In Hakata there is a Chinese quarter: the ship-masters and merchants who come with the summer monsoon from Ningbo and Fujian, and some of whom have settled.
They bring copper cash, silk, books and ceramics, and take away sulphur, timber, gold and swords. Their chapel (the Hyakudō) stands where the Zen house of Eisai, Shōfukuji, was founded in 1195, with eight chō of land given by Yoritomo (English Wikipedia, Shōfukuji). They are a power without arms: the Dazaifu, the shrines and Kamakura all want their duties and their favour.
Who he is
- Name
- not known by name for 1 January 1200
- Title
- Chinese ship-masters resident at Hakata (tsuna-te) [not yet checked against the source]
- Family
- Merchants from Mingzhou (Ningbo) and the Fujian ports, resident in the port quarter
- Confidence
- low
English Wikipedia (Hakata-ku) says only that Hakata housed Japan's first Chinatown; (Shōfukuji) says the temple stands on the site of the Hyakudō, a chapel built by Chinese expatriates living in Hakata. The title 'tsuna-te' is recollection.
Overlord
the Dazaifu (in law); the shrines Hakozaki and Sumiyoshi (in dues)
What it holds
- A quarter of the port of Hakata
- The Hyakudō chapel, now Shōfukuji
How things stand that morning
No Mongol envoy, no Genkō wall, no war: this is the quiet age of the trade.
Wealth
The trade in copper cash, silk and ceramics; no figures used.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Two English Wikipedia statements; the rest is recollection.
Primary sources for Kyoto court
Chronicles, registers, sagas and inscriptions written in or near 1200 that cover this entry. Each has its own page with editions, translations and where to read it.
- Hundred Times Refined Extracts: court annals (late thirteenth century, from court diaries). Short dated annals of the imperial court excerpted from courtiers' diaries, among them the Gyokuyo and the Meigetsuki. Read online
- Mirror of the East, Anonymous; compiled by officials of the Kamakura shogunate (compiled about 1300 from the shogunate's records, diaries and family documents). The Kamakura house's own chronicle, in daily entries. Read online
- Jottings of a Fool: an interpretative history of Japan, Jien (慈円) (about 1219 to 1220, revised to about 1223). A history by Kujo Kanezane's brother, head of the Tendai school and the leading churchman of the court, written to explain the fall of the Kujo and the rise of the warriors as the working of principle (dori). Read online
- History of the Song, the chapters on Xia and on foreign states, Toqto'a (脫脫) and the Yuan history office (1343 to 1345). The Song court's accounts of its neighbours, each arranged as an annal of embassies and wars. Read online
- Diary of the Inokuma Regent: the diary of Konoe Iezane, Konoe Iezane (近衛家実) (1197 to 1218, as a daily diary). The diary of the regent's heir, aged twenty-one in 1200 and already a senior courtier under his father Konoe Motomichi, who was regent (sessho) for the child emperor Tsuchimikado. Read online
- Leaves of Jade: the diary of Kujo Kanezane, Kujo (Fujiwara) Kanezane (九條兼實) (1164 to 1200, as a daily diary). The diary of the former regent, Yoritomo's ally at court, who had been driven from power in the Kenkyu purge of 1196 and lived in retirement in 1200. Read online
- Record of the Bright Moon: the diary of Fujiwara no Teika, Fujiwara no Teika (藤原定家) (1180 to 1235, as a daily diary, with gaps). The diary of the poet and courtier, then thirty-eight and a middle-ranking official of the Kujo house. Read online
- Surviving Documents of the Kamakura Period, Various; collected by Takeuchi Rizo (竹内理三) (documents of 1185 to 1333, collected and printed 1971 to 1997). The collected charters, deeds, court orders, shogunal directives, temple records and land registers of the Kamakura age, printed in date order. Read online
4 more in the sources library for Korea and Japan.
Sources and studies
- OMNIA kja regional brief (KJA_BRIEF.md), the campaign's dated traps and realm table
- OMNIA board notes and places for area kjw (starting lead only, checked against the sources)
- Hakata-ku, Fukuoka, English Wikipedia
- Shōfuku-ji (Fukuoka), English Wikipedia
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.