11 January 2017

Some random mythbustings — Wokou Edition

Many of the enemies of Ming Dynasty are equally as misunderstood as the Chinese themselves. Wokou (倭寇), or Japanese pirates, were a particularly misunderstood bunch.

Myth 1. Hai Jin (海禁, lit. 'Sea ban') or maritime trade prohibition constituted the Wokou phenomenon.

『倡海市以息亂者,全無後慮,且不知致亂之原蓋在於法弛,而非有嚴法以致之。吾恐市一開,而全浙危矣。』
"Those that suggest to open maritime trade in order to pacify the turmoil have no regard for consequences at all, and (they) have no idea that this chaos is caused by lawlessness instead of stringent law. I am afraid that if the trade is opened, entire Zhejiang will be in dire danger."
— Wan Biao (萬表), protesting the ridiculous notion of opening trade to pacify Wokou, in his book Hai Kou Yi (《海寇議》).

Wako pillage and rape
Wokou engaging in rape and pillage, from 'Tai Ping Kang Wo Tu (《太平抗倭圖》)'.
Hai Jin was a REACTION to the exacerbating Wokou problem, not the cause of it. Quite the contrary, the lax enforcement of Hai Jin turned China's coasts into a breeding ground for smugglers and pirates. When Zhu Wan (朱紈) stepped in and set things straight, he actually succeeded in curbing the piracy. Unfortunately, Zhu Wan was imprisoned for his effort, and later committed suicide in prison. The abolishment of Hai Jin after his death caused the Wokou problem to drastically turn for the worse.

In short, lawlessness breeds crime and more lawlessness, while strict law (as well as effective enforcement of the law) deters it.

Myth 2. Poor Chinese coastal inhabitants were forced into piracy by oppressive Hai Jin policy.

Japanese pirates refugees
Refugees trying to escape Wokou, from 'Kang Wo Tu Juan (《抗倭圖卷》)'.
Even during the period when Hai Jin policy was rigorously enforced, Ming court did not attempt to prevent fishermen from going out to the sea (not until Wokou disguised as fishermen started to show up anyway), nor did they ban coastal trade. As such, the livelihoods of poorer coastal inhabitants were little affected by the policy. While many Chinese coastal inhabitants did end up joining the Wokou, they did not actively trying to do but were either captured and forced to join at sword point, or deprived of all choices after their livelihoods were caught up in the conflict and destroyed. In other words, what forced the poorer coastal inhabitants into piracy was not Hai Jin policy, but the turmoils caused by Wokou and Chinese pirates alike.

On the other hand, Chinese people that collaborated with Wokou were powerful sea traders that accumulated their wealth and influence through illegal means such as smuggling, piracy and slavery (it should be pointed out that they already conspired with Wokou well before Zhu Wan showed up with the Hai Jin). Consequently, they were the most affected by Hai Jin and thus actively sought to undermine it. These outlaws were so powerful and influential that even after their profit plummeted following the Hai Jin, they were still able to conspire with corrupt officials within Ming court to imprison Zhu Wan and forcibly lift the prohibition.

Myth 3. Wokou were primarily swordsmen.

『官兵所用皆長牌短刀,而倭寇則以長槍重矢。』
“Government troops use only long shields and short sabres, while Wokou use long spears and heavy arrows.”
— Qi Ji Guang (戚繼光), in his military treatise Lian Bing Shi Ji (《練兵實紀》).

Wokou and Chinese pikemen
Wokou (right) engaging in pike fencing with Ming troops (left) atop boats, from 'Wakō-zukan (《倭寇図巻》)'.
While many Wokou were undoubtedly terrifying swordsmen, they, like their regular army counterpart in Japan, relied on spears and bows as their primary weapons. As mass production of matchlock gun just began to take off in Japan, Wokou only had limited access to this advanced firearm.

Myth 4. Five hundred thousand Teppō/Japan manufactured more matchlock guns than entire Europe combined.

長篠合戦図屏風
Japanese arquebusiers during the Battle of Nagashino, from 'Nagashino kassenzu byōbu (《長篠合戦図屏風》)'.
This estimate, courtesy of late Noel Perrin's Giving up the Gun: Japan's Reversion to the Sword, 1543–1879, is way overblown and disregards just how expensive, labour intensive and time consuming to manufacture even a single gun barrel. Even during the famous Battle of Nagashino (長篠の戦い) in 1575, THIRTY-TWO YEARS after the introduction of matchlock firearm to Japan, the combined force of Oda Nobunaga (織田信長) and Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康), both fervent adopters of matchlock firearm, could amass no more than three thousand arquebusiers. At best, Japan had more matchlock guns than a single European nation, not entire Europe.

(As a side note, Oda Nobunaga did not actually invent the three step volley fire tactic, nor did he use it in Battle of Nagashino. The myth stems from Edo period historical fictions and romances, and should not be taken as fact.)

Gunmaking was actually the least of Japan's concern. Japan did not produce saltpetre (a major ingredient of black powder) domestically, and had to rely on Portuguese traders, China (through illicit trade), Siam, India, and Philippines for imports. As high demand drove the price up, they even resorted to slave trading (selling women captured from rival daimyō to the Europeans) in order to cover the expense. Besides, Japan could not produce enough lead to meet the demand of their firearms, so they also had to import lead from Portuguese traders to cast bullets. The enormous cost of both gunpowder and ammunition imposed a severe constraint on Japan's ability to field arquebusier in large numbers, total number of guns produced, as well as the calibre of their guns. It was also one of the factors that prevented them from adopting heavy artillery on a large scale.

In fact, Japan actually produced much less matchlock guns than Ming China, which had at least twenty year head start in matchlock gunmaking, much larger manufacturing base, procured most raw materials domestically, and produced the same gun many times cheaper.

Myth 5. Japanese Yumi is weaker/has lower draw weight than English longbow (or other bows).

『弓長七八尺,矢長四五尺,鏃之鐵者如飛尾,鏃之竹者如長槍;城外隔河而射,中城內屋,釘瓦入椽,而沒鏃矢。』
"The (Japanese) bow is seven to eight chi in length, with four to five chi long arrow. Its iron arrowhead is like a flying (swallow) tail, (while its) bamboo arrowhead is like a long spear. Shot across the moat from outside the city, (the arrows) hit the houses in the city, pierced through roof tiles and buried into rafters."
— Cai Jiu De (採九德), in his book Wo Bian Shi Lue (《倭變事略》).

『大端倭、虜矢皆重,弓皆勁,發皆不遠,不輕發,發必中人,中者必斃,故人畏之。』
"More importantly, the arrows of the Japanese and nomads are heavy, and their bows powerful. (Their bows) do not shoot far, but they never shoot hastily, and every shot will find its mark. Those hit (by the arrow) will certainly die, thus people are afraid (of their bows and arrows)."
— Qi Ji Guang (戚繼光), in second edition Ji Xiao Xin Shu (《紀效新書》).

Legendary Samurai Archer
Minamoto no Tametomo (源為朝), a legendary Japanese archer, said to be able to pull a gonin-bari. From ' Honcho buyu kagami (《本朝武優鏡》)' by famous ukiyo-e (浮世絵) painter Utagawa Kuniyoshi (歌川国芳).
A warbow can be made as strong as it needs to be, limited only by the strength and training of its wielder. Given similar draw weight, a Japanese bow will outperform a yew bow handily due to its laminated construction, recurve design and significantly longer draw length (which can be as long as 40 inches!).

It is evidently clear that Japanese bow, with its large size and heavy limbs, is optimised towards launching heavy, armour piercing arrows with devastating power, but with slower arrow speed and relatively short range. True to this regard, Japanese arrows are some of the longest and heaviest in the world. These heavy arrows in turn require bows of very high draw weight in order to achieve optimum performance.

Tōshiya Japanese long range archery
Ukiyo-e painting depicting a tōshiya contest. The contester (lower right) at the southern end of the veranda shoots at a curtain erected at the northern end of the veranda. Note that he must shoot from sitting position and cannot shoot in arc, otherwise the arrow will hit the ceiling before it reaches its target. From 'Uki-e Wakoku Keiseki Kyōto Sanjūsangen-dō no Zu (《浮繪和國景跡京都三拾三軒堂之図》)' by Toyoharu Utagawa (哥川豊春).
Nevertheless, one should be reminded that Japanese bow is only considered short ranged in relative to range-optimised bows of neighbouring cultures such as Korean bow. It can still propel an arrow to an impressive range of 135 yards without needing to arc the shot, as was done in historical tōshiya (通し矢) archery contest (modern version of the contest halves the range). With proper flight arrow, Japanese bow has been demonstrated to be able to shoot as far as 421.6 yards (which is impressive for such a large bow, although still no match for the likes of Turkish bow). Such extreme range was never considered practical on the battlefield, however.

110lbs draw weight Japanese Yumi Warbow
A 50 kg (or 110 lbs, note that Japanese people prefer to use metric system to measure draw weight) pull Japanese bow made by none other than master bowmaker Shibata Kanjuro (柴田勘十郎). (Source: 御弓師 柴田勘十郎のブログ)
Contrary to popular misconception, Japanese warbow was primarily used as foot bow like its European counterpart. Japanese were never good horsemen to begin with, and while early samurai were horse archers, they only comprised a relatively tiny portion of their army. After the Mongol invasions of Japan, even samurai abandoned horse archery in favour of foot archery and close combat.

Thus, compared to English longbowmen that consisted of mostly yeomen and some noble's household retainers, samurai foot archers had access to equipment of higher quality, livelong rigorous training in archery, frequent recreational bowhunting to hone their skill, and most probably better nutrition and standard of living. Since samurai had to prepare their own equipment, it stands to no reason that samurai archers were unable to, or intentionally chose to not, use the best warbows with the highest practical draw weight within their capability.

Three men trying to string a Japanese bow, from 'Obusuma Saburō Emaki (《男衾三郎絵巻》)'.
Japanese Kyudo Yumi Stringing
Demonstration of four-person method of stringing a Japanese bow. (Source: ドイツに暮らす
Ming period Chinese records frequently mention the terrifying power of Japanese bows and arrows, having experienced its effectiveness first-hand through the Wokou. Japanese sources in turn mention exceptionally powerful warbows such as sannin-bari (三人張り), yonnin-bari (四人張り) and gonin-bari (五人張り), bows that require three, four and five person just to string it, respectively (note that due to the massive size and asymmetrical shape of Japanese bow, its stringing method is different from most other bows). Modern estimates put the draw weight of sannin-bari in the range between 80 pounds and 140 pounds.

As a side note, proper name for Japanese bow is wakyū (わきゅう or 和弓, Japanese bow). Yumi (ゆみ or 弓) just means bow in general.

Myth 6: Lang Xian (狼筅) was developed to specifically counter Japanese swords.

『夫狼筅旁枝一十有三層,可以禦矢、可以禦馬、可以禦滾刀、可以禦長槍,器之至善者也;但笨重不能殺人,是其所短。』
“The Lang Xian has thirteen layers of branches that can defend against arrow, defend against horse, defend against rolling sabre, and defend against long spear. (It is) the best of weapons. However (it is) heavy and cannot kill, which is its disadvantage.”
— Wu Shu (吴殳), in his martial arts treatise Shou Bi Lu (《手臂錄》).

Real Multiple Tip Bamboo Spear
What an actual Lang Xian ought to be: a long bamboo with bush so thick that it completely blocks the vision of anyone standing at the wrong end of the weapon.
The successful employment of Lang Xian in Qi Ji Guang's famous Mandarin Duck Formation has led many to believe that Qi Ji Guang invented/improvised the weapon for poorly-trained militiamen in order to counter the deadly Japanese sword (also see Myth 3 above). This cannot be further from the truth, as Lang Xian was already in use for almost a century before Wokou became a serious threat. Moreover, despite its unassuming appearance, Lang Xian is not an improvised weapon, but a purpose-made one.

While Lang Xian is certainly an effective counter to Japanese sword, it wasn't specifically designed for this role. In fact, it is effective against pretty much every cold weapon by virtue of being a defensive weapon.

30 comments:

  1. Just curious, the Wokou are pirates and pirates obviously like their booty. What were the main illegal goods that the Wokou and smugglers were after during this period and why did the Ming see it fit to restrict trading of those goods?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. Good day JZBai.

      Wokou would generally take anything they could lay their hands on, but their main target was obviously money. Other than money, their mostly went after silk and silk product. Before Zhu Wan strengthen the Haijin, these smugglers also tax (read: racketeering/extort protection money)from other merchant ships.

      Slavetaking was another motivation for the Wokou. They captured male slaves to swell their ranks, and female slaves to process silk into whatever silk product they desired as well as sex slaves. They also kidnap wealthy people for ransom. Many Chinese slaves eventually end up in Japan and forced to work the farmlands in terrible living condition, and Ming had send several diplomatic protect to Japan in order to get these people back to China.

      The Ming government wanted these trading activities to be conducted in a lawful, peaceful and controllable manner, which was (generally) through their tributary system. Granted that system was pretty outdated and incovenient, but it was still better than outright lawlessness.

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    2. Oh, Ming government saw fit to restrict trading BECAUSE there was a piracy problem.

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  2. Very informative but I got to ask why didn't the wokou wear pants also why go barefoot every depiction I see of them are like that doesn't make any sense

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    1. @Kevin Gonzalez

      They were pirates (i.e. seaborne), and ships got wet and slippery all the time. Since it is hard to move around with the pants drenched in water, they just stripped it off.

      Chinese troops did the same actually, although they only removed footwears.

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  3. Hi, is me (again ahaha).
    I wanted to say that I do agree 100% of what is written here; especially the part of the Yumi. I don't like doing this kind of stuff, but I've started a blog too ( I have to say I've been inspired by you honestly). Now don't worry, I don't want at all to copy you/ steal something from you, and my blog would deal with Japanese military history. Today I've made my first post, is about the Yumi bow and since I've been quoting some Chinese sources, I've put a direct link to your blog.
    Who knows, I hope to bring you more viewers, because you deserve them! ( is kinda silly since I've basically started today and I have 0 experience, but anyway, maybe in the future!)
    Luca

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    1. Good day Luca.

      Glad you like my blog post. The fact that Japanese are sensible people and would never want to use weak bows for war just can't be stressed enough.

      If you have some prior experience with blog/webpage stuffs, I will suggest you to use wordpress platform instead for its greater modularity. Blogger is more newbie-friendly, but more limited in functions and customizability.

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  4. 哇,非常棒的网站!我猜你看得懂汉字(应该是中国人吧!),我现在在为我构思的一个(明朝为背景的军事游戏)游戏收集资料,但是怎么也找不到高清的倭寇图卷,不知道你手头有没有,在这方面国家博物馆做的实在是太糟糕了...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. 你好,实际上现在《倭寇图卷》是由日本收藏,所以国家博物馆找不到是很正常的。中國收藏的那份叫《抗倭圖卷》,損壞得比較嚴重。


      倭寇圖卷的高清圖在這個網站可以看,但是截圖就很困難了。

      https://www.hi.u-tokyo.ac.jp/conference-seminar/science/ez01.html

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    2. 啊太感谢了就是这个= =,之前存过然后莫名其妙找不到了。

      原来《抗倭图卷》损坏的比较严重(我甚至想让我在北京的朋友去博物馆帮我拍几幅作为参考...),另外不知您看过东京大学出的那本研究《倭寇图卷》的书籍没有...我查了一番好像市面上研究《倭寇图卷》不错的就是这本书籍了(可惜实在看不懂日语)。

      另外不知您在中文网络有没相关的博客?相关主题的文章让我联想到大陆这边的一个叫做冷兵器研究所的博客。

      最后再次感谢!

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    3. 一般上相机的闪光灯会损坏文物,所以除了专家以外最好还是不要拍...

      我没有开中文的博客。同时写两边的话兼顾不来,而且那边比我强的牛人多着去了。这里写英文的主要是给不通中文或不了解明朝军事的人看的(主要是外国的战棋众),所以实际上内容稍微浅白。

      冷兵器研究所我偶尔有去看,里面一些观点相当新颖,不过也有那种“为了一个好故事牺牲一点真实性”的倾向。

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  5. Since most of them were Chinese who depended on illegal trade, why would they want to look like Japanese? It's like a smuggler shouting in front of a police station "I'm a smuggler".

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    1. Some were captured and forced to dress like the Japanese (to prevent them from running away), while others wanted to take advantage of the fearsome reputation of Wokou to extort more money out of the scared populace.

      Instead of "smugglers" that try to keep their heads low, Wokou were closer to Mexican drug cartels that run their operations more-or-less openly.

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    2. to prevent run away from kanto as well? Sounds like a fanciful narration of how barbarian the Japanese were. A well-established practice in China, Chinese families sold their daughters for profit instead of practing female infanticide, the ming officials made up a whole story by saying that Chinese slaves owned by outsiders existed only because they were forcibly taken by foreigners.

      the Jiajing wokou are the Chinese themselves fully replacing the Japanese's role in bringing Japanese silver to china after selling silk and saltpetre in that archipelago
      in other words speaking chinese and looking chinese would be easier to smuggle, upon the request of the daimyo who were not able to send their own ships because of the haijin policy. Also the growing need for a mercantilist economy (such as silk, porcelain and etc civil goods..), lead, deerskin (used in japanese armor and sword), and saltpeter to deal with the powder barrel that was sengoku japan.
      Mercantilist economy = more trade and urbanization = higher merchant taxes = better funds to invest in war. My guess is Chinese merchants left China dressed as Chinese for Japan and the wokou attacked ming china dressed as armored japanese and even other wokou working for other daimyo patrons. The wokou hierarchy had a whole social stratification
      was directly sponsored by several kyushu-based clans and all around the seto inland sea, thalassocracy. So probably the wokou who smuggled in chinese ports weren't the same ones who defended and attacked.
      Anyway, the Chinese fashion at the time was to wear hats for men:
      https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:上元燈彩圖3.jpg
      making easy to hide the Japanese-style haircut for those leaving the Chinese coastal towns for Japan.
      After all, ming china was totally on foreign silver (otherwise the first opium war would never have happened), merchants of Chinese origin had been settling in Japan to trade for silver in defiance of the Ming government's prohibition. In addition the economic disorder of the 17th-century china and later ming loyalists taking refuge abroad. This led to the growth of numerous Chinese settlements and neighborhoods known as tojin machi (Chinatowns), found everywhere along the coasts of Kyushu and as far east as Kawagoe and Odawara on the main island of Honshu.

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    3. Forcing Chinese captives to dress as Japanese was to prevent them from slipping away unnoticed - a lone outsider (an escapee) with weird hairstyle and dress would be quickily (mis)identified as a Japanese and either killed, chased away or captured by the locals.

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    4. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Toyotomi_hideyoshi.jpg

      https://www.espace4.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Kabuto-kawari-to-kanmuri-cour-chinois-japon-edo-galerie-espace4-expert-art-japonais-924x784.jpg

      https://pbs.twimg.com/media/B4P9zqCCYAAI7M3.jpg

      https://sengoku-g.net/blog/2018/01/helmet.html/helmet61_m

      https://i.redd.it/1gdizxk99cr01.png

      https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D7s9SLrXkAQvPUB.jpg

      Japan's Toyotomi Hideyoshi wearing a hat influenced by wushamao and ming-style kabuto, what do you think? wokou influence? Historians believe that neo-Confucianists from china and korea in japan added to their classics collection had a major impact on Japanese neo-Confucianism's early days at this time paeaking in the 16th century before a whole generation following Fujiwara Seika and the Hayashi clan. Yushima Seido wasn't established until 1630 and only after the Kansei Edict (1790), confucianism became Japan's official ideology.

      http://www.williammaloney.com/Aviation/WestPointMilitaryMuseum/Muzzleloaders/pages/07ChineseMatchlockJapaneseM.htm

      https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/755608

      https://chinesemartialstudies.files.wordpress.com/2013/01/mid-19th-century-chinese-soldier-with-matchlock.jpg

      http://www.vikingsword.com/vb/showthread.php?t=16881

      https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/30587

      sterotypical southern chinese matchlock gun

      now:

      pinterest.com/pin/249457266837657732/

      gun on the far right, obvious southern chinese influence

      Chinese artisans had helped design the tiles for Nobunaga’s castles,
      and Ieyasu and his contemporaries recruited skilled Chinese for their capitals. Some were rewarded with land, samurai titles (河南源兵卫) and residence. English and Dutch visitors who wrote from Japan frequently spoke of the presence of well-rewarded and highly regarded Chinese master artisans. Many of these artisans chose to remain in Japan, changing their names and consequently disappearing from the registers of resident Chinese in result of the sakoku edicts (cultural amnesia) and danka system. In fact the han chinese population boom in japan at the time sounds a lot like taking over of the local urban economy, just the way things have been like to southeast asia in the last 500 years, a minority of "jews" aka bamboo network. For example, despite their small numbers, the Hoa chinese were disproportionately dominant in the Vietnamese economy having started an estimated 70 to 80 per cent of pre-fall of Saigon's privately owned and operated businesses.
      Since most of the Chinese who ended up in Japan were of merchant and fishermen roots, this would explain the predominance of Japanese arsenal in the early days. In my observation as the sengoku war was increasingly a total war, every man would have to be recruited into their domain of origin, opening spaces for the wokou commoners of Chinese origin to achieve
      higher ranks within the wokou military. It is comparable to the barbarization the roman army, consequently the birth of the pirates of the South China Coast and the sprouts of the future koxinga's army.

      Delete
  6. 1.
    "Oda Nobunaga did not actually invent the three step volley fire tactic, nor did he use it in Battle of Nagashino. The myth stem from Edo period historical fictions and romances, and should not be taken as fact."

    the chinese and koreans mention step volley fire tactic in the imjin war

    2.
    "Gunmaking was actually the least of Japan's concern. Japan did not produce saltpetre (a major ingredient of black powder) domestically, and had to rely on Portuguese traders, China (through illicit trade), Siam, India, and Philippines for imports. As high demand drove the price up, they even resorted to slave trading (selling women captured from rival daimyō to the Europeans) in order to cover the expense. Besides, Japan could not produce enough lead to meet the demand of their firearms, so they also had to import lead from Portuguese traders to cast bullets"

    The kyushu-based clans imported saltpeter due to the shortage of resources. Japan already used artificial european and non-european recipes to obtain salpeter... saltpeter plantations, paddy fields, corpses, niter beds, nearby guano islands, urine, manure, wood ash etc...

    A recipe for gunpowder, obtained by Otomo Sorin, passed to Ashikaga Yoshiteru, who then sent this letter with the recipe to Uesugi Kenshin:
    http://komonjo.princeton.edu/uesugi-03/

    Also:
    https://edoflourishing.blogspot.com/2020/01/ensho-kaido-saltpeter-road.html?m=1

    http://bigai.world.coocan.jp/msand/miwa/e_kayafirst.html

    The wokou played a role much more important than the portuguese in bringing imported saltpeter. Wang Zhi brought Chinese and Siamese saltpeter into Japan amongst other goods, while transporting Japanese sulfur (another ingredient of gunpowder) to Siam. In the process, he became immensely wealthy in hirado. The hojo, takeda and uesugi were better known as gunners than their southern counterparts.
    Saltpeter and gunpowder were one of the main exports from Japan to the Philippines as they no longer needed them or were just unable to put them in the imjin war, given yi sun-shin's blockade. It is estimated that in 1595 and 1596, when there was a emporary Japanese ceasefire in Korea ,the domestic production of saltpeter exceeded demands and part of the surplus was allocated for export to Luzon. Years later, Pedro Chirino's Relacion de las lslas Filipinas (published in 1604) describes that "from Japan are imported much wheat, and flour, also silver, metals, saltpeter, weapons, and many curiosities."

    So from the later half of the 1590s Japanese merchants supplied munitions such as saltpeter to the storehouse in Manila almost every year as early as 1591.

    3."In fact, Japan actually produced much less matchlock guns than Ming China, which had a twenty year head start in matchlock gunmaking, much larger manufacturing base, procured most raw materials domestically, and produced the same gun many times cheaper."

    But when? Handgonnes were still around as late as the ming-qing transition. By 1600... for sure the matchlock gunmaking production would have stopped in japan. On the other hand... japanese sources mention the ming shortage of guns.

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    1. @henrique

      1. I only say he didn't invent it. Obviously Japanese arquebusiers still mastered the tactic at some point.

      2. Yes, they eventually did figure out how to produce saltpetre from urine, although by that time matchlock gun had entered Japan for 2~3 decades. I believe the menthod was first pioneered by Hongan-ji Kennyo during his confict with Oda Nobunaga in the 1570s.

      3. Ming produced more matchlocks (in total number) right from the very beginning. China is just so much larger and produced more variety of other guns, so by ratio it wasn't as high.

      Ming army that fought the Japanese during Imjin War consisted of mostly cavalry, that skewed the number towards the lower end.

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  7. I just want to point out that the statements about the English longbow are a little misleading. First off, it wasn't peasants who used the longbow, but specifically the Yeomanry (who would also be the retainers that you mention), who are a type of free landowner, who would fight as both foot archers and as a force of mobile skirmishers on horseback. Secondly, the reason for the use of a selfbow as opposed to the laminated bow common in Asia is all about maintenance and ease of manufacture, northern Europe is very wet and at despite having the technology for laminated bows (which were actually in use in the Meditereanean), they seem to have decided that the increased power was not worth the price of replacing them everytime they succumbed to the moisture in the air.

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    1. @Someone who's Bored
      Good day and welcome to my blog.

      Your first point is fair. I shall revise my article to remove the "peasants" part.

      As for your second point on self bow, while I have not doubt that humidity played a part, I should note that Japan and southern part of China are also fairly humid, so there might be other factors/considerations.

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  8. Hi I'm a big fan of your work and I'd appreciate it if you could answer this question of mine, were there any significant Japanese Wokou figures/forces that were met in combat by the Ming military? Because you always hear about those climatic naval battles between the Ming navy and Chinese pirates but you almost never hear of a Japanese name going against the Ming. Thank you

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    Replies
    1. That's because Chinese at the time barely knew any Japanese (language), so they had a really hard time recording Japanese names. Most of the time they were being called with nicknames (for example "雙劍潭", which literally means "Double-sword pond"), or some kind of transliterated pseudo-Japanese such as "乌鲁羙他郎" which is unintelligible to actual Japanese speaker.

      We know that a tribute mission sent by Otomo Yoshishige directly joined the Wokou after it was met with hostility though.

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    2. Thank you for the detailed informative response, btw I also read on Zhihu (https://zhuanlan.zhihu.com/p/513944281) that there was a clear distinction between Chinese pirates and the Wokou (Japanese pirates and Chinese pirates that colluded with the Japanese). Is this information true? Also, how common was it for Chinese pirate lords to hire Ex-Japanese warriors? Thank you so much

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    3. @ANon
      I am currently updating my blog posts about Wokou. Once it's done, you can read about them there.

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    4. Would the names of Japanese people be translated like they are today in Chinese though in proper speech though? Like Takeda Shingen being called Wutian Shinxuan by Ming era Chinese?

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    5. I know that Koreans used to translate Japanese names like Chinese people, but no longer do it. I am curious how far back does the Chinese way of translating Japanese go.

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  9. @WAKAWAKWAKA
    No, often the translated names only resemble Japanese in the vaguest sense.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What are some documents were I can see this phenomenon? Like a decree notifying the arrival of Japanese emissaries?

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