- Other Names: 早舟 (hayabune)
- Japanese: 関船 (sekibune)
Sekibune were a type of oared warship used extensively in the Sengoku and Edo periods; their design focused on speed, and so they were also known as hayabune (lit. "quick boat").
In the Edo period, the shogun, as well as a number of daimyô, possessed luxury sekibune which had been refitted to serve as gozabune (ships with a formal seat for a lord); these were known as omeshi-sekibune, or simply as sekibune.[1]
Name
The origins of the name sekibune are unclear, though it is often said to derive from some association with their use in defending checkpoints (sekisho) from pirates, and/or helping to enforce the tolls and inspections at the checkpoints. In any case, it seems that the name was not fixed until the Edo period, and so the style of ship now known as sekibune may have been known by a number of names during the Sengoku period; one 1761 source, the Wakan sen'yô shû, suggests that they only came to be called sekibune around one hundred years earlier, and that prior to that they were called Takao-fune.
Design
Sekibune were long and narrow, with a pointed prow that allowed it to move speedily, cutting through the waves. The superstructure was done in a yagura style, with 40 to 80 oars, and the hull in one or two levels, making for a two- or three-story ship in total.
Sengoku
Serving a role akin to a cruiser in comparison to the "battleship" of the age, the atakebune, the sekibune were not large ships, but rather were middle-size ships, with thirty to forty oars (for comparison, an atakebune could have anywhere from 60 to as many as 200 oarsmen).[2]
A great many were built at the orders of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, to be used in his invasions of Korea. Shipwrights in Iyo, Izumi, elsewhere in the Inland Sea region, Karatsu, Bungo, and Sakai each used their own distinctive modes of construction, but in the end, most were overall extremely similar.
Edo
The Tokugawa shogunate instituted a series of policies in 1609 aiming to curtail the naval strength of the daimyô, banning them from possessing ships of over 500 koku in size (tonnage), and banning the daimyô of western Japan in particular from maintaining atakebune.[2] This left the sekibune as the strongest ships in most daimyô's fleets. Some built larger 70-oar sekibune at that time, organizing their fleets around these as flagships.
Many of the western daimyô then came to use these larger sekibune in their sankin kôtai (alternate attendance) journeys. They fixed them up to be luxurious seagoing gozabune, and sailed them on the round-trip between their domains and Osaka, where the entourage would switch to riverboats to go to Fushimi (Kyoto), and then the rest of the way to Edo overland. The shogun's luxury ship, the Tenchi-maru, was also a model example of an omeshi-sekibune.
Thus, in contrast to the benzaisen which were the typical vessels in commercial shipping in the Edo period, sekibune were the standard martial ship.
また関船は、江戸時代を通じて技術的な発展が全くみられなかったのも大きな特徴で、この点が海運の隆盛に対応して改善を重ねていった弁才船との大きな違いであった。もちろんそこには、幕府の諸大名に対する抑制策があったにしても、十七世紀末以後になると諸大名も水軍力向上の意図を完全になくしていた。したがって関船の発達停止は、徳川三百年の泰平の象徴ともいうべきものであり、それだけに軍船としての本質からはずれてしまったために、幕末の海防の危機に対処するにはあまりにも旧式で、全く用をなさなかった。こうした水軍の実状から、幕府をはじめ諸大名は近代的海軍の建設を痛感し、西洋型軍艦の建造に腐心したが、それもまに合わず、結局、多数の蒸気軍艦を輸入してあてるに至って関船は完全に見捨てられ、文久二年（一八六二）幕府が天地丸以下の関船を廃棄処分したことによって、長い関船の歴史はとじられたのである。→軍船（いくさぶね），→御座船（ござぶね），→早船（はやふね）
［参考文献］ 小笠原長生『日本帝国海上権力史講義』、山屋太郎『日本水軍史』、石井謙治『図説和船史話』（『図説日本海事史話叢書』一）、同「関船の木割法の流派について」（『海事史研究』一一）、同「御召関船建造の行程・祝・人工などについて」（同一二）、小佐田哲男「大和型軍船の構造略説」（同一一） （石井 謙治） ©Yoshikawa kobunkan Inc.
日本国語大辞典
凡例
せき‐ぶね 【関船】 前項目次項目
〔名〕
室町時代、瀬戸内海の主要航路上の港湾を中心に設けられた海関所属の船から転じて、戦国時代から江戸時代にかけて使われた軍船の船型の呼称。安宅船（あたけぶね）より小型で軽快な行動力をもつ快速船で、周囲に防御装甲をもつ矢倉を設け、適宜、弓・鉄砲の狭間（はざま）をあける。安宅船とともに水軍の中心勢力を形成し、慶長一四年（一六〇九）安宅船が禁止されてからは諸藩の水軍の基幹勢力となった。一般に櫓四〇挺立内外のものを中関（なかぜき）と称し、大型のものは八〇挺立前後におよび、諸大名の御座船に使用された。徳川家光が建造した天地丸七六挺立はその代表的なもの。早船ともいい、小型のものを小関船または小早という。
References
- "Sekibune," Nihon kokugo daijiten.
- "Sekibune," Kokushi daijiten, Yoshikawa kôbunkan.