《23》Medieval Hakata: Mystery of Sode-no-Minato (Part 1)...from Korokan in Tsukushi to Sode-no-Minato in Hakata
- In the next few articles, we will introduce the town and people of medieval Hakata. Why don't you join us for a walk through the history of medieval Hakata?
- The Hakata Bay area has been a window to foreign exchange since ancient times, and by the end of the Heian period (794-1185), it seems to have prospered greatly as a major center of the Japan-Sung trade (trade between China and Japan during the Sung dynasty). Many trading ships are said to have come and gone from Hakata Bay, and the trade center called Sode-no-Minato has been mentioned in waka poems by Taira no Kiyomori and in a local journal by Kaibara Ekiken.
- As mentioned in the previous article on "Ancient Hakata and Korokan," Korokan was a trade and diplomatic facility in Tsukushi that existed from the Asuka and Nara periods to the late Heian period. 1047, when the Dazaifu captured four perpetrators of arson at the "Grand Song Province Merchant's Quarters", was the last article mentioning Korokan.
- Korokan was the largest center of international exchange in ancient Japan until the latter half of the 11th century, when the trade hub was moved to Hakata, located on the sand dunes east of Korokan, but the stage of history eventually shifted from Korokan in Tsukushi to the Sode no Minato in Hakata. This is the historical transition from ancient Hakata to medieval Hakata. /
中世博多-袖の湊のなぞ（その１）…筑紫の鴻臚館から博多の袖の湊へ
- これからしばらく幾つかの記事で、中世博多の街や人々の姿を紹介します。ご一緒に中世博多の歴史を散歩してみませんか。
- 古くから博多湾一帯は海外との交流の窓口でしたが、平安時代の終わりごろには日宋貿易（宋の時代の中国と日本の貿易）の一大拠点として大いに繁栄したようです。博多湾には多くの貿易船が出入りしたとされており、平清盛の和歌や貝原益軒の地誌などにその名を記されてきたのが「袖の湊」という貿易拠点です。
- 以前掲載した「古代博多と鴻臚館」の記事でご紹介しましたが、鴻臚館は飛鳥・奈良時代から平安時代後期にかけて存続した筑紫の貿易外交施設でした。1047年、大宰府が「大宋国商客宿房」に放火した犯人４人を捕縛したという記事が、鴻臚館に触れた最後の記事となっています。
- 鴻臚館は、１１世紀後半に貿易拠点が鴻臚館の東の砂丘にある博多に移るまで、古代日本最大の国際交流の拠点でしたが、やがて筑紫の鴻臚館から博多の袖の湊へと、歴史の舞台は移っていきます。これが古代博多から中世博多への歴史の変遷となります。