The Ouchi Clan and the Ninbo Incident

      The Ouchi Clan were based in the westernmost provinces on Honshu Island, the largest island of Japan.  They were engaged in the last days of the official trade with the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) under the Ashikaga Shogunate (1336-1573), and opened up new days of smuggling with East Asia.

     Both clans might have planned to export some Japanese products and import Chinese ones peacefully, but they virtually exported war to the weakening Ming Dynasty.  The Ming government shut down the tally trading against Japan as a retaliatory measure for a while, but that ironically raised smuggling and even Wokou, one of the 2 main enemies against the Ming Dynasty along with Mongolians from the North.

     In 1523, when Yoshioki (1477-1529) was the head of the Ouchi Clan, an epochal and symbolic incident happened at Ningbo in Ming China.  The Ouchi Clan clashed against the Hosokawa Clan there.  Ouchi's trading ships had arrived at Ningbo earlier with a newer tally.  Hosokawa’s trading ships arrived later with an older tally, but bribed the head officer of the Office of Shipping Trade in the town to let their cargoes register first.  Having raged on it, Ouchi’s killed the leader of Hosokawa’s and burned Hosokawa’s ships.  Hosokawa’s Chinese crews escaped, and it added fuel to Ouchi’s flames.  Ouchi’s burned the buildings and houses in the town, captured the garrison commander, and took off to the sea.  A Ming flotilla, as a matter of course, chased them, but was defeated and its commander was killed.

     Who and what were the Ouchi Clan then?  To understand that, we should look at their history first.  The Ouchi Clan used to call themselves the Tatara Clan, and confessed to being a descendant of Imseong-taeja, the third prince of King Seong (or Seongmyeong) (523-554) of Baekje, the southern part of today’s Korea.  The clan inherited the Vice Governor of Suo Province for generations as a local powerful family.

     During the South and North Courts Period (1334-1392) in Japan, Ouchi Hiroyo (?-1380) laid the groundwork for the Ouchi Clan’s prosperity.  In the early 1350’s, Hiroyo defeated Washizu Nagahiro, who belonged to his hindered clan, and dominated Suo Province.  In 1358, he defeated Koto Yoshitake, and dominated Nagato Province, which was just west of Suo Province and was the westernmost province on Honshu Island.  In 1360, he was appointed the Guardian Samurai in Suo and Nagato Provinces by the Ashikaga Shogunate.

     Ouchi Yoshihiro (1356-1399) succeeded Hiroyo, and moved from place to place throughout Kyushu to fight under the North Court against the South Court in the 1370’s.  His rival, Shoni Fuyusuke (1333-1375), who also belonged to the North Court, was killed in conspiracy by Imagawa Sadayo (1326-?), who belonged to the North Court too.  After Fuyusuke’s death, Yoshihiro established his clan’s exclusive status and right in trading with Korea.  Bellum omnium contra omnes?

     The Kingdom of Goryeo (918-1392) and the Kingdom of Joseon (1392-1897) in the Korean Peninsula maintained relationships with the central government of Japan, but also turned their efforts to establishing relationships with powerful sea families and samurai families in Northern Kyushu and along the Seto Inland Sea.  It means the Korean Peninsula kingdoms employed realistic approaches to clear Earlier Wokou away.  Meanwhile, the Ming Dynasty accepted diplomatic relations only with “the King of Japan”, in this case the Ashikaga Shogunate.  

     Joseon accepted 2 types of official missions from Japan.  The first type was those from the King of Japan.  The second type was those from 5 “great chiefs'': the Shiba, Hosokawa, and Hatakeyama Clans, who were the Deputies of the Ashikaga Shogunate, the Shoni Clan, and the Ouchi Clan.  The Ouchi Clan defeated the Hosokawa Clan, and diminished the Shoni Clan.  The Shiba and Hatakeyama Clans were mainly based in the Eastern Japan, and not interested in maritime affairs.  Even Joseon's official missions had to pass the Akama-ga-seki Channel, which were controlled by the Ouchi Clan, and the clan’s cooperation was inevitable.

     Ouchi Yoshihiro (1356-1399) sent troops to the Korean Peninsula into Gyeonsang Province in response to Goryeo’s summons for help.  Goryeo later sent an appreciation mission to Yoshihiro.  Yoshihiro asked for Tripitaka or Palman Daejanggyeong in return.  The Muromachi Shogunate seemed to have connived their direct exchanges, regarding the Ouch Clan as an agency with Korea.

     Being afraid of the Ouchi Clan’s power, Ashikaga Yoshimitsu (1358-1408), the third shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate, provoked Yoshihiro to rebel against Yoshimitsu himself, and killed him at Sakai in 1399.  Yoshimitsu built Kinkaku-ji Temple, Shokoku-ji Temple, Rokuo-in Temple, et al.  He might have built as many temples as his plots.

     After Yoshihiro’s death in the Oei Incident, the shogunate appointed his youngest brother, Hiroyo, as the Guardian Samurai of Suo, Nagato, et al. Provinces, but Morimi (1377-1431), who was another younger brother of Yoshihiro and who was elder to Hiroyo, defeated and killed Hiroyo in Nagato Province in 1401.  Morimi kept sending missions to Korea until 1423.

     After Ouchi Morimi’s death in battle, his 2 sons, Mochiyo (1394-1441) and Mochimori (1394-1433), fought each other for the succession of the clan.  Although Mochimori once occupied all the provinces that the clan was ruling besides a part of the Ishimi Province which Mochiyo escaped into.  Mochiyo recovered the provinces with the support from the local samurais.  Mochiyo defeated and killed Mochimori and succeeded Morimi.

     Later, Mochiyo defeated the Otomo and Shoni Clans, and conquered Northern Kyushu.  When Ashikaga Yoshinori (1394-1441), the 6th shogun, was assassinated, Mochiyo, who was unluckily sitting in the same room, was injured, and died soon after.

     After Mochiyo’s sudden death in 1441, his 2 sons, Noriyuki (?-?) and Norihiro (1420-1465), fought each other, as the matter of course, for the succession of the clan.  Somehow or other, Norihiro overwhelmed Noriyuki, and Noriyuki became a priest and tutored Norihiro, and later Norihiro’s son, Masahiro (1446-1495).

     As the Kingdom of Joseon required Norihiro to send a mission in 1443, he realized that his father, Mochiyo, had secretly sent a false mission to Joseon.  In 1453, Joseon offered a tally to Norihiro but also demanded him to eliminate false missions.

     As Norihiro (1420-1465) and his son, Masahiro (1446-1495), tried to revitalize foreign commerce, they came into dispute with the Hosokawa Clan, who were powerful in central politics.

     In the meantime, the Onin War (1467-1477) broke out.  The shogunate power was divided into 2; the East Force and the West Force.  The East Force was commanded by Hosokawa Katsumoto (1467-1477), and that naturally led the Ouchi Clan to joining the West Force.  Ironically enough, the Ouchi army turned out to be the strongest among the West, and Masahiro, whether he liked it or not, stayed and fought in Kyoto for a decade.

    As the Onin War progressed, the East conspired against Masahiro, who was fighting in Kyoto about 500 kilometers away from his home country, and appointed Noriyuki, then a priest, as a clan patriarch.  Noriyuki returned to secular life in a sense, and turned traitor to Masahiro.  As the East had Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490), the 8th shogun, with them, most of Ouchi’s vassals at home swore loyalty to Noriyuki.

   However, Sue Hiromori (1455-1482), the Deputy Guardian Samurai of the Suo Province, alone rebelled against Noriyuki, defeated him in Suo first, then in the Nagato Province, and finally ousted him into the Buzen Province in Northern Kyushu.

   After the Onin War ceased in 1477, Masahiro returned, and concentrated himself on ruling and managing his provinces, boosting foreign commerce included.

   Sue Hiromori?  He was assassinated at the celebration party of the victory in Yamaguchi, Suo, in 1482.

     In 1479, Ouchi Masahiro (1446-1495) sent a mission to Joseon, and the mission members found out that other missions had been sent to Joseon during the past 10 years.  They instantly denied those missions’ legitimacy, although those missions might have been “officially” sent out by Noriyuki.  Anyway, after 1479, the Ouchi Clan sent missions to Joseon at 2-to-4-years intervals.

     Main exports from Japan were minerals such as sulfur, silver, and copper, lacquer ware, folding fans, folding screens, and swords.  Japanese copper was exported at a much higher price than sold in Japan.  China was chronically short of copper as its market economies were ever expanding.  In addition, Japanese copper included some silver, which Japanese refineries could not extract, but Ming refineries could.  As a result, Japanese copper was sold at a higher price than copper, and at a lower price than silver.

     The main imports were copper coins, raw silk, silk fabric, books, and ceramics.

     The Ouchi Clan devoted their energy to obtaining important exports in their domain.  They opened up the Iwami Silver Mine, the Sato Silver Mine, the Naganobori Copper Mine, et al.  They introduced cupellation, a refining process new to them, from Joseon, and drastically increased their silver output.  The increase was so large that their silver output once accounted for one-third of that in the world, and changed the commerce in East Asia dramatically.

     The Ouchi Clan also protected and promoted artisans such as lacquer painters, inkstone chisellers, sword guard engravers, etc.  They also invited artists like Sesshu Toyo (1420-1506).  They welcomed aristocrats who were down and out in Kyoto, which was burned to the ground in the Onin War, and even an exiled ex-shogun, who might be considered as a person of culture.  The clan has been sometimes criticized for devoting themselves too much to culture, but their promotion of culture obviously improved and promoted their exports.  Their cultural policies should be evaluated as measures for the promotion of local industries and exports.  As the number of exports increased, they could import more.  They also promoted import substituting industrialization: silk fabric.  The craftsmanship developed there at the time had a major impact on Nishijin-ori, or Nishijin Weaving.  Nishi-jin literally and actually meant the Camp of the West Army.

     As we have seen so far, the greater part of the Ouchi Clan’s foreign commerce in the form of exchanging missions was with Korea.  But commerce with China was more profitable.

     When the Ouchi Clan faced political and economical vital issues, they bribed shogun family with Chinese products such as Chinese paintings, Chinese bells, water buffaloes, et al.  Obtaining those Chinese products through Korea meant either to pay the cost of intermediary trade or to get quasi-Chinese products made in Korea.

     The Ming Dynasty’s Sinocentric tribute system made the trades with them much more profitable. The tally trade was a part of a mission to Ming, and was a system devised and monitored by the Chinese officers for their king.  The tally trade involved exchanges of Japanese products for Chinese goods.  Thanks to their Sinocentrism, they, or the king, gave back more valuable Chinese goods than Japanese products.

     The Muromachi Shogunate had been monopolizing commerce with China until the mid 15th century.  The shogunate sent missions to Ming 18 times in total.  The first 7 missions’ ships were all “owned” by the shogunate.  In the next 2 missions, big temples in Kyoto such as Shokoku-ji Temple joined the “ownerships” as well as the Yamana Clan, one of the three powerful clans that provided vice-shoguns by turns.  That is, the monopolization by the shogunate collapsed.  In 1447, Tenryu-ji Temple, which had been built by Ashikaga Takauji (1305-1358), the first shogun of the Ashikaga Shogunate, burned down.  The shogunate under Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490), who was the eighth shogun and who reigned from 1449 to 1473, was under fiscal reconstruction, and Yoshimasa sold tallies to raise funds.  As a result, the largest mission to Ming of all time was planned as the 10th one.  The Ouchi Clan could join the ownership for the first time as a local clan along with the Otomo Clan in Kyushu.

     In the 10th mission to Ming, which left Japan in 1451 and reached Beijing in 1453, Ouchi Norihiro (1420-1465) colluded with the Hakata merchants.  Hakata used to be the outer harbor of Dazai-fu, the Kyushu regional government which had civil, military, and diplomatic functions.  In the course of the subjugation of Northern Kyushu by the Ouchi Clan, Hakata town was burned down, and the new governor, the Ouchi Clan, and the Hakata merchants were much in need of the reconstruction money.  Norihiro and the merchants officially owned Mission Ship No.7, and also practically No.4, which was nominally managed in the name of Shibukawa Norinao (1422-1479), a Kyushu Tandai, a Kyushu regional guardian samurai corresponding to Dazai-fu.

     The 11th mission to Ming, which arrived at Beijing in 1468, had 3 ships.  Mission Ship No.1 was owned by the shogunate, No.2 by the Hosokawa Clan, and No.3 by the Ouchi Clan.  Although No.1 was owned in the name of Ashikaga Yoshimasa (1436-1490), the eighth shogun, Ouchi Masahiro (1446-1495), who had succeeded Norihiro, practically managed to raise the money for the equipment expenses of the ship.  The Ouchi Clan overwhelmed the Hosokawa Clan by 2-1.  The overwhelming ownership provoked a sense of crisis among central powerful families and big temples, and the Hosokawa Clan succeeded in ousting the Ouchi Clan from the next 3 missions to Ming: the 12th, which arrived at Beijing in 1477; the 13th, in 1484; and the 14th, in 1495.

     And then Ouchi Yoshioki (1477-1528) succeeded Masahiro in 1495.  By that time, the 10th shogun, Ashikaga Yoshitane (1466-1523), had been exiled by Hosokawa Masamoto (1466-1507) and was replaced with Yoshizumi (1480-1511).  After Masamoto was assassinated by one of his adopted sons, Yoshitane returned to shogun in 1511 with Yoshioki’s military support.

     Then there came the Nimbo Incident in 1523.  This time, Yoshioki overpowered the Hosokawa Clan.  He got a new tally from Zhengde Emperor (1491-1521) of the Ming Dynasty, and monopolized the ownership of the 3 mission ships.  After the Ningbo Incident, in the mid-16th century, the Ouchi Clan monopolized the ownership of 2 missions to Ming: the 17th, which arrived at Beijing in 1540; and the 18th, in 1549.  The Hosokawa Clan, on the other hand, had an old tally issued by Hongzhi Emperor (1470-1505), Zhengde’s father, and had no way but to send out a false mission.

     The Nimbo Incident shocked the Ming Dynasty government.  Xia Liangsheng (1480-1538) wrote, “The ring had a little less than 100 gangsters.  The armed forces of the local governments of Nimbo and Shaoxing  outnumbered the gang, but didn’t match them.  They behaved cruelly and brutally as they liked.  China is large and filled with people, but was belittled by Japanese, who are from cramped islands.  Castles were overrun, villages were destroyed, and officials were killed.  A commander was even kidnapped.  We disgraced ourselves, and will be criticized for national disgrace in the future.”