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*''Other Names'': 早舟 ''(hayabune)''
*''Japanese'': 関船 ''(sekibune)''
*''Japanese'': 関船 ''(sekibune)''
''Sekibune'' were a type of oared warship used extensively in the [[Sengoku period|Sengoku]] and [[Edo period]]s; 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''.<ref>"Omeshi sekibune," ''Nihon kokugo daijiten''.</ref>
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''.<ref>"Omeshi sekibune," ''Nihon kokugo daijiten''.</ref>
==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''<!--和漢船用集-->, 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).<ref name=farris>William Wayne Farris, "Shipbuilding and Nautical Technology in Japanese Maritime History: Origins to 1600," ''The Mariner's Mirror'' 95:3 (2009), 276-277, 283n76.</ref>
A great many were built at the orders of [[Toyotomi Hideyoshi]], to be used in his [[Korean Invasions|invasions of Korea]]. Shipwrights in [[Iyo province|Iyo]], [[Izumi province|Izumi]], elsewhere in the [[Inland Sea]] region, [[Karatsu]], [[Bungo province|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''.<ref name=farris/> 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 kotai|sankin kôtai]]'' (alternate attendance) journeys. They fixed them up to be luxurious seagoing ''gozabune'', and sailed them on the round-trip between their [[han|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］
［参考文献］
