How Toyotomi Hideyoshi “Organized” Naval Forces or Pirates in the Seto Inland Sea

 

     Toyotomi Hideyoshi (1537-1598) and his lord, Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582), were both from Owari Province, and advanced to Kyoto by land.  They didn’t really have their own naval forces.  After Nobunaga’s death, Hideyoshi shifted his advance to Western provinces into high gear, which needed naval forces to advance through the Seto Inland Sea.  What Hideyoshi did was to win over pirates in the Seto Inland Sea.

     Hideyoshi first worked on the Kurushima-Murakami Family.  In Leap-March in 1580, he wrote to Murakami Yoshitsugu:

     “I haven’t replied, but I certainly received your message.  I will go to Mimasaka Province, leading the advance troop of Lord Nobunaga.  If you consult with Ukita Naoie and work for the lord, I will try to make your desire come true.  Naoie will contact you.”

     Naoie's grandfather, Yoshiie, was killed by the Shimamura Family in 1534.  Naoie's father, Okiie (1497-1536) narrowly escaped from their castle with Naoie (1529-1581).  Two years later after Okiie died, Naoie became head of the Ukita Family at the age of 7.  In 1543, he became subject to Uragami Munekage.  In 1559, he killed his father-in-law, Nakayama Nobumasa, by order of Munekage.  In 1569, Naoie went over to Oda Nobunaga (1534-1582).  Munekage fought back and gave Naoie a special pardon to return to serve him.  In 1574, Naoie allied with the Mori Clan and launched a rebellion against Munekage and ended Munekage's rule.  In 1576, Naoie’s vassal, Togawa Hideyasu, fought with the Mori Clan against Nobunaga in the Battle of Kizu Estuary, when Yoshitsugu was a pirate warrior serving the clan.  In May, 1579, Naoie killed Goto Katsumoto (1538-1579), who had gone over to Nobunaga, but in June in the same year, Naoie went over to Nobunaga.  Naoie seems to have sold his Hideyasu-Yoshitsugu link to Hideyoshi.

     Hideyoshi purchased the link and further developed it.  On March 29th, 1578, Hideyoshi laid siege to Miki Castle in Harima Province.  It took him about 1 year and 10 months to seize the castle.  However, he wasn't just besieging the castle.  He also fixed his eyes further westward.  He invited Kurushima-Murakami Yoshikiyo (1563-1638), a younger brother of the head of the Kurushima-Murakami Family, Michifusa (1562-1597).

     Hideyoshi developed the Hideyasu-Yoshitsugu link to the connection between Hideyoshi and Michifusa, the head of the Kurushima-Murakami Family.  Hideyoshi reported the grown-up connection to Nobunaga.  On December 3rd, Hideyoshi directly wrote to Michifusa, telling him Nobunaga’s contentment with Michifusa’s loyalty and the importance of serving to Nobunaga on his advance to Shikoku Island in the next coming Spring, which wasn’t realized though.

     The secret connection was sensed by the Mori Clan.  On March 3rd, Mori Terumoto (1553-1625) wrote to his vassal, Kodama Narikata (1513-1586), about the rumor over the Kurushima-Murakami Family and told him to watch the family.  On April 5th, Kobayakawa Takakage (1533-1597), Terumoto’s uncle, wrote to Nomi Munekatsu (1527-1592), who was a mediator between the clan and the Murakami Pirates, talking about their continued persuasion through Innoshima-Murakami Sukeyasu.  On the 7th, however, Takakage wrote to the head of the Innoshima-Murakami Family, Yoshimitsu, about the failure of the persuasion.

     Hideyoshi, of course, approached to the other Murakami Families.  The most well-documented case was, however, his approach to the Nomi Family, who were the direct vassal of the Kobayakawa Family, and who were the mediator with the Murakami Pirates.  We can find some letters from Hideyoshi’s side to the Nomi Family.  By the way, who were the Nomi Family?

     In ancient times, precisely 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.

      Munekatsu commanded his own naval 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 Innoshima Murakami Family, Noshima Murakami Family, and Kurushima 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 Innoshima-Murakami Family, the northernmost one, that is, geopolitically the closest family to Nomi's.

     Let’s get back to the letters from Hideyoshi’s side to the Nomi Family.

     On March 17th, 1582, Hachisuka Masakatsu (1526-1586) and Kuroda Yoshitaka (1546-1604), who were Hideyoshi’s vassals, sent a jointly signed letter to Nomi Munekatsu and his first son, Morikatsu (?-1582), to tempt them to betray the Mori Clan, saying that any territory would be given.

     On the same day, Masakatsu and Yoshitaka jointly wrote to Morikatsu alone, pointing specific terms: (1) Aki, Suo, and Nagato Provinces will be given as well as 500 taels of gold.  (2) Kojima cannot be given because it belonges to Bizen Province.  (3) If your father doesn’t hope to change sides, you alone can come to us.  In that case, one of the 3 above-mentioned provinces will be given to you.

     On the next day, Hideyoshi himself wrote to Munekatsu and Morikatsu, saying that any wish would be realized.

     It is unknown whether such a fake terms (transparent lies?) really worked or not.  They might have worked as flattery at least to Morikatsu.  He died of “illness” soon and his younger brother, Kagetsugu (1561-1613), succeeded to Munekatsu.  Hideyoshi was said to be good at flattering people.  At least, he knew how to divide and conquer.

     What happen to the other hyphenated Murakami Families and all?  The Mori Clan themselves became subordinate to Hideyoshi, who became the ruler of Japan, swallowing all the divisions and subdivisions.