Japan

by Walter G. Dickson

1545. Miako was reduced by war and fires to such a state that it became impossible to live in it; whoever did attempt to live there ran the risk of being burned, killed, or starved. The Koongays left, and generally settled under the protection of some feudal chief in the provinces.

1548. The Shiogoon, who had fled to Sakamoto, returned to Miako, and Hossokawa was appointed Kwanrei.

1549. Mioshi tchokay, called Mioxindo no in the “History of the Church” (or Naga Yoshi), took up arms against Haru moto and the Shiogoon party, and the latter fled again to Sakamoto, about twelve miles from Miako. Nobu hide, father of Nobu nanga, died, leaving him, his son, heir of all the possessions he had acquired. Francis Xavier, then at Malacca, whither he had gone with the fondness for change and excitement which seemed to have characterized his career, met with some of those who were returning to Japan. He immediately determined to visit it. He arrived in the year 1549, and left it again in 1551, disappointed and disheartened with the realities of missionary work. In the “History of the Church” it is said, in 1549 (p. 72): “On the way from Amangutchi (Yama ootchi) to Miako the ways were infested with soldiers, by reason of troubles between the Dairi and Cubo. Miako inspired Xavier with the desire of planting there the standard of Christ, but the effect did not at all answer his expectations. Miako, which signifies a thing worth seeing, was no more than the shadow of what it formerly had been, such terrible fires and wars had laid it waste, and the present condition of affairs threatened it with total destruction. All the neighboring princes were combined against the Cubosama, and nothing was to be heard but the noise of armies. However, he endeavored to gain an audience from the Cubosama and Dairi; but his poverty made him contemptible. It required 10,000 caixes to gain an audience. To comfort himself he preached in the streets; but the town being full of confusion, and the thoughts of every man taken up with reports of war, none listened to him. After a fortnight’s stay, hearing that the Dairi bore only the name of a monarch, and that the Cubo was absolute only in the Tensa and Gokinai, he saw it was nothing but lost labor and expense to have his leave to preach over all Japan when he was not master.”

1550. Yoshi haru, late Shiogoon, died. Mioshi tchokay burned Hingashi yama, or Hiyay san, a collection of monasteries and temples near Miako.

1551. O-ooji was attacked by the forces of one of his own officers, Suyay haru kata, who obliged him to fly, and he committed suicide with several high Koongays who were residing under his protection. This Suyay had promised Owotomo, chief of Boongo, to give back to his younger brother, Yoshi Naga, the command in the province of Suwo. At the death of O-ooji the seal under which trade with China had been carried on was lost, and the trade suspended.

1552. At this time the religion of Christ was brought, according to native accounts, by “Nan bang,” foreigners from the south, to Boongo. The period at which this event took place was worthy of note. Japan had been for years torn by rival factions, and by the contests of men intriguing for power. The Emperor was powerless, and reduced by poverty and neglect to a position bordering on contempt. The eastern court at Kamakura retained some portions of its former power, and was at least a hotbed where schemes might be hatched for overthrowing either the power of the court of Miako, or that of some of the neighboring princes. Yedo was almost unknown, except as a village dependency of the castle. The western provinces were under the sway of independent chiefs, while the island of Kiusiu hardly acknowledged the authority of the Mikado. A small beginning of commerce with China had been going on for some years past, and was conducted with Ningpo. It was not likely, therefore, that at the first landing upon Tanegasima the country and people of Japan were unknown to the Portuguese buccaneers upon the coast of China. Not many years had elapsed since China had been first visited by the Portuguese, and Liampo or Ningpo was their northern port. If Mendez Pinto is to be credited, there were 800 Portuguese then living near that city under their own laws; but if his account of the doings of his countrymen in China be correct—and it is in many things corroborated by concurrent testimony—the men who sailed about these seas were not exactly the men best suited to spread a healthy commerce, or to propagate correct notions of the Christian religion. They were the buccaneers of that day, and mixed up their business of piracy and murder with trade and religion in a strange medley. The vast opening consequent upon the doubling of the Cape induced these men to push their discoveries further and further. Europe had just been convulsed by the throes of delivery of the Church of Rome. Twin children had been born by the Reformation to the Church, and the schismatic operations of Luther without gave rise to the crafty strengthening process of Loyola within the Church. The propagandist zeal of Jesuitism at this period put forth her strength to reap the harvest in Japan; but the bane of the Church of Rome pursued her here, and her desire to make the kingdom of Christ of this world brought to naught all her schemes. The Inquisition was in full operation in Portugal and Spain, where John III. and Philip II. directed the missions of the Church; and the same zeal was carried into India and all their foreign possessions. The whole power, political and ecclesiastical, in the East, was allowed by other nations to be in the hands of the King of Portugal: without his permission no bishop could be appointed; no episcopal see created without his consent; and he retained the right of filling up vacancies in every see. No European missionary could go to the East without his sanction, and with that only in a Portuguese vessel; and no bull or brief from the Holy See was of any effect in the East until it had received the approbation of the King, who in return was supposed to protect and support the Church of Rome. This was known as the Protectorate of the Crown of Portugal, and was annually confirmed by Papal bulls, in which was inserted a clause whereby the Pope annuled beforehand every bull which any one of his successors might issue to the contrary. Such was the epoch at which the Portuguese arrived in Japan.

1553. Mioshi attacked and killed Hossokawa, the minister of the Shiogoon, and the following year attacked Miako, whence the Shiogoon fled to Tanba.

1555. Fighting was going on between Mowori moto nari (ancestor of Mowori Daizen no diaboo) and Suyay haru taka, who had killed his lord O-ooji. Mowori was victorious, and gained possession of all the “middle or central provinces” west of Miako—laying the foundation of the wealth and power which remain to the family to the present time. An embassy was sent this year to Japan from China, to complain of pirates from the island of Kiusiu who were ravaging the coasts of China.

1557. The Emperor Gonara died. Nobu nanga put to death his own younger brother Nobu yuki.

1558. Oki matchi ascended the throne at forty-two years of age. At this time Hideyoshi, better known as Taiko sama, as a young man became an officer in the service of Nobu nanga.