Collected Illustrations of the Three Realms: Humans, Volume 13

Page 5

The Kingdom of Japan

The woodcut portrays a man in traditional flowing robes, which is the standard iconographic representation for a foreign "Wa" person in Ming Dynasty encyclopedias. Despite the text’s focus on piracy, the figure is depicted with a certain level of dignity typical of the "Human" category in this work.

The Kingdom of Japan original: 日本國 (Ribenguo) is the same as the Kingdom of Wa original: 倭國 (Woguo). "Wa" was an ancient Chinese name for Japan, used for centuries before "Nippon/Japan" became the standard term.. It is situated in the great ocean to the southeast of the Kingdom of Silla original: 新羅國 (Xinluoguo). Silla was a historical kingdom in Korea; though it had ceased to exist long before the Ming Dynasty, Chinese cartographic traditions often retained such ancient names..

The inhabitants dwell upon mountainous islands that span over nine hundred li Li (里): A traditional Chinese unit of distance, approximately 500 meters or one-third of a mile..

They make their living exclusively as pirates and bandits original: 寇盜 (Koudao) along the sea coasts. In China, they are called the Wokou Wokou (倭寇): Literally "dwarf pirates." This term refers to the maritime raiders who plagued the coasts of China and Korea. While the term implies Japanese origin, these groups were often diverse, including both Japanese sailors and Chinese outlaws..