Taira Tadamori (1096-1153) and Pirates along the Seto Inland Sea

     In March, 1129, Cloistered Emperor Shirakawa’s office and the office responsible for police and judicial duties under the Imperial Court ordered Taira Tadamori (1096-1153) to hunt down and kill pirates around the Seto Inland Sea.  The order of the cloistered emperor office said, “These days, savage bandits are more and more rampant along the sea lane.  They sail tens of ships and crest millions of waves.  Some kill or abduct travelers to and from Kyoto, and others ruin or rob public and private cargos.  Evil deeds have piled, and hardly a day passes without violence.  That is because provincial officers are afraid of their savagery and are reluctant to hunt them down.”  Mysteriously enough, however, no records of such large-scale piracy at the time can be found.  Anyway, it was at that time that Tadamori brought the Nomi-no-umi area under his control and renamed it Tada-no-umi (Tada Sea).

     Later in the Warring States Period, Kobayakawa Hirohira (1416-1473), the 10th head of the family, had 2 sons.  The elder, Takahira (1452-1499), became the 11th head of the family, and the younger, Korekage (?-?), started Nomi Family.  Korekage picked up the older name of the area for his family name.  Later, Nomi Masakatsu (?-?) was adopted to the Ura Family.  His son, Munekatsu (1527-1592), succeeded to the headship of the Ura Family, but preferred to be called Nomi Munekatsu.  The name “Nomi” might have been a brandname around the area.

      Nomi Munekatsu (1527-1592) commanded his sea forces in the area.  The most remarkable contribution he made to his master, the Mori Clan, was that he mediated between the clan and Murakami Pirates.  Murakami Pirates were composed of In-no-shima Murakami Family, No-shima Murakami Family, and Kuru-shima Murakami Family from North to South.  Each family’s headquarters was based in In-no-shima Island, No-shima Island, and Kuru-shima Island respectively.  Munekatsu’s daughter was married to Murakami Yoshisuke (?-1596), who was the 7th head of In-no-shima Murakami Family, the northernmost one, that is, geopolitically the closest family to Nomi's.  Obviously, the sea people under the brandname of “Nomi” were pirates, or more euphemistically sea samurais.

     Let’s get back to Tadamori’s time.  Tadamori used the first Chinese character of his first name to rename the sea, Tada-no-umi.  He also used the second Chinese character to name a port in O-Mishima Island across Tada-no-umi.  The port, Mori Port, is still used as a fishing port even today.  The island, which used to be respected as a god’s island, had, and still has, O-Yamazumi Shrine, which is the head shrine of 402 branch shrines at the minimum, and 897 of those at the maximum, and which used to be one of the most powerful shrines among the sea people along the Seto Inland Sea.  The fact that Tadamori  could “suppress” the area in such a short time might mean he could have got along with the sea people in the area somehow or other, maybe, as a matter of course, taking advantage of the authority of Cloistered Emperor Shirakawa.  Tadamori must have had the same DNA as his father did.