Japanese Pirates - Former Wokou Raids

Former Wokou Raids

The first raid by Wokou on record occurred in the summer of 1223, on the south coast of Goryeo Korea. The history book Goryeosa states that "Japanese (pirates) attacked Gumju". Two more minor attacks are recorded for 1226, and continued intermittently for the next four decades. Most of the Wokou originated from Tsushima and Hizen. Under diplomatic pressure from the Goryeo government, the Kamakura shogunate made an effort to keep seafaring military groups under control. In 1227 Mutō Sukeyori (武藤資賴), the shogunate's commissioner in Kyūshū, had ninety suspected brigands decapitated in front of a Goryeo envoy. In 1263, after Tsushima Wokou raided Ungjin, Japanese negotiators reconfirmed the policies of limiting trade and prohibiting piracy.

The period around the Mongol invasions of Japan was a low point for Wokou activity. This was partly due to the higher degree of military preparedness in Goryeo. They fortified Gumju in 1251 and in 1265. The Kamakura shogunate, for its part, increased its authority in Kyūshū and was better able to mobilise and control former Wokou groups against the threat of Mongol invasion.

As the Kamakura shogunate and Goryeo state both declined following the Mongol invasions, the Wokou again became active. In 1323, for example, a large-scale raid took place in Korean Jeolla province. Raids such as this developed into full-scale pirate attacks by the end of the 14th century.

The Wokou resumed their activities in earnest in 1350, driven by chaotic conditions and the lack of a strong authority in Japan. For the next half-century, sailing principally from Iki and Tsushima, they engulfed the southern half of Goryeo. The worst period was the decade between 1376 and 1385, when no fewer than 174 instances of pirate raids were recorded in Korea. Some involved bands of as many as three thousand penetrating deep into the Korean interior. The raiders repeatedly looted the Korean capital Gaeseong, and on occasion reached as far north as the mouth of the Taedong River and the general area of Pyongyang. They looted grain stores and took people away for slavery and ransom. The conditions caused by the Wokou greatly contributed to the downfall of the Goryeo Dynasty in 1392. General Yi Seonggye, founder of the Joseon Dynasty, rose to prominence due to his successes against the Wokou.

Goryeo's King U sought redress in 1375 from the Muromachi shogunate and the cooperation of the shogunal deputy (tandai 探題) in Kyūshū, Imagawa Ryōshun. In 1377 the great statesman Jeong Mong-ju was received warmly by Ryōshun. Several hundred prisoners captured by Wokou were returned to Goryeo. Nevertheless Kyūshū was under the sway of the Southern Court, and neither the shogunate nor its deputy could suppress the pirates as requested despite promises to the contrary. In 1381, for instance, the Muromachi shogunate issued an order prohibiting the akutō (悪党, loosely translated as "outlaws," literally "bad gangs" or "evil political-parties/factions") of the provinces from crossing over to Goryeo and "committing outrages." In 1389 and in 1419, the Koreans attacked the pirate bases on Tsushima. The routes of the Korean attack were guided by the captivated Wokou "池文". The Korean navy killed 114 pirates, captured 21, and rescued 131 kidnapped Chinese and Koreans. The number of Wokou raids dropped dramatically since the Korean expedition(Ōei Invasion.).

The Wokou bands were also active in China, where the earliest record of Japanese pirates is from 1302. The economic embargo forced upon Japan by the Ming Dynasty and later the Qing Dynasty made pirate trade the only way to secure Chinese goods, as trade through the Ryūkyū Kingdom was halted by China. Eventually, in 1609 Satsuma seized the kingdom. In 1358, and again in 1363, the raids continued along the entire eastern seaboard, but particularly on the coast of what is now Shandong. Toward the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the Wokou threat began to intensify. The first Wokou raid of the Ming Dynasty occurred in 1369, in Zhejiang province.

In response, the Hongwu Emperor sent his commanders to construct a number of forts along the coast and dispatched two envoys to Prince Kanenaga, the Southern Court's "General of the Western Pacification Command" in Kyūshū. The first, in 1369, threatened an invasion of Japan unless the Wokou raids were stopped. Unimpressed, Prince Kaneyoshi had the Ming envoy killed and refused the demands. However, when the second envoy arrived in 1370, he submitted to the Ming as a "subject." He sent an embassy the next year, returning more than seventy men and women who had been captured at Mingzhou (Ningbo) and Taizhou.

Some of the coastal forts built during the Hongwu era, or their ruins, can be still seen in Fujian. Among them is the well-restored Chongwu Fortress (in Chongwu Town, Huai'an County) and the ruins of the Liu'ao Fortress (in Liu'ao, Zhangpu County).