Murakami clan (Chugoku)

The kamon of the Murakami.

• Founder: Murakami Sadakuni, c. 1160s
• Japanese: 村上氏 (Murakami-shi)

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 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.

History

The Murakami navy dominated the Inland Sea from the late Heian period, up through the Sengoku period. The Murakami are said to have been descended from the Seiwa Genji through Minamoto no Yorinobu. The Murakami name first appears in a record that warriors by the name Murakami fought under the Kôno clan of Iyo province in the rebellion of Fujiwara Sumitomo.

Yorinobu's son Minamoto no Yorikiyo was Shinano no kami, and at some point his descendants took on the name Murakami. The date and circumstances of this shift are unknown, though according to some theories, it was Yorikiyo's son Minamoto no Nakamune or Nakamune's son Minamoto no Morikiyo who first took the name.

A number of members of the clan were exiled (Morikiyo to Shinano) after supposedly cursing Emperor Shirakawa (r. 1073-1087). During the Hôgen Rebellion (1156), Morikiyo's second son Murakami Tamekuni sided with Emperor Sutoku, and during the Genpei War (1180-1185) a few decades later, Murakami Nobukuni served Kiso Yoshinaka in his defense of Kyoto, while Murakami Motokuni, according to the Heike Monogatari, fought in the battle of Ichi-no-tani.

While Tamekuni built up his power and wealth in Shinano, his younger brother Murakami Sadakuni turned to piracy, making Awaji and the Shiwaku Islands his bases, marking the origin of the Inland Sea branch of the Murakami clan around the 1160s.

Little is known about the history of the family between the end of the Heian period, and the Nanboku-chô period (the time of Murakami Yoshihiro). However, it is known that during the Jôkyû Disturbance of 1221, the Murakami and Kôno sided with Emperor Go-Toba; after their defeat, the two clans cooperated to maintain control over shipping in the Inland Sea. A century later, the Murakami actively supported Emperor Go-Daigo in the Kemmu Restoration of 1333. Having made Iyo-Ôshima (Noshima) his base, Murakami Yoshihiro claimed command of the entire Murakami clan, and raised an army on imperial orders. Alongside Doi and Tokunô clan forces, he attacked and defeated Hôjô Tokinao, and then moved on Kyoto, where he launched an attack on the Rokuhara Tandai.

The Murakami sided with the Southern Court during the Nanboku-chô conflicts, inviting the Kôno to join them in doing so, and swearing allegiance to Prince Kanenaga, who was a key Southern Court figure in Kyushu. With the aid of the Kikuchi clan of Higo province, they defeated the Kôno and eliminated Northern Court power in Iyo, expanding the Murakami's own power in the Inland Sea.

Following the death of Murakami Yoshihiro in 1374, however, the family split in three.

Division of the Clan

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.

Yoshiaki, also known as Masafusa, established his base on Noshima, while Akitada, also known as Yoshifusa, and Akinaga, also known as Yoshitoyo, took Innoshima and Kurujima respectively.

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. They were sometimes said to be the top of all the 18 families which served the Kôno, and headed the naval side of the Kôno standing armies. 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. In addition to these military functions, and overseeing trade and shipping in general, the Murakami played a major role in a variety of other maritime activities in the Inland Sea, including tugboat activities, seeing to the shipping of official goods and the transport of officials, aiding those shipwrecked or adrift, and the like. Unlike the majority of clans, who relied on agrarian sources of income and power, the Murakami built up their power, and wealth, through maritime activity.

Murakami Yoshiaki, head of the Noshima branch family, led them in supporting a shogunal attack on the Akamatsu clan in 1441, after the assassination of Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori by Akamatsu Mitsusuke. He continued to show his loyalty to the shogunate even after the outbreak of the Ônin War and Shogun Ashikaga Yoshitane's being driven out of Kyoto by Hosokawa Masamoto. As Yoshitane made his way to Suô province (modern-day Yamaguchi prefecture), he was welcomed by the Murakami of Noshima; Yoshiaki then accompanied the former shogun to Suô.

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 Kurujima branch 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 Kurujima, and joined Toyotomi Hideyoshi, returning to Kurujima 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 Kurujima came to be known as the Kurujima 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. He then fought alongside the Môri in Hideyoshi's 1587 invasion of Kyushu, and in particular in the attack on Urutsu castle. In the siege of Odawara in 1590, he joined forces with the navies of the Katô and Kuki clans, attacking the castle from the sea.

The Kurujima also took part in Hideyoshi's Korean Invasions, in which Michifusa and his older brother Michiyuki would die in battle, the former in the battle of Suyeong. The Noshima and Innoshima Murakami also joined Hideyoshi, but were never again fully aligned with Kurujima. 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, who succeeded his father as head of the Kurujima, sided with the Western Army in the battle of Sekigahara. Upon their defeat, he lost all of his holdings and followers, except for a small number of retainers. However, due to the good graces of Honda Masanobu and others, he was allowed, the following year, to become a daimyo once again; he was granted Kusu district in Bungo province, and his line, which came to be known as the Kurujima, governed that district until the Meiji period.

Members of the Murakami clan

Murakami Yoshihiro (d. 1374) Murakami Morokiyo Murakami Yoshiaki Murakami Michiyasu (d. 1567) Murakami Michifusa Murakami Michiyuki Murakami Takeyoshi Murakami Motoyoshi Murakami Yoshikiyo Murakami Yasuchika

References

• "Kurujima-shi." SENGOKU Buke kaden. Harimaya.com. Accessed 7 June 2011.
• "Murakami (Innoshima) shi." SENGOKU Buke kaden. Harimaya.com. Accessed 21 June 2011.
• "Murakami (Noshima) shi." SENGOKU Buke kaden. Harimaya.com. Accessed 21 June 2011.
• Terada Shôichi (ed.). Meijô wo aruku 3: Iyo Matsuyama-jô. Tokyo: PHP Kenkyûsho,　2002.