This episode we talk about “Matsuro-koku”, the land after Iki-koku in the Gishiwajinden, and the first “country” on one of the larger islands, where the envoys would start walking from there. We are fairly certain that “Matsuro-koku” was in the area of the old “Matsura” or “Matsuura” district on the western coast of Kyushu. However, that district was much larger than the reduced “Matsura city”, today, which is really just a collection of what was left over when most of the rest of the area had been incorporated. It stretch from Hirado up past modern Karatsu, and we have reason to believe that the area around Karatsu and the Higashi-Matsuura peninsula (which is not part of modern Matsuura city) had several Yayoi era settlements, including one in the area of modern Nabatake.

Nabatake is special because it is one of the few sites where we have the earliest evidence of wet paddy rice agriculture. Today you can visit this at the Matsurokan, in Karatsu city. Unfortunately, that community did not continue into the 3rd century, when then envoys came over from Wei, but we can likely assume that the “Matsuro-koku” where the envoys landed was probably somewhere nearby. Karatsu would long be a place where people would land when coming or going from the continent, and even when better ships and navigation meant that ships could travel almost directly to Hakata, people would still stop here.

The Matsura district would largely be only a part of the larger land of Hi, later to be considered Hizen in the western part of the province under the Ritsuryo system that was the ultimate result of the changes started with the Taika reforms. Much of the written material focuses on places like the Dazai, in Fukuoka, but over time, groups in Matsura banded together, creating their own “family” of multiple factions. As Matsura is a coastal region with many nearby islands, natural bays, and the like, it is unsurprising that this “Matsura” family amassaed a not inconsequential navy.

They would find themselves in the spotlight after the Toi Invasions of the 11th century, and they continued as a local power up through the Warring States period. During the Edo period, they were granted the Hirado domain, including Iki island, and thus played a continued role in trade with the continent.

After Toyotomi Hideyoshi conquered Kyushu at the end of the 16th century, he began to look at the continent. He would eventually order the construction of Nagoya castle on the tip of the Higashi-matsuura peninsula. It was erected in months, including a five story tenshukaku, or castle keep, on the 90m high hill. This may have been helped by previous earthworks built there by members of the Matsura family. Hideyoshi ordered all of his generals to come and set up “camps” around the castle, and a bustling jokamachi, or castle town, sprung up. For seven years it was the de facto capital of Japan, with Hideyoshi using it to direct the two failed invasions of the Korean peninsula.

Since the town was so new, images of it show mostly thatched roofed houses, even for some of the more prominent daimyo under Hideyoshi’s command. And yet this is where Hideyoshi met Ming envoys and spent the last seven years of his life.

After he passed away, the town quickly dispersed and the castle was deliberately ruined, with key stones removed from the walls, to help prove to the Joseon kingdom that Japan was no longer seeking to invade. Focus in the Edo period turned to nearby Karatsu city.

Karatsu city had its own castle, built, in part, with some of the elements taken from Nagoya. Karatsu means “Chinese port”, indicating their role in receiving ships from the continent. Trade would be important, and the role of the daimyo of Karatsu was seen as so important that they could not be given secondary duties. This would occasionally lead to lords requesting a transfer, should they be ambitious and wish to apply for higher office within the bakufu.

In the early Edo period, a strip of pine trees was set up along the shore. This was done as a windbreak to help protect the farmland behind from storms that might blow in of the water and damage the crops. Today it is one of the oldest such groves still in existence, and it has been immortalized in story and song.

Today, the town maintains some of its traditions, and has rebuilt the tenshukaku of Karatsu castle. They also retain their “Kunchi” festival, which was modeled on that of Gion, with giant floats, now protected through UNESCO.

References

• Conlan, Thomas. (2001). In little need of divine intervention : Takezaki Suenaga's scrolls of the Mongol invasions of Japan. Ithaca, N.Y. :East Asia Program, Cornell University,

• Aston, W. G. (1972). Nihongi, chronicles of Japan from the earliest times to A.D. 697. London: Allen & Unwin. ISBN0-80480984-4