Photo/Illutration A wooden structure believed to be a bulkhead of a Mongolian ship from the Yuan Dynasty’s 1281 invasion of Japan (Provided by the municipal education board of Matsuura)

There is a phrase called “mukurikokuri.”

According to the dictionary at hand, it is a metaphor for something frightening, and parents would say, “Mukurikokuri will come” to make children stop crying.

When written in kanji, it is a combination of two words “Moko” (Mongolia) and “Kokuri” (Goguryeo), one of the three ancient kingdoms of Korea that existed until the mid-seventh century.

This refers to the military forces of Genko, two military campaigns launched against Japan by the Mongol Empire (Yuan Dynasty) and its vassal state, Goguryeo, in the years 1274 and 1281.

I repeatedly mused on this mysterious sound rooted in history while visiting Takashima, an island located at the mouth of Imari Bay in Nagasaki Prefecture.

This year marks 750 years since the “Bunei no Eki” (Battle of Bunei), the first Mongolian invasion in 1274.

During the second invasion, “Koan no Eki” (the Battle of Koan), this small island became a battlefield and many ships sank around it during a storm. Just last month, the third ship was found.

At the municipal buried cultural properties center on the island, the items retrieved from the site so far were on display.

Among them, the “tetsuhau” caught my eye.

It was a firearm described in “Moko Shurai Ekotoba” (Mongol invasion picture stories), a two-volume set of picture scrolls by an unknown author depicting the scene of actual combat during the Mongol invasions.

We saw the picture in school textbooks. I had thought the weapon was made of metal, but it turned out to be a clay ball stuffed with iron fragments that acted like a hand grenade.

The foreign forces that suddenly appeared in that chapter of Japanese history were not only comprised of Mongolians, but of other ethnic groups as well, which had been, let’s say, added by the Yuan.

According to professor Yoshifumi Ikeda of Kokugakuin University, who conducted the underwater research, the most commonly found items were utensils used by the people of China’s Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279), which had been destroyed by the Mongol army, and also spoons from the subjugated kingdom of Goguryeo.

The soldiers were forced to fight in a foreign land at the whim of a different race.

What were their thoughts? Their sorrow is timeless. My thoughts leapt to modern times, and characters of North Korea fleetingly crossed my mind.

The sea, which was bordered by small and large bays, as I saw it from the center, was incredibly calm.

The remains of past warriors’ dreams—for a long, long time, they continue to sleep at the bottom of the sea.

—The Asahi Shimbun, Nov. 10

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Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.