Sending Ships to China to Finance Monastery Construction: Maritime Trade between the Mongol Empire and the Japanese Archipelago, 1270-1368

The two failed Mongol invasions to Japan launched a new phase in Sino-Japanese trade, during which religious institutions played an important role. This study aims to show how the players in Sino-Japanese trade responded to the new circumstances in East Asia and accordingly changed their trading patterns, and how the religious networks supported trade networks and facilitated commercial exchanges.
The Mongol rulers embraced the opportunity to trade with foreign countries, including Japan, but meanwhile they remained vigilant against armed merchants and pirates from Japan. Religious exchanges, however, remained active. The Yuan Emperor Chengzong tried to take advantage of religious ties by sending the monk Yishan Yining as an envoy to Kamakura in 1299. The Kamakura shogunate did not recognize Yishan as an envoy but welcomed him as a Chinese Zen master. Many Chinese Zen masters were invited to Japan afterward, and the religious ties between China and Japan grew even stronger.
Under these circumstances, unlike the previous period when Chinese merchants were the major group who set off for voyages, players on the Japanese side, often from monasteries took on an increasingly important role. The Sinan shipwreck, which was found in South Korean waters and was a monastery-supported voyage date to 1323, provides rare material evidence of this new trading pattern. Monastery records also contain more examples of voyages sponsored by Japanese monasteries, which claimed to send ships to China to finance monastery construction. The integration of religious and commercial networks between China and Japan had a long-lasting influence.