From 1264 to 1308, the
Mongol Empire
The Mongol Empire of the 13th and 14th centuries was the largest contiguous land empire in history. Originating in present-day Mongolia in East Asia, the Mongol Empire at its height stretched from the Sea of Japan to parts of Eastern Europe, ...
(and its successor the
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
) made several incursions into the island of
Sakhalin
Sakhalin ( rus, Сахали́н, r=Sakhalín, p=səxɐˈlʲin; ja, 樺太 ''Karafuto''; zh, c=, p=Kùyèdǎo, s=库页岛, t=庫頁島; Manchu: ᠰᠠᡥᠠᠯᡳᠶᠠᠨ, ''Sahaliyan''; Orok: Бугата на̄, ''Bugata nā''; Nivkh: ...
off the east coast of
Siberia
Siberia ( ; rus, Сибирь, r=Sibir', p=sʲɪˈbʲirʲ, a=Ru-Сибирь.ogg) is an extensive geographical region, constituting all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has been a part of ...
to aid their
Nivkh
Nivkh or Amuric or Gilyak may refer to:
* Nivkh people
The Nivkh, or Gilyak (also Nivkhs or Nivkhi, or Gilyaks; ethnonym: Нивхгу, ''Nʼivxgu'' (Amur) or Ниғвңгун, ''Nʼiɣvŋgun'' (E. Sakhalin) "the people"), are an indigenous et ...
allies against the
Ainu
Ainu or Aynu may refer to:
*Ainu people, an East Asian ethnic group of Japan and the Russian Far East
*Ainu languages, a family of languages
**Ainu language of Hokkaido
**Kuril Ainu language, extinct language of the Kuril Islands
**Sakhalin Ainu la ...
, who had been expanding north from
Hokkaido
is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel.
The la ...
. The Ainu put up a tenacious resistance, even launching a counter-attack on Mongol positions on the continent across the
Strait of Tartary
Strait of Tartary or Gulf of Tartary (russian: Татарский пролив; ; ja, 間宮海峡, Mamiya kaikyō, Mamiya Strait; ko, 타타르 해협) is a strait in the Pacific Ocean dividing the Russian island of Sakhalin from mainland Asia ...
in 1297, but finally capitulated to the Mongol-led Yuan dynasty of China in 1308.
Background
The peoples of Sakhalin
![Historical expanse of Ainu](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/8c/Historical_expanse_of_Ainu.png)
The
Nivkh people
The Nivkh, or Gilyak (also Nivkhs or Nivkhi, or Gilyaks; ethnonym: Нивхгу, ''Nʼivxgu'' (Amur) or Ниғвңгун, ''Nʼiɣvŋgun'' (E. Sakhalin) "the people"), are an indigenous ethnic group inhabiting the northern half of Sakhalin Island ...
are believed to be the descendants of an indigenous population that inhabited Sakhalin island since the
Neolithic period
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
. During the 6th century AD, a confluence of
Koryak culture from the north, the
Heishui Mohe
The Heishui Mohe (; mnc, Sahaliyan i Aiman or ), also known as the , rendered in English as Blackriver Mohe or Blackwater Mohe, were a tribe of Mohe people in Outer Manchuria along the Amur River () in what is now Russia's Khabarovsk Krai, Amur Ob ...
culture from the west, and indigenous Neolithic Sakhalin culture gave birth to the
Okhotsk culture
The Okhotsk culture is an archaeological coastal fishing and hunter-gatherer culture that developed around the southern coastal regions of the Sea of Okhotsk, including Sakhalin, northeastern Hokkaido, and the Kuril Islands during the last half o ...
, which was characterized by fishing, sea-mammal hunting, pig breeding, and pottery. This culture expanded rapidly in the 7th century from Sakhalin: to the north, it took over the
Kuril Islands
The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...
and reached as far as the southern tip of the
Kamchatka Peninsula
The Kamchatka Peninsula (russian: полуостров Камчатка, Poluostrov Kamchatka, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and we ...
; to the south, it crossed the
La Pérouse Strait
La Pérouse Strait (russian: пролив Лаперуза), or Sōya Strait, is a strait dividing the southern part of the Russian island of Sakhalin from the northern part of the Japanese island of Hokkaidō, and connecting the Sea of Japan on t ...
and met the
Satsumon culture
The is a partially agricultural, archeological culture of northern Honshu and southern Hokkaido (700–1200 CE) that has been identified as Emishi, as a Japanese-Emishi mixed culture, as the incipient modern Ainu, or with all three synonymously. ...
on the northern shores of
Hokkaido
is Japan's second largest island and comprises the largest and northernmost prefecture, making up its own region. The Tsugaru Strait separates Hokkaidō from Honshu; the two islands are connected by the undersea railway Seikan Tunnel.
The la ...
. The Nivkh, being the dominant population of Sakhalin before the 12th century, are believed to be the bearers of the Okhotsk culture. The Nivkh are known in Chinese sources as "Jiliemi" (吉列迷), which became Russified as "Gilyak" in the modern era and later renamed to the
endonym
An endonym (from Greek: , 'inner' + , 'name'; also known as autonym) is a common, ''native'' name for a geographical place, group of people, individual person, language or dialect, meaning that it is used inside that particular place, group, ...
"Nivkh" in the 1930s.
As a result of the northward expansion of the
Yamato people
The (or the )David Blake Willis and Stephen Murphy-Shigematsu''Transcultural Japan: At the Borderlands of Race, Gender and Identity,'' p. 272: "“Wajin,” which is written with Chinese characters that can also be read “Yamato no hito” (Ya ...
in
Honshu
, historically called , is the largest and most populous island of Japan. It is located south of Hokkaidō across the Tsugaru Strait, north of Shikoku across the Inland Sea, and northeast of Kyūshū across the Kanmon Straits. The island separ ...
beginning in the 7th century AD, the
Emishi
The (also called Ebisu and Ezo), written with Chinese characters that literally mean "shrimp barbarians," constituted an ancient ethnic group of people who lived in parts of Honshū, especially in the Tōhoku region, referred to as in contemp ...
were slowly assimilated into the dominant Japanese culture or pushed further north to the island of Hokkaido. The influx of migrants from Honshu to Hokkaido gave rise to the Satsumon culture in Hokkaido, which spread agriculture throughout the island save for the coast of the
Sea of Okhotsk
The Sea of Okhotsk ( rus, Охо́тское мо́ре, Ohótskoye móre ; ja, オホーツク海, Ohōtsuku-kai) is a marginal sea of the western Pacific Ocean. It is located between Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula on the east, the Kuril Islands ...
facing Sakhalin, which remained under the influence of the Okhotsk culture. Eventually,
population pressure and the need for agricultural lands pushed the Satsumon, identified as one of the ancestors of the
Ainu people
The Ainu are the indigenous people of the lands surrounding the Sea of Okhotsk, including Hokkaido Island, Northeast Honshu Island, Sakhalin Island, the Kuril Islands, the Kamchatka Peninsula and Khabarovsk Krai, before the arrival of the Y ...
, into warfare with the Okhotsk in the 10th to 11th century, causing the Okhotsk to retreat to Sakhalin. The conflicts of the period were reflected in the ''
yukar'' oral traditions of the northern Hokkaido Ainu, in which the heroes of the "land people" (''yaunkur'') prevailed over the "sea people" (''repunkur''). The proto-Ainu Satsumon followed up with an invasion into southern Sakhalin in the 11th to 12th century, leaving behind oral traditions telling how the Ainu defeated the Tonchi people there (likely the Okhotsk), and sent them fleeing north by boat. Thus the people who came to be known as the Ainu settled in southern Sakhalin while the Nivkhs kept to northern Sakhalin and the area around the
Amur estuary on the mainland.
Mongol interest in Northeast Asia
As part of the
Mongol conquest of the Jurchen Jin dynasty and
Eastern Xia
The Eastern Xia (), also known as Dongxia, Dongzhen (東真)Warfare in Chinese History, by H. J. Van Derven, p239 or Dazhen (大真), was a short-lived kingdom established in Manchuria (today's Northeast China and Outer Manchuria) by the Jurchen ...
, the Mongols took political control of
Manchuria
Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...
in 1233. In response to raids by the Nivkh and the
Udege people
Udege (russian: Удэгейцы; ude, удиэ or , or Udihe, Udekhe, and Udeghe correspondingly) are a native people of the Primorsky Krai and Khabarovsk Krai regions in Russia. They live along the tributaries of the Ussuri, Amur, Khunga ...
s, the Mongols established an administration post at Nurgan (present-day
Tyr, Russia
Tyr (russian: Тыр) is a settlement in Ulchsky District of Khabarovsk Krai, Russia, located on the right bank of the Amur River, near the mouth of the Amgun River, about upstream from Nikolayevsk-on-Amur.
Tyr has been known as a historical ...
) at the junction of the Amur and
Amgun
The Amgun () is a river in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia that flows northeast and joins the river Amur from the left, 146 km upstream from its outflow into sea. The length of the river is . The area of its basin is . The Amgun is formed by the co ...
rivers in 1263, and forced the submission of the two peoples. The Mongols were motivated by their worldview that heaven had bestowed them the right to rule the whole world, thus unconquered people were naturally rebels upon whom military conquest was justified. The Mongols were also in the process of incorporating the
Chinese tributary system
The tributary system of China (), or Cefeng system () was a network of loose international relations focused on China which facilitated trade and foreign relations by acknowledging China's predominant role in East Asia. It involved multiple relati ...
for their own political and commercial purposes: the Mongols could manage relations with the peripheral peoples of Northeast Asia while making sure that goods from the region would be available as tribute or trade goods.
Sable
The sable (''Martes zibellina'') is a species of marten, a small omnivorous mammal primarily inhabiting the forest environments of Russia, from the Ural Mountains throughout Siberia, and northern Mongolia. Its habitat also borders eastern Kaza ...
furs from lower Amur and Sakhalin, for instance, were especially favoured by the Mongol-Chinese upper class at the time. From the Nivkh perspective, their surrender to the Mongols essentially established a military alliance against the Ainu who had invaded their lands.
In addition, some Japanese researchers ascribe another motivation to the Mongols in regards to their subjugation of Sakhalin. Calling the Sakhalin expeditions a "Mongol invasion from the north" (北からの蒙古襲来), proponents of this northern invasion theory connect the events in Sakhalin with the contemporaneous
Mongol invasions of Japan
Major military efforts were taken by Kublai Khan of the Yuan dynasty in 1274 and 1281 to conquer the Japanese archipelago after the submission of the Korean kingdom of Goryeo to vassaldom. Ultimately a failure, the invasion attempts are of mac ...
in the south, and theorize that the Mongols were interested in a northern route into Japan through Manchuria and Sakhalin. Presumably, the Mongols would sail south from Sakhalin to Hokkaido and invade Honshu from there. However, there are no historical records or maps of the period that reveal a geographic knowledge that Sakhalin was anywhere near Japan, so any intention on the part of the Mongols to use Sakhalin as an entry point into Japan remains doubtful.
Conflicts
Expeditions into Sakhalin (1264–1286)
![Handbook to the ethnographical collections (1910) (14596590600)](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6c/Handbook_to_the_ethnographical_collections_%281910%29_%2814596590600%29.jpg)
Soon after receiving the surrender of the Nivkh, the Mongols received reports of the Nivkh being invaded yearly by the peoples of the east, namely the Guwei (骨嵬) and the Yiliyu (亦里于). "Guwei" was the name that the Nivkh used to refer to the Ainu people, while "Yiliyu", which means "deer" in
Tungusic languages
The Tungusic languages (also known as Manchu-Tungus and Tungus) form a language family spoken in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria by Tungusic peoples. Many Tungusic languages are endangered. There are approximately 75,000 native speakers of the doz ...
, could refer to any of the
Tungusic peoples
Tungusic peoples are an ethno-linguistic group formed by the speakers of Tungusic languages (or Manchu–Tungus languages). They are native to Siberia and Northeast Asia.
The Tungusic phylum is divided into two main branches, northern (Evenic or ...
like the ancestors of the Sakhalin
Uilta. The Mongols attacked the Ainu on Sakhalin on 30 November 1264, but the Ainu returned the next year to attack the Nivkh, killing some of their warriors. This time, however, the Mongols only sent supplies of food and weapons.
Following the formal establishment of the Mongol
Yuan dynasty
The Yuan dynasty (), officially the Great Yuan (; xng, , , literally "Great Yuan State"), was a Mongol-led imperial dynasty of China and a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division. It was established by Kublai, the fifth ...
in China in 1271, Taxiala (塔匣剌) of the Mongol eastern expedition army attempted to invade Sakhalin in 1272 and 1273, but he was not able to cross the raging
Strait of Tartary
Strait of Tartary or Gulf of Tartary (russian: Татарский пролив; ; ja, 間宮海峡, Mamiya kaikyō, Mamiya Strait; ko, 타타르 해협) is a strait in the Pacific Ocean dividing the Russian island of Sakhalin from mainland Asia ...
. Seeking the advice of the local Udege people around Nurgan, Taxiala was told that he must wait for the strait to freeze in the winter months, then he could march his army across the ice into Sakhalin where he would find the lands of the Nivkh and the Ainu. This was certainly possible since the strait was only about four miles wide at its narrowest point, and the Ainu and Nivkh had long made use of this fact. Armed with this knowledge, Taxiala petitioned the Yuan court for another expedition against the Ainu in 1273, but this was rejected. However, the Mongols appeared to have learned the lesson, as subsequent Mongol expeditions into Sakhalin all happened during winter months.
The next record of an invasion on the Ainu was in 1282, when Jurchens under Mongol rule were sent to aid the war effort by making boats to ship supplies across the sea. In 1284, a Mongol expedition was postponed from September to November out of fears that the windy seas might topple the supply boats. Following that campaign, the Mongols sent large armies up to 10,000 men for the expeditions of 1285 and 1286. Led by Tata'erdai (塔塔兒帶) and Yangwuludai (楊兀魯帶), the expeditions sailed across the sea in 1000 small boats carrying 10 men each. Judging by the relatively small population of the Sakhalin Ainu in later centuries, it is unlikely that the Ainu could have mustered a force large enough to defeat the Mongols with such numbers in open combat. The Mongol armies apparently reached the southern tip of Sakhalin at this time, since ramparts of a Mongol-Chinese fort dated to the 13th century were discovered at
Cape Crillon
Cape Crillon (russian: Мыс Крильон, ja, 西能登呂岬 "Nishinotoro-misaki" (Cape Nishinotoro in Japanese), ) is the southernmost point of Sakhalin. The cape was named by Frenchman Jean-François de La Pérouse, who was the first Europe ...
. The ramparts, called the Shiranushi earthwork (白主土城) by Japanese archaeologists, were markedly different from Ainu ''
chashi'' and is the only fortification of a continental type found on Sakhalin. Japanese researcher Kazuyuki Nakamura believes that the Shiranushi site should be identified as the Guohuo fort (果夥) mentioned in the Yuan source ''Jingshi Dadian'' (經世大典, "Compendium for governing the world"), and that it was built by the Mongols to stem Ainu invasions from Hokkaido.
The Ainu counterattack and the end of the conflict (1287–1308)
To support the continual campaigns into Sakhalin, the Mongols established
military-agricultural colonies near the Amur estuary around 1285, populating them with
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive va ...
exiles of the newly-extinguished
Song dynasty
The Song dynasty (; ; 960–1279) was an imperial dynasty of China that began in 960 and lasted until 1279. The dynasty was founded by Emperor Taizu of Song following his usurpation of the throne of the Later Zhou. The Song conquered the rest ...
. This did not last long, however, as the rebellion of the Mongol prince
Nayan in Manchuria forced the troops to withdraw from the Amur region in 1287. Perhaps reflecting the diminishing Mongol influence in the area, two Nivkh who had been centurions (百戶) in the Mongol military defected to the Ainu in 1296, and the next year an Ainu force under the chieftain Waying (瓦英) crossed the strait on Nivkh boats and raided settlements on the continent. The Nivkh that were still aligned with the Mongols warned that the Ainu planned to cross the sea from Guohuo when the sea freezes, and that they were going to attack the
falconers of the Amur estuary. These falconers, which included some Nivkh, were targeted by Ainu raiders for their falcons—the feathers were an exotic trade good—and for their supplies from China due to their status as slaves of the Mongol imperial court. Thus warned, when the Ainu invaded the Amur estuary in mid-1297, the Mongols caught up with them and defeated the invading Ainu near
Lake Kizi
Lake Kizi (russian: Кизи or Большое Кизи) is a large freshwater lake in Khabarovsk Krai, Russia. It has an area of about depending on water level and a maximum depth of . It lies near the right bank of the Amur River to which it is ...
.
The Ainu were recorded to have made one more raid on the continent in 1305, which evaded the Mongol army. In 1308, the Ainu chieftains Waying and Yushannu (玉善奴) communicated through the Nivkh that they desired to surrender. The Ainu sent an ambassador to Nurgan with gifts of swords and armours and promised to pay a tribute of furs every year. With this, the war between the Ainu and the Mongols was over.
Aftermath
The Mongol invasions represented the first time the influence of a regime based in China was directly extended to Sakhalin. Even before the end of hostilities, the Ainu and the peoples of the Amur region had been secretly trading valuable furs with the connivance of the Mongol officials in Nurgan. Soon after the subjugation of the Ainu, Ainu elders made tributary visits to Yuan posts located at Wuliehe (兀列河; in the
Tym basin), Nanghar (囊哈兒; near present-day Langry), and Boluohe (波羅河; the
Poronay), and received gifts in return, making presenting tribute a form of trade. The center of the northern trade gradually shifted to Chinese posts in the Amur Estuary and on Sakhalin following the Mongol conquests, and Sakhalin itself became a conduit of trade between the Mongol Empire in mainland Eurasia and the Japanese archipelago. The Mongols retreated from Sakhalin after 1320, and tributary trade in Sakhalin and the Amur basin ceased in the mid 14th century as the Yuan dynasty fell into decline. The Chinese under the
Ming dynasty
The Ming dynasty (), officially the Great Ming, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China, ruling from 1368 to 1644 following the collapse of the Mongol Empire, Mongol-led Yuan dynasty. The Ming dynasty was the last ort ...
re-established a presence in the area in 1409 and collected tribute from the Nivkh and the Ainu until late 15th century. Regardless of the political situation, a network of trade linking Manchuria, Japan, and Kamchatka with Sakhalin at the center persisted until the 18th century.
The
Mongol peace put a stop to the conflicts between the Nivkh and the Ainu, with the Ainu keeping to southern Sakhalin, leaving the north to the Nivkh. Hostility gave way to a relationship characterized by intermarriage, commercial trade, and cultural exchanges between the two peoples. A number of important cultural elements that became the hallmarks of modern Ainu culture, including the ''
iomante'' bear ceremony, were introduced to the Ainu from the Okhotsk culture carried by Nivkh as a result. For the Nivkh, the increasing focus on trade led to the rise of the
ethnographic Nivkh culture at the expense of the original Okhotsk culture: while rituals involving orcas and bears remained, other cultural characteristics like pottery disappeared.
The peace between the Nivkh and the Sakhalin Ainu as well as the Mongol presence in Sakhalin also meant that the Hokkaido Ainu could not freely migrate to Sakhalin across the La Pérouse Strait as they had done over the centuries. The population pressure that pushed the Ainu north now encountered resistance, and the resulting reaction in the southern direction brought the Ainu into increasing conflict with the Japanese. Around the time of the Mongol invasions of Sakhalin, the Ainu of
Tsugaru Tsugaru (津軽) may refer to:
* Tsugaru, Aomori, a city of Aomori Prefecture, Japan
* Tsugaru Peninsula
* Tsugaru Strait, between Honshū and Hokkaidō
** Tsugaru Kaikyō Ferry, a ferry crossing this strait
* Tsugaru-jamisen, a traditional style of ...
rose up against the powerful
Andō clan
The is a Japanese samurai kin group. Papinot, Jacques Edmond Joseph. (1906). ''Dictionnaire d’histoire et de géographie du Japon''; Papinot, (2003).html" ;"title="DF 6 of 80">"Andō," ''Nobiliare du Japon'', p. 2 ">DF 6 o ...
(安東氏) of northern Japan in a war that lasted from 1268 to 1328 called the Ezo Rebellion">DF 6 of 80/nowiki>">DF 6 o ...
(安東氏) of northern Japan in a war that lasted from 1268 to 1328 called the Ezo Rebellion (蝦夷大乱). The war, which was described by the 13th century Japanese Buddhist monk Nichiren as a disaster on par with the Mongol invasion of Japan in 1274 and 1281, caused the Andō clan to splinter and might even have contributed to the fall of the ruling Kamakura shogunate in Japan. Despite the commonly accepted cause of the war being trade disagreements and religious differences between the Ainu and the Andō clan, Mongol action in Sakhalin might have had a hand in creating and amplifying the conflict. The so-called "Mongol invasion of Japan from the north" was therefore an indirect one at most, in the opinion of Kazuyuki Nakamura.