Noto; a Japanese Envoy Ship to Balhae

     Noto was built in Fukura Port in Noto Province by the spring or the early summer of 762.  The ship sailed back and forth across the Sea of Japan twice.

     First, in the spring or the early summer of 762, Noto set sail from Fukura Port for Balhae with Koma Oyama (?-762), the 6th ambassador of Japan to Balhae, on board.

     On its return trip, Noto had Wang Sin-bog (?-?), Balhae’s ambassador, and 22 other Balhae envoys on board as well as Koma and other Japanese envoys.  Noto sailed back to Sariyoku Port in Kaga County, Echizen Province on October 1 in 762 (or October 26 by the Gregorian calendar).  Tragically, Koma died of a disease at the port.  Surprisingly, Wang was the first civil officer as Balhae’s ambassador.  On January 7 in 763 (or February 27 by the Gregorian calendar), Emperor Junnin (733-765) held an official welcome party while Tang music played.  The Tang dynasty was ruling China, which was the most advanced country in East Asia, and Tang music was the most classic music at the time.  The Emperor had another informal party 10 days later with ethnic flavor.  They played Tibetan, Vietnamese, Eastern (Japanese), Southern (Japanese), and other kinds of music.  In addition, the Emperor had female trainees of the Imperial Music and Dance School sing and dance in front of them, or maybe with them.  Fujiwara Nakamaro (706-764) threw his own private party for the mission members, without knowing he would be driven off from his position and would be killed along with his family next year.  Those luxurious and gorgeous parties had nothing to do with Noto and its crews at all.  Noto was just patiently waiting for the spring to come, when south winds start blowing to send them to Balhae, with snow having closed in all around at Fukura Port.

     In the early summer of 763, Noto left Japan to sail Balhae’s emboys back to their home country.  In Noto’s surprise, no Japanese officers were on board other than Japanese sailors.  After letting Wang and other envoys off along today’s Posyet Bay in Russia, Noto waited for 2 passengers to come from the capital: one was Ko Uchiyumi (?-?), who had mastered phonetics in Balhae, and the other was Kai-yu (?-?), who was a Japanese Buddhist priest who had studied in China.  Ko’s case proved that Japanese people could study something more advanced even in Balhae.  Kai-yu used Balhae as an alternative route from China to Japan.

     September found the passengers at last.  Ko was with his wife, his young son, his baby and the baby’s wet nurse, and Kai-yu was with an “upasaka”; a mysterious man who could survive with having just a very small portion of food every few days.  They were just additional burdens to Noto and its crews.  Having neither Japanese officers nor those of Balhae meant having no capital to bribe local officials to take good care of Noto and its crews.  Although the typhoon season was approaching, Noto and its crews had better set sail for Japan.

     The area which is called Primorsky today never had a typhoon, so Noto’s departure was safe and smooth.  On the day of Noto’s arrival in Japan or on the day before, however, a typhoon came about.  Waves washed a helmsman, and oarsmen away.  Noto was trying hard to keep itself intact, but the captain argued with other sailors and decided to throw 3 females and an upasaka into the rough and wild sea because of their superstition that the god of the sea was angry with those passengers.  Superstition was just superstition.  Noto was at the mercy of winds and waves over 10 more days, and got washed ashore on Oki Island, an island province in the Sea of Japan.

     After its return to Japan, Noto was awarded with the 12th ranking in Japanese aristocratic order and with a beautifully decorated crown for its contribution.  The captain, Itaburi Kamakatsu (?-?), was arrested and imprisoned.  In 764, Fujiwara Nakamaro plotted a counter-coup against the retired Empress Koken, who herself had done a successful coup, and her henchmen in vain.  He was killed, and his henchmen were put into prison.  The prison being crowded, Itaburi was transferred to Omi Province.  What Itaburi had done aboard Noto in the storm has been passed down to today by the transfer document although the original police document has been lost.

     How many days or even years did Noto survive?  Superstitious people might not have dared to destroy it.  They must have left it dilapidating, decaying, and rotting over the years until the memories of the hell Noto had witnessed were dissolved like chips of wood and were concealed under the scattered documents about this incident.

Balhae's 4th Mission to Japan and Trading in the Form of Presents

     Balhae's 4th Mission to Japan gives us an inhumane example of the trade between Japan and Balhae, or even the triangular trade among Japan, Balhae, and Tang China.

     On December 16, 755, General An Lucian (705-757) finally declared himself emperor, and openly rebelled against the Tang Dynasty of China.  On November 18, 763, Tufan, or the Tibetan Empire, invaded Changan, the capital of the Tang Dynasty, and they stayed there for 15 days.  All in all, in the middle of the 8th century, Tang China was just in chaos.

     In those days, precisely in 752, Fujiwara Kiyokawa (?-?) sailed across the East China Sea to Tang China as an ambassador of Japan.  Next year, he tried to sail back to Japan, only to get shipwrecked as was often the case.  The Japanese central government didn’t know whether he was alive or not.  Tang China was getting in disorder day by day.

     It was Yang Seung-gyeong (?-?), the ambassador of Balhae’s 4th mission to Japan, who brought the information of Kiyokawa’s survival.  Yang had been an officer in the westernmost region of Balhae, a good position to get inside stories of the chaotic society of Tang China.  Obtaining the information, the Japanese central government organized a kind of rescue team.  Ko Gendo (?-?), or Go Jeon-do, who was a naturalized Japanese from Goguryeo, was appointed as an ambassador of the mission.  Yang took Ko to Tang China by way of the Sea of Japan and Balhae, and helped Ko to meet Kiyokawa.  The Tang government, however, didn’t let Kiyokawa go home, ostensibly worrying for the deteriorating public security and the safety of Kiyokawa on his way back to Japan.  Ko came back empty-handed via the East China Sea.  The Tang government might not have been worried over the safety of Ko.

     Yes, Balhae worked as an alternative route to Tang China.  But what I want to talk about here is not about that but about the presents Yang had gotten in Japan for his contribution.

     While Yang Seung-gyeong was staying in Japan, on January 27 in 759 (or March 2 in 759 by the Gregorian calendar), Fujiwara Nakamaro (706-764), who was a prime minister at the time and who was Fujiwara Kiyokawa’s father-in-law, threw a big party for Yang.  On the occasion, Emperor Junnin (733-765) gave Yang personal presents: 300 bunches of cotton and female musicians of the Imperial Court.

     According to the Old Book of Tang, one of 24 orthodox history books of China, Balhae presented 11 Japanese female musicians to the Tang Dynasty in 777.  It is unknown whether the 11 musicians were those who had been presented to Yang or another present from Japan sent by way of Balhae to Tang China.  Anyway, there might have been the slave traffic between Japan and Balhae, or even the triangular slave traffic among the 3 counties, officially in the form of presents.  Could there have been the smuggling of slaves?

     In 777, Ono Iwane (?-778) led the Japanese 16th envoy to the Tang Dynasty as an acting ambassador, reached Yang Prefecture in Tang China across the East China Sea, and got to Changan in 778.  Despite all the attempts, Kiyokawa had died by the time.  He had a daughter, Kijo (?-?), or Xiniang, by his Chinese wife.  Kijo, accompanying Iwane, left Tang China.  The ship got wrecked, and iwane died as was often the case. Kijo clung to the bow, and was washed ashore on Naga-jima Island in Amakusa County, Hizen Province.

Balhae Missions and their Impacts on Japan

     Nobody in Ancient Japan moved as widely, broadly, and internationally as Heguri Hironari did.  He visited 3 countries and traveled from the southernmost tip of Tang Empire to the easternmost.  His checkered fate made him a person of international knowledge, and promoted him to be the 9th ranking in the Japanese aristocratic ranking system, the highest ranking those who were not a member of royal families or the central powerful clans could move up to.

     Balhae’s first 2 missions indicated a framework of the bilateral relations of Japan and Balhae.  The framework had 3 vectors.

     First, as the 2 wooden strips, which included 2 phrases "Balhae mission" and “trading”, unearthed in the residence vestige of Prince Nagaya (684-729) In 1988 imply, Balhae high-ranking officials gave presents to Japanese high-ranking officials, which were recognized “trading” in the Japanese side.  The Japanese central government gave presents to Balhae officials as the record about Balhae’s second mission showed.  It is yet to be revealed what whey were recognized as in Balhae society, but if they were recognized as personal presents, they might have been shared or “traded” with other Balhae people.

     Second, the Balhae route could work as an alternative route to Tang-Japan direct route across the East China Sea, which caused many shipwrecks.

     Third, Balhae was more advanced than Japan so that some made-in-China knowledge could be acquired more handily in Balhae.

     Balhae sent 34 missions to Japan until 919, and Japan sent 15 missions to Balhae until 811.  Balhae sent hides and got silk and cotton.  A couple of centuries later, in 1114, Taira Tadamori (1096-1153) was appointed as a provincial officer in Echizen Province.  Tsuruga County in the province was supposed to be one of ports of call for the Balhae missions, and actually was said to be a port of call for Sung-Chinese traders.  In North-Eastern Asia, the Jurchen people got independent from the Liao Dynasty, and destroyed the dynasty in 1125.  They also invaded the Sung Dynasty in 1127.  Under such an international political conditions, did Sung-Chinese traders really visited Tsuruga Port to trade with Japan?  There might have been some self-proclaimed Sung traders who traded or smuggled between the continent and Japan across the Sea of Japan.

     Later during the Warring States Period in Japan, which lasted since 1467 till 1568, there arouse Lake Pirates in the Lake of Biwa, which used to be a major part of a water transport route between the Sea of Japan and Kyoto.  Seafoods from the Sea of Japan were not enough to turn people into pirates.  There must have been some precious goods which were landed in Tsuruga and other ports along the Sea of Japan, and were transported via the lake.

Balhae's Second Mission to Japan

     In Balhae, the third son of Dae Muye (?-737), Heum-mu (?-793), succeeded his father to the throne in 737.  Heum-mu dispatched Seo Yo-deog as an emissary and I Zhen-mong as a vice emissary to Japan in 739.  The delegation had another mission to accompany the missing delegation members to Tang Dynasty China back to Japan.

     When a delegation was sent out to Tang Dynasty China in 733, Heguri Hironari (?-753) was a member of the delegation as the third third emissary or the third officer.  In 734, the delegation set sail from Suzhou on board 4 ships for Japan.  The first ship sailed back to Tanegashima Island.  The second ship drifted ashore in Fujian.  The third ship, which Hironari was on board with 114 other members and crews, washed ashore in the Kingdom of Champa, which lasted from 192 to 1832 in the middle part of Vietnam.  The fourth ship was lost.

     Those days, East Asia was under political and military tension.  In 720’s, Dae Munye, a younger brother of Muye, went into exile in Tang Empire.  In 732, Balhae’s navies attacked Dengzhou (a port town along the northern coast of the Shandong Peninsula).  In 733, Emperor Xuanzong (685-762) dispatched Munye to Youzhou, the northernmost and easternmost part of Tang Empire, to organize armies and attack Balhae in retaliation, and also ordered the king of Silla to attack Balhae, both of which didn’t work well.

     When the third ship that Heguri Hironari was on board washed ashore in the Kingdom of Champa, they were surrounded by soldiers.  A few were killed on the spot, a few others escaped into a jangle, and the others were captured.  About 90 of the captured died of malaria.  Masahiro and 3 crews survived.

     Let’s read the report by Heguri Hironari (?-753), which was handed in to the Japanese central government after his return to Japan.

     “We, Heguri Hironari and others, first accompanied the emissary, Tajihi Hironari, and entered Tang in 733.  By October in 734, we finished our mission, retired from the capital, and were returning to Japan.  Our 4 ships set sail simultaneously from Suzhou.

     "Soon a stormy wind raged, and we lost sight of each other.  Our ship drifted ashore in Champa with 115 people on board.  Bandits came about and surrounded us.  A few of us were killed and a few others fled.  More than 90 people were arrested, and many of them came down with malaria and died.  Hironari and 3 others escaped from the death, and were granted an audience with the King of Champa.  Although we were supplied with food, we were still interned in a building uncomfortable to live in.

     “In 735, we came across a Champa person who was familiar with Qinzhou (in Guangxi, China).  We secretly got on board his ship, left Champa, and reached back the Tang Empire.  We could go back to the capital by the agency of Abe Nakamaro, a Japanese student in the Tang Empire.  We asked to go back to Japan by way of Balhae. The Emperor permitted it, gave us a ship and food, and let us leave.

     “In March, 738, we left Dengzhou.  In May, we got to the border of Balhae.  The Balhae King, Dae Heum-mu, happened to be sending their envoy to Japan to visit our Imperial Court.  We left Balhae at the same time.  Crossing the Sea of Japan, one of Balhae’s ships was capsized by waves.  The emissary, Seo Yo-deog, and 40 others were drowned.  The envoy reached Dewa Province with Hironari and others.”

     Let’s read the royal letter from Dae Heum-mu (?-793), to Emperor Shomu (701-756) next:

     “Our mountains and rivers are separated from yours too far to view your land.  As we hear of your manners and morality, our respect you has just increased.  On bended knees, we presume Your Majesty the Emperor to be of sacredness, wisdom, and virtue, which spread large and wide.  Your Majesty’s leaves grow thick and wide, and luster covers all the nation.  We don’t deserve it, but succeeded to the throne and ruled in vain.  We have eased the tension, shown our tolerance, and established amity with every neighboring country.

     “This time, your messenger to a country, Hironari and others, missed winds and tides to be adrift.  They counted on us.  We thought to reward them, and to release them back next spring.  The messenger and others excessively begged to move forward and return this year.  Their petition was grave and the amity with your country is not minor.  Accordingly, we let them leave as soon as we prepared travel-related materials.  We appoint Seo Yo-deog and others as our mission, and have them accompany Hironari and others to your country.  In addition, we present 7 tiger hides, 7 bear hides, 6 leopard hides, 18 kilograms of ginseng, and 12 litters of honey.  Please accept them when they arrive.”

     After the death of Dae Muye in 737, his third son, Heum-mu (?-793), was trying relaxing the tensions between Balhae and Tang Empire.  He accepted the appointment as a king of “Balhae County” and sent delegation to Tang Empire almost every year.  The delegation in 738 brought Heguri Hironari to Balhae.  He made good use of the opportunity to send a mission to Japan without arising suspicion among Tang Empire.  He indebted Japan and successfully realized his skillful balanced diplomacy in East Asia.

     The mission left Balhae on board 2 ships.  One of the two, which the ambassador, Seo Yo-deog was on board, was wrecked, and whether all the presents arrived in Japan or not was not recorded.  The central government of Japan entertained the vice-ambassador, Gi Zhen-mong, and others.  In the ceremony on New Year’s Day (February 6 in 739 by the Gregorian calendar), they provided a Silla language translator and 2 beautiful attendants wearing long pleated trousers and holding large fan-shaped shades, which meant they treated the vice-ambassodor as if he had been a king or a noble from the Korean Peninsula.  The government presented Gi Zhen-mong with 20 rolls of silk fabric made in Mino Province, 10 rolls of silk fabric, 50 rolls of silk strings, and 200 bunches of cotton.  They also presented Balhae with 30 rolls of silk fabric made in Mino Province, 30 rolls of silk fabric, 150 rolls of silk strings, and 300 bunches of cotton, and the late Seo Yo-deog with 175 rolls of cotton fabric.