[KS] 13th Enemy Encounters Webinar “Warfare and Japanese Pirates in Korea and China 1350-1419”

[Noordam, Dr. Barend]

Dear colleagues,

Please see below for information about the thirteenth session of the 2025-2026 Enemy Encounters in East Asia webinar series of the Research Training Group "Ambivalent Enmity: Dynamics of Antagonism in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East” at Heidelberg University and the Heidelberg University of Jewish Studies, Germany.


“Warfare in the Age of Large-scale Piracy: Tactics and Combat Techniques of Japanese Pirates in Korea and China 1350-1419”
Damien Peladan
(Maître de conferences, Université Bordeaux Montaigne)

  *   January 22, 2026, 3:00 PM (Heidelberg, CET) via ZOOM.
  *   The webinar will not be recorded.
  *   If you would like to attend the webinars, please contact barend.noordam at hcts.uni-heidelberg.de<mailto:barend.noordam at hcts.uni-heidelberg.de>.

In this session, Damien Peladan (Maître de conferences, Université Bordeaux Montaigne) will share his thoughts on warfare during the waves of Japanese piracy in Korea and China between 1350 and 1419:



Between 1350 and 1419, the coastlines of Korea and China became frequent targets of pirate fleets operating from the Japanese archipelago. Known in contemporary scholarship as “Japanese pillagers” 倭寇 (Ch. wokou, Jap. wakō, Kor. waegu), these fleets—sometimes numbering dozens or even hundreds of ships and comprising thousands of individuals—became the scourge of Chinese and Korean coastal populations, as entire communities were repeatedly massacred or carried off into captivity.

In response, Chinese imperial and Korean royal forces sought to repel these incursions, both at sea and on land, with varying degrees of success, as the pirates often demonstrated considerable military proficiency. This presentation examines the range of tactics and fighting techniques employed by pirate groups when confronting Korean—and, to a lesser extent, Chinese—armies. As will be shown, although guerrilla warfare predominated for much of the period, characterized by the skillful use of deception and subterfuge, pirate forces were at times capable of matching official armies in open engagements, both on land and at sea. A central aim of this study is to trace the evolution of these tactics over time and to analyze how state authorities adapted their responses accordingly.

BACKGROUND

For more information about the Research Training Group "Ambivalent Enmity: Dynamics of Antagonism in Asia, Europe, and the Middle East”, please go to our website https://www.ambivalentenmity.uni-heidelberg.de/en.

The RTG also produces the podcast series Enemy Encounters which features interviews and in-depth discussions conducted by members of the RTG with scholars, researchers and journalists about various cases of ambivalent enmity in Eurasia as a whole. It can be accessed here<https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/enemy-encounters/id1783137716> and here<https://music.amazon.de/podcasts/cac5885d-675c-4e4b-87fc-3f9cb9679405/enemy-encounters>.



This project has received funding from the German Research Foundation (Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, DFG).

Kind regards,



Barend Noordam



-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Barend Noordam

RTG Ambivalent Enmity | Postdoctoral Research Fellow


Heidelberg Centre for Transcultural Studies | HCTS

Karl Jaspers Centre

Voßstr. 2 | Building 4400 | Room 009

69115 Heidelberg, Germany



Tel: +49 (0) 6221 544082

E: barend.noordam at hcts.uni-heidelberg.de

W: https://www.ambivalentenmity.uni-heidelberg.de/en/people/dr-barend-noordam

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20260114/16eca6b1/attachment.html>