and 1 go of rice weighed about 150 grams.  Then, “80 koku” equaled about 12 tons.  But metrology differed from a time to another, and from a country to another, say in China.  They might have been using a different metrology.  It is also doubtful whether they could forward 12 tons of rice on boats at a time in Japan in the 9th century.  However, the robbery of that much tax rice must have been such a shocking news that the central government issued an order for chasing and arresting pirates for the first time in the Japanese history.  The document also suggests that the number of pirates who had become organized was increasing, and their piracy was becoming more common and persistent.

     After the year 862, orders for chasing and arresting pirates were issued in 865, in 866, in 867, and in 869 almost in succession.  These years is considered to have witnessed the first uprisings of Japanese pirates.  On April the 11th, 866, for example, the central government ordered the provincial governors of Settsu, Izumi, Harima, Bizen, Bingo, Aki, Suo, Nagato, Kii, Awaji, Awa, Sanuki, Iyo, and Tosa to chase and arrest pirates, and said, “On May the 20th, 862, and on June the 28th, 865, documents which told you that you should chase and arrest pirates were issued.  Yet, even today, we hear that groups of pirates are coming about and never stop plundering and looting.  The reason of this situation is that provincial governors have not worked hard enough to liquidate pirates.  If a provincial governor does not investigate and arrest pirates, and leave them committing farther atrocities, it will be the governor who will be charged.  He cannot be pardoned.  The number of those arrested should be reported in a written form.”

     This document clearly described the order issued in 862 had been the very start of those for chasing and arresting pirates.  It demanded to report the number of pirates arrested, and that implied provincial governors had been given authority to decide who were pirates and who were not.  We will see later how giving this kind of authority actually worked.

     The orders issued in 862, in 865, and in 866 didn’t do their works, and the central government issued another in 867, saying, “These years, we have ordered and warned provincial governors to chase and arrest pirates, and to investigate and police wicked and wild people.  Yet, we hear ferocious criminals come about, and robberies break out.  All the travelers by water and by land are afraid of being attacked.  This is really due to the governors’ dereliction of duty to liquidate them.  It is legislated to form a joint surety group of 5 households, to choose a head of it, and to have them watch one another.”  The order did not stop here and continued delivering detailed instructions, “In sordid places such as markets, ports, and arterials, maneuvers should be employed, detectives should be placed, bounties should be offered, and pardons should be dangled to leave no place for wicked and wild people to stay.”     The contents of this order may imply 2 facts.  First, the central government considered vagrancy as a breeding ground of piracy.  Second, some provincial governors might have accumulated certain experience on dealing with pirates.  The accumulation, in turn, might have made it possible for the central government to share the effective practices.

     On November 10, 867, another instruction was added, and concerned provincial governors were ordered not only to “send their men” but to “engage captive northern aliens.”     In ancient Japan, offering labor was one of the 3 taxes, and the regular army used to be composed of the conscripted manhood.  The latter additional instruction, however, allowed those provincial governors to organize captive northern aliens as a kind of foreign mercenary legion besides the regular army.  The point is that the provincial governors were allowed to organize semiofficial armies.  Let’s, however, direct our eyes north-eastward for a while and see who captive northern aliens were.

     In 708, Dewa County was established in Echigo Province.  The county was, then, promoted to be Dewa Province in 712.  Around that time, Dewa Fort was established around at latitude 38 degrees north.  In 733, it was reestablished as Akita Castle around at latitude 39 degrees north.  That way, in the 8th century, the ancient Japanese central government invaded northward step by step.  In the process, a lot of northern aliens, Emishi, either were captured or surrendered, and some of them were sent to “inland” provinces.

     It is not clear yet why some of them were sent west-southward into “inland” Japan, but the policy might have been operated for economic and military reasons.

     In ancient time, Japan introduced Chinese and Korean advanced technology by naturalizing those aliens who had evacuated from the continent.  This experience might have led the government into the policy of making good use of northern aliens this time by transferring captive northern aliens to every province to introduce their skills to breed horses and to make good use of them especially in battlefields.

     Northern aliens were said to be better at mounted fights, and their single-edged swords were more effective than double-edged ones which used to be used among inland Japanese soldiers.  The single-edged swords are said to be prototypes of Japanese medieval swords known as “katana.”

     In provinces around the Seto Inland Sea area, the calculated population of the captive northern aliens was 312 in Harima, 18 in Bizen, 12 in Bicchu, 41 in Sanuki, and 83 in Iyo.  The calculation of numbers is based on the livings paid to the aliens by provincial governments, so the numbers should be interpreted households.  It is also philologically confirmed that some northern aliens were sent to the other provinces in the area too, although we don’t have documents to calculate their numbers.

     As orders had been repeatedly issued since 862, detailed instructions had been added.  The orders and instructions might have worked.  After 869, pirate-related articles cannot be found for about a decade.

     On July 5, 869, in Sanuki Province, two men and two women were arrested as pirates.  An imperial order was issued to execute the men observing laws, while the women were let off exceptionally.  The first uprisings of Japanese pirates subsided that way.

     Did the societies around the Seto Inland Sea go back to peace as they used to be before the pirate disturbances?  To answer the question, we should carefully examine the following document dated October the 10th, 883.

     “An imperial order was given to Bizen Province to spare 20,000 bunches of the provincial governor’s official rice for loans, and to have their interest applied to the pays for 224 anti-pirate soldiers.  Previously, the governor had reported the province had many peninsulas and islands where pirates could gather, that neither the officials nor civilians could easily face them down, that the pirates often killed people or robbed them of fortune, and that many travelers were harmed.  The governor continued to request the permission to select 224 jobless men with guts, to build quarters for them at strategic points, to supply arms and boats to them, and to have them defend in emergency.  His request to apply loan interest to the pays was granted.”

     The document dated October the 10th, 883, arouses some questions.  Who were those hobos with guts?  Where did they learn how to use arms and to maneuver boats in such an archipelago with rapid straits?  How had they earned their livings before they were hired as anti-pirate soldiers?  The chances are high they had been pirates themselves.

     What happened then after hiring those ex-pirates as anti-pirate soldiers?  Another document dated December the 23rd, 885, showed a typical case.  The article said, “Yama Yoshinao and Hata Harusada, both officially hired men in Kamitsumi County, Bizen Province, killed in a fight Sogabe Hidenao, Takerube Akio and others, men in Utari County, Sanuki Province.  Sir Minamoto, the lieutenant governor, proclaimed his innocence, so that Yoshinao was hanged as a principal and Harusada received a sentence of three-year penal servitude as an accessory.”  This kind of articles suggest violate struggles across provinces became persistent, and even higher-ranked officials sent from the central government could not control those hired for provincial governments.

     Suffering from heavy taxes, some farmers escaped from their registered land, and became hobos in another province.  Some fishers lost their livings and became hobos as powerful families enclosed seashores for salt production and other industrial purposes.  Pirate resources were plentiful.  Although the first uprises of Japanese pirates seemed to have died down because of the suppression and maneuvers by provincial governments, the ancient societies around the Seto Inland Sea were getting themselves ready to have the first pirate king, Fujiwara Sumitomo.