In 1369, Zhu demanded tribute from the Japanese or that they agree to accept status as vassals of China. Zhu concluded “ If there are those who nonetheless continue to engage in piracy, I will be compelled to order naval officers to set sail for Japan.’
Civil War in Japan
The Chinese threat was issued at the worst possible time, when Japan was convulsed by civil war between rival emperors of the ‘Northern’ and ‘Southern’ courts. Nevertheless, Prince Kanenaga, who commanded forces in the west on behalf of the Southern Court, took it upon himself to concur and offer the tribute Emperor Zhu demanded.
It was a ruse. The Prince had no authority to offer tribute or make any other proposal on behalf of the Japanese state. The situation was further complicated when Chinese rebels opposed to the Ming dynasty requested that a contingent of samurai cross over to China to implement what turned out to be an attempt to assassinate the Emperor Zhu.
The plot was discovered and the rebels were executed. At the same time, the Emperor found out that Kanenaga was attempting to trick him. These episodes so soured Sino-Japanese trade relations that any chance of accord vanished.
Sino-Japanese Trade Relations
With that, legal trade with China abruptly ceased, and the wokou pirates were in business again. However, they would have only thirty years to make the most of it before another twist in the tale intervened.
In 1392, the Japanese Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu managed to broker peace between the Northern and Southern Courts. This restored the somewhat tattered authority of the Shogunate and made feasible again the lost trade between China and Japan.
Shogun Yoshimitsu was a prudent man and he realized that some sort of appeasement would smooth the way to renewed relations. He offered payment of tribute to the Chinese emperor, who, in return, gave him the title ‘King of Japan’.
This atmosphere of fresh accord promised renewed trade with Korea as well as with China. There was some backsliding by the Japanese daimyos. the feudal lords: they indulged in minor piracy and smuggling in the independent enclaves which they were allowed to use at Busan and Jinhae on the southeast coast of Korea and Yompo on the east coast.
Though small-scale, these activities greatly irked the Koreans. The situation could have been calmed down if the shogunate were to intervene and so bring their daimyos to order. Unfortunately, the shoguns were not always able to do this.
Age of the Warring States
During the Age of the Warring States which lasted from 1467 to 1615, their power in Japan waned, waxed, then waned again under the impetus of various rivalries. In addition, civil wars limited the ability of shoguns to gain power and hold on to it.
Rivalries and civil wars greatly disturbed the balance of power in Japan and the ensuing anarchy permitted pirates to return to their bad old habits. In 1506 and 1509, for example, there were three pirate raids on the Korean island of Gadeok, near present day Pusan on the south-east coast. Buildings in nearby Jinhae were set on fire in a series of arson attacks.
After 1548, the on-again, off-again Sino-Japanese relationship was once more in a state of flux when an argument over Japanese tribute led the Ming Emperor Zhu Houzong to sever all contact with Japan.
Wokou piracy returns
This, of course, again ended legitimate trade with China, and the wokou quickly took advantage. Between 1551 and 1560, they escalated the number of their raids on China to 467, ninety-five percent above the count for the previous ten years.
By this time, the make up of the wokou pirate bands had markedly shifted: only around 30 percent were Japanese, the rest were Chinese. One reason for this change lay in the reclusive nature of some later Ming emperors. They frequently banned trade with neighboring countries and made it plain that voyages by Chinese sailors and navigators were not to their liking.
The Great Wall of the Sea
Keeping out foreigners and, in addition, the Ming, ensured that Chinese adventurers were kept at home. To this end, a line of watchtowers, beacons and fortresses was built to protect the Chinese coastline from Korea to Vietnam. These defences were regarded as the ‘Great Wall of the Sea’, the southern equivalent to the Great Wall of China in the north.
In 1548, Liampoo island on the Chinese east coast had been a base extensively used by Portuguese traders, but it was destroyed by Zhu Wan, the governor of Zhejiang province, who sought to cut short the island’s role as a haven for pirates.
Creating new pirate bases
Liampoo might be gone, but the notorious Chinese brothers Xu, who had governed it, now served as role models for other pirates who were keen to acquire their share - and maybe more than their share - of the loot which piracy could bring them. Transferring to the wokou pirates gave them the chance they needed.
In addition, other pirate boss types like the Xu were interested in taking over the wokou organization. This they did this first of all by creating new bases in Japan, some of which featured extensive castles and other similarly mighty fortifications.
These were built on islands or hilltops with clear views of the surrounding area. Some of them enabled the wokou bosses to survey the channels in and around the Inland Sea of Japan which were used by the most lucrative traffic. This virtually guaranteed the wokou substantial profits.
Recruiting samurai smugglers
The wokou bosses also recruited samurai as smugglers on a grand scale and hired fresh pirates among the Japanese living in western Honshu, Kyushu and Shikoko. The Portuguese were in the mix and this included one of their own ambassadors who was caught pirating in 1523.
This embarrassing revelation lost the Portuguese their trading concessions in Guangdong which had a long and potentially lucrative coast on the South China Sea, and made their switch to piracy inevitable.
Please see also: Wokou pirates of Japan: Their last ruinous years
Sources
Turnbull, Stephen and Hook, Richard: (Pirate of the Far East: 811-1639 (Warrior) (Oxford, Oxfordshire, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2007) -
ISBN-10: 1846031745/ISBN-13: 978-1846031748
Brook, Timothy: The Troubled Empire: China in the Yuan and Ming Dynasties (History of Imperial China)(Cambridge, Massachusetts: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2010)
ISBN-10: 9780674046023/ISBN-13: 978-0674046023/ASIN: 0674046021
Warring States Japan
Brenda Ralph Lewis - My interest in history dates from childhood. I am presently the author of 120 books and hundreds of articles, all on historical ...
