Where did Shen Menggang and Hu Funing go?

 

     Zheng Shungong said that he sent Shen Menggang and Hu Funing to Kyoto.

     According to Kodaiji Journal, which was compiled by the Shiokawa Family:

In July, 1556, the messenger of Great Ming, Zheng Shungong, arrived at Bungo.  He wrote to Kyoto.  He complains that the pirates in Kyushu intrude into the remote areas of Great Ming.  A reply was sent.

     First of all, the Ming Dynasty named Ashikaga Shoguns as King of Japan.   Zheng Shungong must have written to the then shogun.

     Ashikaga Yoshiteru (1536-1565) was in reign from 1547 to 1565 as the 13th Shogun of the Muromachi Shogunate.  However, Yoshiteru fled to Kuchiki, Omi Province, in 1553, pressured with the military force of Miyoshi Nagayoshi (1522-1564).  Yoshiteru stayed there till 1558.  That is, in July, 1556, the Shogun, or the King of Japan, was not in Kyoto.  Nagayoshi formed the Miyoshi Regime, putting Ashikaga Yoshitsuna  (1509-1573), who was the second son of Yoshizumi (1481-1511), the 11th shogun, as shogun.  Zheng Shungong's letter as well as Shen Menggang and Hu Funing must have sailed from Bungo Province through the Pacific Ocean to Sakai Port.  As Yoshitsuna stayed in Awa Province in July, 1556, there was quite a high likelihood that the letter was handled by the Miyoshi Regime.  Presumably, Otomo Yoshishige (1530-1587) knew quite well about the state of affairs around Kyoto.  He must have forwarded Zheng Shungong's letter with Shen Menggang and Hu Funing knowingly to Miyoshi Nagayoshi.  Yoshishige had his own expectations and motives.