During the 13th century, the ascendant Mongol empire twice tried to invade Japan. Despite marshaling a large invasion force, and despite two different attempts at invasion in 1274 and 1281, this conquest failed. Between the typhoons and the doomed retreat following fighting ashore, these invasions left many shipwrecks. And on October 1, the city of Matsuura, Nagasaki oversaw the raising of an anchor from one of the invasion shipwrecks, an endeavor partly made possible by crowdfunding.
To learn more about this new discovery and conservation effort, read on.
The Invasions
The Mongols, in their haste to conquer Japan, underestimated the often treacherous waters off northern Kyushu. Between that, the typhoons that crippled both invasion forces, and Japanese warriors mobilized by the Kamakura Shogunate who fought on home turf, the invasions were doomed.
With 900 ships and over 23,000 troops in the first invasion, and 4400 ships embarking 140,000 troops in the second, it was a massive loss for the Mongol Empire. This was the invasion that gave rise to the claim that a divine wind, or kamikaze, had caused the typhoon that saved Japan.
Kubilai Khan died before a third invasion could come to fruition. With plenty else to occupy its time and resources, the Mongol Empire shelved any further attempts.
The Island
The ship from which the recently recovered anchor came, sank off of Takashima.
Takashima is an island in Imari Bay, now part of Matsuura City. Some elements of the invasion force landed and actually fought the Kamakura Shogunate’s warriors on this island, only to be pushed back to their surviving ships. Modern Takashima derives some measure of income from Mongol invasion historical tourism.
Until recent years, Takashima even boasted a tourist attraction called the Takashima Mongol Village with rentable yurts. Today, it is more importantly the site of the Matsuura Municipal Archaeological Center, where the anchor was taken after its recovery. This museum houses previously recovered artifacts from the Mongol fleet, and has been the nerve center of the effort to survey the waters off Takashima, underway since 1980.
The city’s crowdfunding project presents the anchor and its ship as a time capsule from the invasion. The effort was phenomenally successful, surpassing its goal and reaching a total of ¥11,523,000 from 229 people nationwide. Donors received ID cards and received free entry to the Center for the next five years.
The anchor is shaped like a V and comprised of wood and stone. At 175cm long, it is just under 200kg. On 1 October, it was raised with the help of a balloon, then towed to shore where it was safely extracted. After recovery, conservators moved it to a container filled with seawater treated with trehalose, a compound used for the preservation of wood.
It is the first time that archaeologists have recovered an anchor of this size and type. The anchor was identified in 2013, resting at a depth of approximately 20 meters below the surface, so this recovery has been several years in the making.
The Anchor
This type of anchor is attested in period sources about the invasion, but it’s the first of its kind recovered. Mōko Shūrai Ekotoba, a late Kamakura-era picture scroll by Takezaki Suenaga, has several depictions of ships belonging to the invasion fleet. One of the ships has a V-shaped anchor similar to the type newly raised from the ocean floor. Suenaga, himself a veteran of both invasions, would have been an eyewitness of these ships, and the scrolls depict him leading boarding actions on some of the craft.
This isn’t the first artifact from the Mongol invasion to be recovered from on and around Takashima․ Given that some Mongol forces landed there, artifacts and archaeological remains are abundant on land and at sea.
Nine wooden anchors were recovered from the coastal waters during the mid-1990s, of a different type than the recently raised anchor, found weighed down with small attached stones. Earlier, in the 1970s, the seal of a small-unit commander was found ashore, the first of its kind discovered in Japan.
Now in Matsuura City’s possession, the anchor has been designated Tangible Cultural Property of Nagasaki Prefecture since 1989. A large, stone replica of it stands outside the Matsuura Municipal Archaeological Center.
The Future
The anchor is currently undergoing conservation at the Matsuura Municipal Archaeological Center, where it is already on display to the public since the 8th of October. We look forward with great anticipation to Phase 2 of this project, and the planned raising of the ship itself.
While this city-led effort was successful, Matsuura mayor Tomoda Yoshiyasu acknowledged that it was difficult for a local government. He hoped that the national government would in time lend its own more powerful aid.
Sources
- “‘Genkō no Butai’ Takashima Oki kara Genkōsen no Ikari Hikiage…Ippan Kōkai.“ Yomiuri Shinbun Online, October 9, 2022. Accessed 26 October 2022.
- “Genkō no Taimukapuseru hikiage purojekuto (Kuraudofandingu) ni tsuite.” Matsuura City, Accessed 26 October 2022.
- “Genkōsen no ‘Ikari’ Nagasaki Oki no Kaitei kara Hikiage, Ōgatasen Tōsai ka…Ittai de wa Chinbotsusen niseki mo Kakunin.” Yomiuri Shinbun Online, 1 October 2022, Accessed 27 October 2022.
- “Issekigata Mokusei ikari no Ippan Kōkai Kaishi!!” Matsuura City. Accessed 26 October 2022.
- National Center for Biotechnology Information. “PubChem Compound Summary for CID 7427, Trehalose” PubChem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Trehalose. Accessed 27 October, 2022.
- “Scrolls of the Mongol Invasions of Japan.” Princeton University. Accessed 26 October 2022.
- “Takashima no Kangun Sōhan.” Nagasaki no Bunkazai. Nagasaki Prefectural Government. Accessed 26 October 2022.
- “Takashima Genkōshi.” Matsuura Guide. Accessed 26 October 2022.
- Watanuki Hiroshi. “Mongolian ship’s anchor recovered from seabed off Nagasaki after 741 years” The Mainichi, 8 October 2022. Accessed 26 October 2022.
- Vogel, Ezra. China and Japan: Facing History. (Cambridge: Belknap Press, 2019), pp. 40-41.
