Wokou

W?kòu (Chinese: ??; Japanese pronunciation: wak?; Korean pronunciation: ?? waegu) were pirates who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th century onwards. They were comprised largely of Japanese soldiers, ronin and merchants, and later also of Chinese bandits and smugglers.

Nanboku-cho period

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 Yi Dynasty, rose to prominence due to his successes against the Wokou.

Related Topics:
1350 - Iki - Tsushima - 1376 - 1385 - Gaeseong - Taedong River - Pyongyang - Yi Seonggye - Yi Dynasty

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Goryeo's King U sought redress in 1375 from the Muromachi shogunate and the cooperation of the shogunal deputy (tandai ??) in Kyushu, Imagawa Ry?shun. In 1377 the great statesman Chong Mong-Chu was received warmly by Ry?shun. Several hundred prisoners captured by Wokou were returned to Goryeo. Nevertheless Kyushu 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 akut? (outlaws) of the provinces from crossing over to Goryeo and "committing outrages". In 1389 and in 1419, the Koreans attacked the pirate bases on Tsushima themselves but were forced to withdraw without inflicting much damage.

Related Topics:
King U - 1375 - Muromachi shogunate - Chong Mong-Chu - 1389 - 1419

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The Wokou bands were also active in China, where the earliest record of Japanese pirates is from 1302. 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 in the Ming Dynasty occurred in 1369, in Zhejiang province.

Related Topics:
1302 - 1358 - 1363 - Shandong - Yuan Dynasty - Ming Dynasty - 1369 - Zhejiang

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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 Kyushu. The first, in 1396, 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.

Related Topics:
Hongwu Emperor - 1396 - 1370 - Ningbo - Taizhou

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