Chapter 25: Autonomy and Growth in the Subtropics
Amidst Saito Yoshioki’s tyranny, less oversight and care was given to the more peripheral regions of the realm, including Bireitou. For the newest extension of Japan, though, this proved to be beneficial as it was able to avoid having its affairs constricted by the anti-expansionist, trade skeptic tendencies of the new Azuchi government. Ironically, Azuchi’s few demands would result in long-lasting gains for the island territory.
The turn of the 17th century would see the beginning of expansion into the northwestern and central coastal plains of Bireitou as well as the formation of a stable, permanent presence on the island. Throughout the 1590s, scores of unemployed samurai, or ronin (浪人), merchants, and ex-wokou pirates emigrated to Iriebashi and surrounding areas, resulting in a predominantly male population that was militarized but lacked in agricultural expertise. Many of these former warriors/mercenaries transitioned into lifestyles of farming and fishing through pressure and pure necessity while Iriebashi began booming as a trading hub, but Bireitou remained overly dependent on imports of rice from Oda lands and the goodwill of aboriginal tribal leaders whom they bartered for goods and produce with.
Upon his arrival in Iriebashi in 1604 after Oda Nobutaka’s death in 1604, Oda Tadataka focused on creating settlements in the interior and subjugating the aboriginal tribes through military and diplomatic means in order to address these issues. He hoped to not only encourage the development of self-sustaining agricultural colonies in the interior that were capable of holding down the inland plains and project Japanese influence but also exact sufficient tribute, resources, and even auxiliary levies from the native tribes.
Portrait of Oda Tadataka
With only a gradual flow of people from the main islands, the latter progressed more initially. Tadataka gained legitimacy and trust of many minor tribes in northern Bireitou through a marriage alliance with the prosperous native kingdom of Tatuturo further to the south arranged in 1605, and the governor would use this to encourage Bireitoan samurai to marry aboriginal women and settle down. Many would do so, directly linking the new Japanese inhabitants with the natives. Despite such peaceful overtures, armed disputes between the natives and Japanese that had intermittently occurred did not cease. If anything, the further Japan expanded into the island, the bigger these broke out into small-scale conflicts.
Although Bireitou possessed a well-trained core of samurai to deal with such conflicts, the numbers and terrain unfamiliarity often put the Japanese at a disadvantage. The lack of a peasant base to levy spear-wielding ashigaru and arquebusiers forced a change in the equipment and fighting style of Bireitou samurai forces. Over several years, cavalry contingents largely disappeared as they were useless in the jungles and forests samurai traversed through and arquebus usage and proficiency dramatically increased, with an infantry-friendly variant of the bajouzutsu becoming widespread in particular. One-on-one skill with the sword also became highly prized compared to the main islands, and even the bow made a comeback as a reliable and respected ranged weapon under humid and rainy conditions. Aguro Yasuke, the main military magistrate on the island, even owned an antique Genoese crossbow he had received from a Spanish merchant. These adaptations would transform the samurai in Bireitou into an elite core of fighters that would come to firmly make their prowess in history.
Meanwhile, the 1607 rekindling of direct Sino-Japanese trade relations saw a sharp increase in trade interactions between Bireitou and Ming China, and soon the Bireitou provincial government would see itself incentivizing masses from the mainland to emigrate to the island and found agricultural settlements under the jurisdiction of Iriebashi. The surge in immigrants from mainland China and the clearing of land to establish rice paddies and farming villages gave the Japanese the agricultural underclass they had been looking for, and with time rice production dramatically increased, increasing the self-sufficiency of the island. However, while Bireitou offered economic opportunities for destitute peasants and commoners in China, the immigrants would largely be relegated to the bottom of the new social hierarchy on the island, below merchants, the Japanese, and even many tribal allies and subjects.
17th century drawing of a majority-Fujianese village in Bireitou by an Englishman
Meanwhile, back in Azuchi, annual ceremonial tributes from the island had begun under Nobutada in order for the central government to maintain proper oversight, lay down orders and regulations, and appoint or remove top officials. However, starting in 1609, the yoriaishu demanded greater returns from the island in the form of imports of Bireitoan goods and resource, as the more conservative-minded bureaucrats wanted Bireitou less as a trade expansion opportunity and more of a resource extraction territory and disliked the fact that rice imports, albeit at decreasing rates, went to the island with no return. Ikeda Terumasa, by now Tadataka’s senior councilor, decided on a new exotic export: natively-grown mangos. With permission from Tadataka, he mandated the growing of mango trees and set strict quotas in every inland settlement, and this led to an unexpectedly profitable enterprise, expanding even beyond the realm with Bireitoan mangos overtime appearing in every corner of the Japanese trade network. They would even become a common dessert on the island.
Modern day mango orchard in Bireitou
With that exception, the 1610s saw Bireitou attaining more autonomy from Azuchi as the latter became increasingly enamored with the machinations and tyranny of Saito Yoshioki. Mamezaki, the Shimazu holding in Bireitou, also grew in prestige and prosperity, albeit not as much as the Oda-Azuchi holdings. It also saw the passings of Bireitou’s other two grand founders, senior councilor Ikeda Terumasa and military magistrate Aguro Yasuke in 1613. Their successors would continue their lineages as among the highest ranking samurai families on an island with an ever-brighter outlook buoyed by increasing immigration and expansion.