r (206,000 lbs.); spears (11); fans
(1250); swords (9500); lacquered wares (634 packages), and sapan-wood
(141,333 lbs.). During the days of Yoshimasa's shogunate such profits
were realized that overtrading took place, and there resulted a
temporary cessation. Fifty years later, when Yoshiharu ruled at
Muromachi (1529), a Buddhist priest, Zuisa, sent by the shogun to
China, and an envoy, Sosetsu, despatched by the Ouchi family, came
into collision at Ningpo. It was a mere question of precedence, but
in the sequel Zuisa was seized, Ningpo was sacked, and its governor
was murdered. The arm of the shogun at that time could not reach the
Ouchi family, and a demand for the surrender of Sosetsu was in vain
preferred at Muromachi through the medium of the King of Ryukyu.
Yoshiharu could only keep silence.

The Ming sovereign subsequently (1531) attempted to exact redress by
sending a squadron to Tsushima, but the deputy high constable of the
Ouchi compelled these ships to fly, defeated, and thereafter all
friendly intercourse between Japan and China was interrupted,
piratical raids by the Japanese taking its place. This estrangement
continued for seventeen years, until (1548) Ouchi Yoshitaka
re-established friendly relations with Chosen and, at the same time,
made overtures to China, which, being seconded by the despatch of an
envoy--a Buddhist priest--Shuryo from Muromachi, evoked a favourable
response. Once more tallies were issued, but the number of vessels
being limited to three and their crews to three hundred, the
resulting commerce was comparatively small. Just at this epoch, too,
Occidental merchantmen arrived in China, and the complexion of the
latter's oversea trade underwent alteration. Thereafter, the Ashikaga
fell, and their successor, Oda Nobunaga, made no attempt to re-open
commerce with China, while his successor, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, planned
the invasion of the Middle Kingdom, so that the sword was more in
evidence than the soroban.

JAPANESE PIRACY

It is difficult to trace the beginnings of Japanese piracy in Far
Eastern waters, but certainly it dated from a remote past and reached
its extreme in the middle of the sixteenth century. The records show
that Murakami Yoshihiro, of Iyo province, obtained control of all the
corsairs in neighbouring seas and developed great puissance. Nor did
any measure of opprobrium attach to his acts, for on his death he was
succeeded by Morokiyo, a scion of the illustrious K