DR PETER SHAPINSKY
Q. WHY DO YOU USE THE TERM SEA LORDS INSTEAD OF PIRATES IN YOUR RESEARCH?
A. Words from East Asia that we translate as ‘pirate’ represented the interests of land-based states, not mariners themselves. The term sea lord highlights the agency of seafarers in late medieval Japan (c.1300-1600), who exploited their ability to move between lands and cultures. Among their strategies was a choice to cloak themselves in rhetoric redolent of legitimate dominion in Japan while maintaining a distinctly maritime powerbase. In the Seto Inland Sea region, for example, mariners learned to present themselves as warrior lords in
