Battle of Tsushima (1274)

What Happened

On 2 November 1274, a Yuan fleet carrying Mongol, Chinese and Korean troops arrived off Tsushima Island (対馬, Tsushima), the large island in the strait between Kyushu and the Korean peninsula. The island's defence was led by Sō Sukekuni (宗助国), a retainer of the Kamakura shogunate. His garrison was small, and the Yuan forces overwhelmed it over the course of several days of fighting, using coordinated tactics and massed missile fire. The engagement ended on 5 November 1274 with a Yuan victory.

The fighting was the opening engagement of the first Mongol invasion of Japan, and it is counted as part of the larger campaign known as the Battle of Bun'ei (文永の役, Bun'ei no eki). With Tsushima taken, the Yuan fleet moved on to Iki Island (壱岐, Iki) shortly afterwards. News of the defeats pushed the Kamakura shogunate to begin strengthening its coastal defences.

Background

The invasion came from the direction of Korea. Kublai Khan (忽必烈), ruler of the Mongol Empire and founder of its Chinese-style Yuan dynasty, had brought the Korean kingdom of Goryeo under Mongol overlordship, and Korea served as the launching ground for the fleet that appeared off Tsushima. The Yuan forces that landed on the island were a mixed army of Mongol, Chinese and Korean troops rather than a single national force.

Japan at the time was governed by the Kamakura shogunate (鎌倉幕府, Kamakura bakufu), the military government established in 1185 and seated at Kamakura, far to the east of the threatened coast. Tsushima lay directly on the sea route from Korea to Kyushu, and its garrison was the first line of defence the shogunate had in the west. The date of the attack fell in the eleventh year of the Bun'ei era (文永), the nengō (年号, era name) by which years were then officially counted.

Why It Mattered

The fall of Tsushima opened the sea road to Japan. Within days the same fleet had taken Iki Island, and the invasion went on to become the first full-scale attempt by the Mongols to land in Japan. The loss of the island garrison demonstrated that the shogunate's western defences could not stop a large, well-organised amphibious force.

The shogunate's response was to strengthen its coastal defences, a programme that shaped how Japan met the second invasion attempt in 1281. For the warriors of the Kamakura period, the battle also set a pattern that would repeat throughout both invasions: small island garrisons absorbing the first blow while the mainland prepared.

The Name in Japanese

The Japanese name of the battle is 対馬侵攻, read つしましんこう (Tsushima shinkō). The element 対馬 is the island's name, Tsushima; 侵攻 means "invasion" or "attack". The name therefore means, plainly, "the invasion of Tsushima". It is worth noting that this is a descriptive modern label for the opening phase of the 1274 campaign; the wider campaign is known in Japanese as 文永の役 (Bun'ei no eki), "the Bun'ei campaign", after the era in which it took place.

Character by character:

• 対 — read つ (tsu) in this word. Its everyday meanings are "towards", "opposite" or "against". In place names it is often purely phonetic, and here it forms the first half of 対馬, Tsushima.
• 馬 — read ま (ma) in this word. It means "horse". Together, 対馬 is an established place name whose two characters are read together as Tsushima, not as a phrase meaning "facing horse".
• 侵 — read しん (shin) in this word. It means "to invade", "to encroach" or "to trespass". It appears in compounds such as 侵略 (しんりゃく, shinryaku), "aggression" or "invasion".
• 攻 — read こう (kō) in this word. It means "to attack" or "to assault". It is the same character used in 攻撃 (こうげき, kōgeki), "attack", and 攻守 (こうしゅ, kōshu), "attack and defence".

Read as a compound, 侵攻 (しんこう, shinkō) is a standard word for a military invasion. The pattern is a useful one for learners: two kanji of similar meaning, 侵 "encroach" and 攻 "attack", combine into a single noun. Note also that the island's name is written 対馬 but the strait between Japan and Korea is the Tsushima Strait, 対馬海峡 (つしまかいきょう, Tsushima kaikyō).

Key Figures

Sō Sukekuni (宗助国) commanded the defence of Tsushima Island. A shogunate retainer, he led the island's garrison against the Yuan landing of 2 November 1274; the island fell to the invaders by 5 November.

Kublai Khan (忽必烈) was the Mongol ruler under whose command the Yuan forces sailed. The fleet that attacked Tsushima came from Korea, which the Mongols had brought under their control, and the 1274 landing was the opening move of his first invasion of Japan.