Murakami clan (Chugoku)

The kamon of the Murakami.

The Murakami of western Japan were well-known as pirates of the Inland Sea that generated income by collecting tolls and various fees on shipping. They were descended from the Seiwa Genji through Murakami Yoshihiro (d. 1374), and were composed of three branches, each with their own base of operations. By 1550, two of these branches were allied to the Môri. They provided the bulk of the Môri's naval power and thus were key in establishing the Môri's domination of the Inland Sea, which lasted from around 1555-1576.

The three branches, known as the Kurujima Murakami, Noshima Murakami, and Innoshima Murakami after the islands where they were based, are said to have each been founded by one of three brothers, around 1419. Accounts vary as to whether these were three sons of Murakami Yoshiaki, or his two younger brothers and himself. Yoshiaki was, in any case, the son of Murakami Morokiyo, who was adopted from the Murakami clan of Shinano by Yoshihiro, who had no biological sons of his own.

Initially, these branch families served the Kôno clan shugo of Iyo province, maintaining public order on the Inland Sea, collecting maritime customs taxes, and the like. When Iwagijima was attacked by pirates in 1462-63, and when Ômishima was attacked by forces from Aki province in 1522, the Murakami fought back. They maintained fortresses not only on the three islands after which each branch family took its name, but also on many other small islands in the Inland Sea.

Father and son Murakami Michiyasu and Murakami Michifusa of Kurujima were among those most prominent and active in the Sengoku period. Michiyasu's wife was a daughter of Kôno Michinao, and in 1541, Michinao named Michiyasu his successor, but some prominent Kôno clan retainers were opposed to this and supported Kôno Michimasa as successor instead. They launched an attack against Michinao and Michiyasu, who fled to Kurujima. The conflict was eventually resolved with Michimasa being named successor; the Murakami thus never became successors to the Kôno clan.

Shortly afterward, Iyo was invaded by a combined Ôuchi-Hosokawa force. Murakami Michiyasu of Kurujima led the forces of Kôno Michinao against them, and repulsed the Ôuchi navy.

In 1555, the three branch families accepted the invitation of the Môri clan to join forces at the battle of Miyajima against the Sue clan, and, led by Murakami Takeyoshi of Noshima, are said to have contributed significantly to the Môri victory. The Murakami (or at least, some branches) maintained a strong relationship with the Môri throughout the remainder of the Sengoku period.

However, while Murakami Michiyasu and the Murakami clan more broadly had maintained a strong relationship with the Kôno clan, Michiyasu's son Michifusa rose up against the Kôno, beginning in 1579. He had become head of the family after his older brother Murakami Michiyuki gave up the succession to become head of another family, the Tokui clan. In 1582, Michifusa fought for Oda Nobunaga against the Kôno and Môri, and suffered defeat at their hands. Attacked as well by the Noshima and Innoshima Murakami, he was forced to flee Kurushima, and joined Toyotomi Hideyoshi, returning to Kurushima two years later after hostilities between Hideyoshi and the Môri (and the allies of the Môri, including the Kôno and the Murakami of Noshima & Innoshima) had ended. It was perhaps around this time that the Murakami of Kurushima came to be known as the Kurushima family (i.e. not as the Murakami), as this was the name that Hideyoshi, seemingly, used to refer to them.

Michifusa served in the advance guard for Hideyoshi's 1585 Invasion of Shikoku, and was granted Kazahaya district in Iyo, a holding worth 14,000 koku, for his service. The Kurushima also took part in Hideyoshi's Korean Invasions, in which Michifusa and his older brother Murakami Michiyuki would die in battle. The Noshima and Innoshima Murakami also joined Hideyoshi, but were never again fully aligned with Kurushima. Hideyoshi took a disliking to Murakami Takeyoshi and his son Murakami Motoyoshi of Noshima, and, after taking control of Shikoku, denied them territories there, offering them instead Chikuzen province (Fukuoka) or Nagato province (Chôshû, i.e. Yamaguchi prefecture). The Innoshima branch came into the service of Kobayakawa Takakage, and so the era of the three families, united, sailing the Inland Sea, came to an end with the era of Hideyoshi's rule.

Michifusa's son Murakami Yasuchika later entered into the service of Tokugawa Ieyasu and, after the battle of Sekigahara, was granted Kusu district in Bungo province. His line came to be known as the Kurujima, and governed that district until the Meiji period.

Members of the Murakami clan

Murakami Michiyasu (d. 1567) Murakami Michifusa Murakami Michiyuki Murakami Yoshikiyo

References

• "Kurujima-shi." SENGOKU Buke kaden. Harimaya.com. Accessed 7 June 2011.
• Terada Shôichi (ed.). Meijô wo aruku 3: Iyo Matsuyama-jô. Tokyo: PHP Kenkyûsho,　2002.