Changes

*''Japanese/Chinese/Korean'': [[倭]]寇 ''(wakou / wōkòu / waegu)''

*''Japanese/Chinese/Korean'': [[倭]]寇 ''(wakou / wōkòu / waegu)''

The ''wakô'' were medieval East Asian seafarers often described as raiders, pirates, or brigands, active in East Asian waters in the [[Kamakura period|Kamakura]] to early [[Edo period]]s, with the phenomenon peaking in the 16th century (the late [[Muromachi period|Muromachi]] or [[Sengoku period]]). The term might be literally translated as "Japanese pirates," the ''wa'' (倭) denoting Japan, but many ''wakô'' were in fact Chinese, Korean, or Ryukyuan.<ref name=arano186>Arano. p186.</ref><ref name=miki>Watanabe Miki, “Shifting Representations of Ryukyuans between Early Modern China and Japan,” in Caroli (ed.), ''Imagined Okinawa: Challenge from Time and Space'', Ca' Foscari University in Venice (2015), 197.</ref>

The ''wakô'' were medieval East Asian seafarers often described as raiders, pirates, or brigands, active in East Asian waters in the [[Kamakura period|Kamakura]] to early [[Edo period]]s, with the phenomenon peaking in the 16th century (the late [[Muromachi period|Muromachi]] or [[Sengoku period]]). The term might be literally translated as "Japanese pirates," the ''wa'' (倭) denoting Japan, but many ''wakô'' were in fact Chinese, Korean, Ryukyuan, or from mixed or ambiguous ethnic or national backgrounds.<ref name=arano186>Arano. p186.</ref><ref name=miki>Watanabe Miki, “Shifting Representations of Ryukyuans between Early Modern China and Japan,” in Caroli (ed.), ''Imagined Okinawa: Challenge from Time and Space'', Ca' Foscari University in Venice (2015), 197.</ref> Because of the [[Muromachi shogunate|Muromachi shogunate's]] weak control over [[Kyushu]], and the lack of any centralized authority in the [[Ryukyu Islands]] (especially prior to the 16th century), these regions became major centers of ''wakô'' activity, and Japanese came to be used as a common language among the ''wakô''. However, while many ''wakô'' groups enjoyed some kind of relationship with local authorities such as samurai houses or the [[Seiseifu]] in Kyushu, they were not in truth controlled by or otherwise "belonging to" Japan, or Ryûkyû.<ref>Gregory Smits, ''Maritime Ryukyu'', University of Hawaii Press (2019), 39-40.</ref>

Chinese primarily sources of the mid-16th century identify the ''wakô'' problem at that time in particular as stemming chiefly from the activities of merchants and others in China, who hired or otherwise encouraged Japanese to be involved. Some scholarship suggests that from the very beginning of the [[Ming Dynasty]] in China ([[1368]]-[[1644]]), the anti-maritime policies of the [[Hongwu Emperor|first Ming emperor]] - forcing coastal communities to [[qianjie|move inland]], and trying to monopolize all maritime trade under the throne - were a chief ''cause'' of, rather than a response to, the proliferation of smugglers, who then became brigands or pirates.

Chinese primarily sources of the mid-16th century identify the ''wakô'' problem at that time in particular as stemming chiefly from the activities of merchants and others in China, who hired or otherwise encouraged Japanese to be involved. Some scholarship suggests that from the very beginning of the [[Ming Dynasty]] in China ([[1368]]-[[1644]]), the anti-maritime policies of the [[Hongwu Emperor|first Ming emperor]] - forcing coastal communities to [[qianjie|move inland]], and trying to monopolize all maritime trade under the throne - were a chief ''cause'' of, rather than a response to, the proliferation of smugglers, who then became brigands or pirates.