Japan behind the Curtains: The Matsuura Clan of Hirado among haikou, wokou, and Europeans

In the recent decades, the international role of the Chinese piracy have been clearly demonstrated, as many studies and researches have analysed the maritime history of Far East Asia, with specific regard to the Chinese piracy and sea-trades. Nevertheless, concerning Japan, the historical intercourse and the profound ties between the two Countries, as well as the important functions and the commercial activities realised by the Chinese in the Archipelago -and in particular in Kyūshū- have been somehow neglected by the historians. Only in the very last years the attention of the scholars turned to this topic and focused on the vital connections that have been always linking China and Japan. Being for centuries the natural refuge for the Chinese piracy, the Japanese Archipelago was the most important partner of the Chinese merchants, adventurers, pirates and hosted their illicit (according to the Ming maritime bans) activities and commerce. The Matsuura clan of Hirado (north-west of Nagasaki) was deeply involved into maritime traffics, either they were realised by the Japanese sea-traders and pirates (wokou), or they were carried on by the Chinese sea merchants and adventurers (haikou). In the 16th and 17th Centuries, the Portuguese and the Spaniards first, the Dutch and the English later on became Matsuura daimyō’s important partners in trades as well, also thanks to the essential function of inter-mediators and interpreters attended by the local Chinese community. The Overseas Chinese and their settlement at Hirado, in fact, was the natural bridge of the haikou (haidao): very often their activities and roles were deeply mixed to each other. For this reason, the Matsuura Clan of Hirado has been also named Kaizoku Matsuuratō, “The Matsuura pirate clan”.