The real history of the Mongolian invasion in Ghost of Tsushima
PlayStation’s “Ghost of Tsushima” is a story about a “samurai” on a small island of Tsushima in Japan during the Mongolian invasion in 13th century. Nate Fox, creative director of Ghost of Tsushima, came up with an intriguing story inspired by the historic event. What was the the true story of the Mongolian invasion?
About the Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire was one of the largest empires that ever existed on this planet. Genghis Khan (1162-1227) started it by successfully uniting several horse-riding, bow-wielding tribes in the Mongolian grassland region. The uniquely nomadic Empire kept growing, and at its peak in 13th century, its territory expanded from Eastern Europe to China and Korea.
The key of the success of the Mongol Empire was the mighty cavalry units.
Genghis Khan created groups of 1,000 men (soldiers), which were subdivided into units of 100, which were further divided into units of 10.
Mongolian warriors were good at shooting bows on horse back.
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Probably no other people back then could travel as swiftly and battle as effectively as Mongols. When Genghis Khan found ways to organize them to create large-scale, strong horse-riding armies, they were almost invincible. They kept invading neighboring regions to enlarge their territories. After Genghis’ death, Kublai Khan (1215-1294) – the grandson of Genghis – became the most influential Khan (emperor) of the Mongol Empire. It was Kublai Khan who decided to invade Japan.
There were a couple of reasons why Kublai Khan wanted to invade Japan. First, people believed that Japan was a massive gold-producing country. It used to produce gold back then, although the amount is unknown. (It’s not a major gold producer today.) Second, Kublai wanted to use Japan to maintain his control over far Eastern Asia. It had already annexed China and Korea, but it wasn’t easy to keep these regions under control. Kublai sought to stabilize the region by annexing Japan.
Japan in 13th century
While Mongols were learning to control extended territories they’ve conquered, Japan was still in the middle of unifying its own country. It was just coming out of the ancient political system called 朝廷 (chotei), which was ruled by Tenno (the Emperor) and aristocrats in Kyoto (the then capital). The chotei maintained a tight grip on regions reasonably close to Kyoto. However, in other areas regional warrior group leaders were gaining power. They started threatening the chotei and eventually in 1192, a new political regime was born. The Minamotos’ – one of the largest regional warrior clans – became powerful enough to start 幕府 (bakufu) administration to rule warrior clans/groups around the country. The Minamotos claimed that a new administration parallel to the 朝廷 (chotei) was justified because bakufu would only regulate warriors (武士 – bushi) that belonged to a different class than aristocrats. As chotei and bakufu were redundant in many ways, they had to play subtle political games. On one hand, chotei was considered to be the legitimate and authentic one because of the royal blood lines. So Bakufu and bushi showed respect to chotei in public. But privately, they worked hard to expand their power and influence over chotei and people. Conflicts were everywhere.
Nasu no Yoichi, Japanese bow-wielding warrior in 12th century.
He is believed to have hit a target on a ship far from him.
From Heike Monogatari Emaki
Where is the Island of Tsushima?
The Island of Tsushima is in Kyusyu, the Southern region of Japan. As it is very close to Korean Peninsula, it had been one the first places people sailed down from Korean Peninsula would land. And Dazaifu (current Fukuoka) area, that included Tsushima, had been the international gateway because of its proximity to China, Korea and the sea routes for international trades.
However, Dazaifu is far from Kyoto or Kamakura where the chotei was located or Minamotos were from. The distance put both chotei and bakufu in a difficult situation to deal with the Mongolian invasion.
Both Kyoto and Kamkura were far from the Island of Tsushima and Dazaifu where the Mongols invaded.
Neither the chotei of bakufu were prepared to deal with international conflicts.
Was Jin Sakai a samurai?
The term “samurai” is popular outside Japan, probably because of the movie “Seven Samurai” by Akira Kurosawa and other famous entertainment productions. Japanese use multiple terms for traditional warrior classes, including 武士 (bushi). During the Kamakura bakufu era, high ranking warriors who were recognized by shogun (the chief of the bakufu administration) were called 御家人 (gokenin). Most Japanese would associate “samurai” with warriors after 16th century (the Civil War era or Edo bakufu era), during which samurai’s status was elevated and established. But it’s probably okay to call warriors during Kamakura era samurai.
The chief of warriors in Tsushima Island during the Mongolian invasion was the 宗家 (So clan), who was appointed by the Kamakura bakufu and sent to the island from Fukuoka. The So clan, therefore, was the legitimate samurai. However, It’s likely that his army included a bunch of local male such as peasants and fishermen. They weren’t samurai. If Jin Sakai was a local resident, it’s possible that he was not samurai.
The records are limited that show how bushi (warriors) was dressed during Kamakura era.
But it is believed that high-ranking bushi would wear “grand armor.”
It was effective to fight with bows on horse backs,
as well as impressing/intimidating the opponents with its flamboyant design.
It’s more difficult to know how lower-ranking (foot) soldiers
looked like or dressed like.