Chapter 112: Hakata Bay

The merchant ships traveled along the sea trade route, passing several islands on the way and finally entering Hakata Bay in the evening.

Hakata Bay, its name has roughly three origins: first, that is, the land is vast and there are many people; 2. Because the wings of the earth image spread, it is called feather-shaped, and then it gradually becomes the homonymous Hakata; 3. Shoals for mooring ships - moorings. Later generations generally believe that the first statement is more reasonable. Due to its proximity to the Korean Peninsula and Chinese mainland, it is a prosperous place for business. It is precisely because of the development of commerce that it has become a place where various powerful people try to get involved, and many conflicts have broken out.

During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the Muromachi shogunate placed the Isshiki clan in Hakata, and the imitation Kamakura shogunate set up a Kyushu exploration in Kyushu. However, around the ruling power of Kyushu, the samurai led by the original local Shaoji, Otomo, and Shimazu have been fighting openly and secretly with Kyushu Tanji, and with their cooperation, the Isshiki Fan clan was finally driven out of Hakata. In the fourth year of Onan (1371), Imagawa Ryōtoshi became a new probe, and with his support, the Ouchi clan entered Kyushu as reinforcements and gradually gained control of Hakata. The Onichi clan swept away the Japanese and laid the foundation for future foreign trade. Following him, Shibukawa Mitsuyori also sent Hakata merchant Hiramine Yoshihisa (son of Chen Zongjing) and the abbot of Myorakuji Temple, Muya Liangni, and the Yi Dynasty also sent an envoy Song Hee-kyung to visit Hakata, thus increasing the exchanges between the two countries.

The Muromachi shogunate attached great importance to the economic profits brought by foreign trade, making Hakata a major port of entry. In the 8th year of Onei (1401), in accordance with the order of Ashikaga Yoshimitsu, the merchant Hitomi of Hakata applied for trade with the Ming Kingdom, which was in the process of locking down the country, and it became the beginning of the Kanwa trade. However, this situation lasted only ten years, and Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori felt humiliated by this form of tributary trade and ordered it to be halted. The fact that Kanwa trade was only an official form did not affect Hakata's commercial significance in the slightest, as the trade of merchants here was not limited to the official form of trade at that time. Their trade was not limited to the Ming Kingdom and Korea, and they had expanded their routes from Ryukyu to Southeast Asia. The profits were staggering, for example, the price of copper imported from the Ming Kingdom to Hakata could be increased to four to five times the original price, the price of raw silk could be increased to twenty times, and many merchants were able to export Japanese swords and sulfur abroad, and many merchants became rich as a result.

In the first year of Eiko (1429), the Otomo clan declared control of Hakata and supported Sojin and other merchants to start trading with Korea, but he was only in a dominant position for a while, and the people of Kyushu wanted a piece of the pie, and the competition was already fierce. In the third year of Eiko (1432), the trade of the Japanese and Ming Dynasty restarted, and the subordinates of the retainer Mihara Irido and the subordinates of the Akizuki retainer Harada Tanyasu had a big quarrel in Gion Yamakasa, and the death toll of the Mihara side reached more than 50 people. In the years that followed, the Lesser clan and the Ouchi clan clashed repeatedly in Hakata.

In the second year of Bun'an (1445), the Ouchi clan drove the Otomo clan back to Bungo. Due to its huge strength, it was not until the Onin Rebellion that Otomo and Shoji jointly recaptured Hakata. At this time, Hakata had a population of about 10,000 households, of which more than 6,000 households of the "Shihama" generation in Hakata Bay were under the jurisdiction of the Otomo clan, and more than 4,000 households in the southwest side of Shofukuji Temple and the surrounding area of Jotenji Temple were managed by the Shoji clan. In the tenth year of civilization (1480), Ōuchi Masahiro made a comeback and expelled the Shoji clan, and since then Hakata has been jointly occupied by the Otomo and Ouchi families.

The competition for control of Hakata was fierce, as was trade dominance with the Ming Kingdom. The Sakai merchants supported by the Hosokawa clan had been Hakata's main rivals, and in the third year of Oei (1523), the Hakata merchants, supported by the Ouchi clan, clashed with the merchants of the Hosokawa clan in Ningbo, after which they finally took control of the shogunate Kanwa trade.

Now Hakata is basically controlled by the Ouchi family, which is just like the sun in the sky. …,

After the ship docked, a cloaked man and two boatmen were left to guard the ship, while the rest of the men were divided into two groups, one was to escort the woman back to Kamiya's house by two cloaked people, and the other was to escort Masara to Shofukuji Temple in Hakata. Going to Seifukuji Temple for temporary residence is the recommendation of Master Genji, although Hakata has been ruled by the Ouchi family, but the powerful detectives of each family are dense, ready to touch this place again at any time, if you live in an ordinary house or a dormitory, it is impossible to guarantee safety, so under the recommendation of Master Genji, Masato finally decided to go to the Seifukuji Temple where his friend is located to live temporarily. For this reason, Genji also wrote a letter of introduction for Masara to bring to his friend who was the host of Shengfukuji Temple.

At the beginning of the Kamakura period, there were many monks in the country who went to the mainland to study Zen and returned to China to promote it, among which Eisai was the most famous. He traveled to the Song Dynasty twice to study Buddhism, and in the sixth year of Jianjiu (1195), he established Shofukuji Temple in Hakata, which was also the earliest Zen temple in the country. At the same time, Rongxi also planted the tea seeds brought back by the Song Kingdom in the temple, combining tea drinking with Zen practice. Since then, tea has become popular in Japan and has been widely cultivated, so Eisai is also revered as the "ancestor of Japanese tea". At the same time, many other things were introduced to Hakata at this time, including foods such as noodles, buckwheat, and manju.

In addition, the temple is also a powerful force in Hakata, and its influence is even more entrenched than the Ouchi family that currently rules the area. In the vicinity of Shengfu Temple, there are more famous temples such as Chengtian Temple and Dongchang Temple, all of which have their own territories and monks, as if they are a hero.

Jotenji Temple. It is said that it has a great relationship with China. During the Song Dynasty, many people settled here after crossing the ocean to Hakata. Among them, Xie Guoming is famous, he was a merchant in the Lin'an Mansion of the Song Dynasty, and lived at Kushida Shrine after moving to Hakata. It is estimated that he has considerable financial resources, and he also served as the head of Xiaoludao. In the third year of Renli (1242), he welcomed the Shengyi National Teacher (Yuan'er), who returned from the Song Dynasty, as the founder of the mountain and built the Chengtian Temple. Xie Guoming had great respect for Buddhism, and the following year, when the Jingshan Wanshou Temple was unfortunately hit by a fire, he and Yuan Er supported thousands of wooden planks. Because Yuaner is proficient in Buddhism and has repeatedly done good deeds in Chengtian Temple, he is deeply loved by local residents. In the second year of Baozhi (1248), when the temple was suddenly fired, Xie Guoming built eighteen halls in one day and rebuilt them. Now the presiding officer of the temple is none other than his descendants.

Tochoji Temple. This temple has a long history with China. In the middle of the 6th century, Hakata had frequent exchanges with Baekje, and it was at this time that Buddhism was introduced to Japan through this area. Silla, also on the Korean Peninsula, allied with the Tang Dynasty against Goguryeo and Baekje. In 655 AD, Goguryeo and Baekje jointly attacked Silla, and Tang Gaozong successively sent troops to support, but the winner was not decided. In 659, Tang Gaozong led an army of 100,000 to attack Baekje with Su Dingfang, the general of Zuo Wuwei. In order to support Baekje, in March 663, the prince also dispatched an army of 27,000 men and divided into three legions from Hakata Bay to the Korean Peninsula. However, on August 27, they were defeated by the Tang Dynasty at the mouth of the Baekchon River and forced to retreat to the mainland, and Baekje perished. Fearing that the Tang and Silla would further offensive, the Imperial Court relocated the Natsu official family, which had been on the coast of Hakata Bay, to the southern interior (present-day Dazaifu City), and later built mountain castles such as Ohno, Kito, and Nagato, and built a water castle on the main road from Dazaifu to Hakata Bay and the Shijin Mountains to the west of Ohno Castle and Shioji Mountain. In fact, after the "Battle of Baicunjiang", the Tang Dynasty did not have the intention of attacking Kyushu, and the relationship between the two gradually eased and exchanged envoys. As a result, Dazaifu set up the Chikushikan in Hakata as a guest house for diplomatic envoys, and an inn to entertain Tang and Silla envoys. After gradually getting to know each other, the Yamato Imperial Court realized that the Tang Dynasty was the center of cultural exchange in Asia at that time, so it decided to send "Tang envoys" to China to study the advanced culture. In the second year of Shu Ming (630), Emperor Shu Ming sent Inugami Mitian shovel to the mainland as an envoy to the Tang Dynasty for the first time. In the following 260 years, the Yamato court appointed a total of 19 envoys to the Tang Dynasty, of which 15 were officially completed. In the early days, the mission was small, usually only one or two ships with one to two hundred members, but later it expanded to four ships with about 500 people. They all converged at Hakata Port and set off from there. Interaction with the Tang Dynasty also led to the flourishing of various cultures in Hakata. In the twenty-third year of Enryaku (804), there was a monk named "Kukai" in the eleventh envoy to the Tang Dynasty, and after arriving in the Tang Dynasty, he studied Buddhism with Master Huiguo of Qinglong Temple in Chang'an. Two years later, Kukai (Kobo Daishi) returned to Hakata and founded Tochoji Temple of the Shingon sect, which is considered the oldest temple in the country, and the wooden statue of the Thousand-armed Kannon Bodhisattva is still considered an important cultural property. In the fourth year of Chenghe (837), due to the prevalence of the Tang Dynasty, the Chikushikan was renamed Hongrokan again.

After arriving at Shengfu Temple, it was a small monk who opened the door. When Masara asked Master Genji to forward the letter to the presiding officer of the temple, the presiding officer of the temple immediately came out to greet him and arranged a small secluded courtyard for the people of Masashi. That night, Masato once again exerted the knowledge of tea Zen in later generations and discussed tea with the presiding officer of Shengfu Temple.

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