largest number in the thirteenth century; in 1242 alone Japan is said to have imported one hundred million Chinese coins. cf. Shinori hoard). In 1407, the Ming court "gifted" its Japanese counterparts fifteen million coins, and thirty million more in 1434. In the opposite direction, the 1539 Japanese mission took with it of copper, close to twice as much as any of the fifteenth-century missions. Discovery of rich veins of silver in Japan in the first half of the sixteenth century (see Iwami Ginzan Silver Mine) added this to the mix, and with the exchange rate between the silver tael and copper coins running at 1:750 in China and 1:250 in Japan, there was some profit potential. The trade was not without danger: marauding wakō pirates continued to menace shipping, peaking in the 1550s. The Ningbo Incident occurred in 1523, and from the 1510s, the Portuguese were a new presence. Nevertheless, it was not until the fall of the Ōuchi clan, who by this time had effectively monopolized the missions, in the middle of the sixteenth century, that this pattern would be finally broken. The 1547 mission, returning in 1549, was the last to be accommodated by the Ming authorities. As per The Cambridge History of Japan, "by the middle of the sixteenth century, political conditions in Japan had become so chaotic that there was indeed good reason to question the legitimacy of embassies arriving from that country". Two further dates help frame that of the Japan-Ming trade ship flag: 1567, when the Ming rescinded their maritime prohibitions, and 1592, when Toyotomi Hideyoshi launched his initial invasion of Korea. The conquest of the Ming, that effete "country of long sleeves", was next on his list: "to take by force this virgin of a country, Ming, will be [as easy] as for a mountain to crush an egg". Description The sizeable flag, measuring some , is made of hemp, two widths of cloth joined together to make one larger canvas. The top is folded back over itself, and stitched with black hemp thread. Running up the left-hand side, to enable attachment to a flagpole, are thirteen , of deer-hide, stitched on, again, with black hemp thread. The upper and central field is occupied by the large , or family crest, of the Takasu Family. Below, is the brushed ink inscription, with the signatures and kaō, or stylized signatures, of three Ming