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The Lasakau Sea Warriors were a 19th-century warrior sub-culture in the pre-colonial state of Bau, in Fiji. The sea warriors were instrumental in spreading Bau's political power throughout the South Pacific archipelagic islands. The rise of the eminent islet of Bau amongst other embryonic states was due mainly to the projection of sea power through its naval forces. Bauan chief Ratu Tubuanakoro was praised by French Captain Dumont D'Urville in May 1827 for his geographic knowledge of the Fijian archipelago signifying Bau's naval influence.〔Sahlins, Marshall David. ''Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture''. University of Chicago Press, 2004, p. 53〕 More far-ranging than Bau's land warriors led by the ''Vusaradave'' clan, the ''Lasakau'' clan became the leading proponents of war and tribute for the emerging island kingdom.〔Sahlins, 2004, p. 64.〕 They became known as the ''Bai kei Bau'' or 'War fence of Bau'.〔Fiji historian Deryck Scarr concurred, stating, “Bau relied on levying… and power projected at sea by the Lasakau and Soso sailors”〕 Sahlins made the crucial observation that," The kings of Bau based their rule not on native cultivators but on native sailors and fishers-which is to say in Fijian categories, as in political strategies, not on the land but on the sea".〔Sahlins: 2004:65〕 This was the great political transformation that catapulted Bau to power over other pre-colonial kingdoms. ''The fleet of Thakombau sailed out this morning with not less than 200 warriors on board each canoe.''〔Quote from ''The Friendly and Feejee Islands – A Missionary Visit to Various Stations in the South Seas, in the year 1847'' by Rev. Walter Lawry, published by Charles Gilpin, 1850.〕 The Lasakau clan was traditionally the fishermen of Bau. The clan was also renowned as seafarers. This is verified by many traditional blood links to far-flung islands of Fiji. The leading families of Lasakau as purveyors of sea bounty and wealth married into Bauan royalty. They became key allies in the competing chiefly intrigues that shaped Fiji’s pre-colonial political landscape. As Bauan maritime supremacy came into contact with Western explorers, traders and missionaries, its native hegemonic power was transformed. Christian missionaries and British colonisers consolidated Bauan political influence as the conduit of Western civilization in the Fiji Islands. ==Bau history and ethnology== The importance of Bauan history to pre-colonial Fiji has often been emphasised by scholars. In tracing its ascendency, Scarr succinctly posits, "The rise of Bau was rapid, and was due partly to the natural ability of her chiefs, and partly to the advantages gained from the first use of firearms. The Bau chiefs claimed descent from certain elements of the Fijian mythical Nakauvadra mountain range migration. Whom, having come to Verata, divided and wandered widely; in the final stage of their wanderings they settled, in comparatively recent times, on the coast near their present island, then named Ulu-ni-vuaka (The Pig's Head)."The Kubuna people on Bau (Ulu-ni-vuaka) island became embroiled in a struggle for power involving their chiefs that subsequently involved other tribal kingdoms of Fiji. The relationship between the Roko Tui Bau as sacred King and the Vunivalu of Bau as his warlord hence underwent a role inversion in the early nineteenth century. Originally Bau island was occupied by the Butoni, a predatory tribe of sailors and traders. About 1760, the Bau chief Nailatikau seized Ulu-ni-vuaka and expelled the Butoni, who thenceforth were rovers, wandering to many parts of the Group establishing settlements at Lakeba and Somosomo.〔Sahlins, Marshall David. ''Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture''. University of Chicago Press, 2004. p. 64.〕 The Butoni however, continued to owe a degree of allegiance to their conquerors, and their canoes were always at the disposal of the chiefs of Bau for the transport of property and warriors. The Vunivalu of Bau, Nailatikau was succeeded by Banuve, who, during a period of nearly thirty years, consolidated the young state's position and carried out an ambitious scheme of improvements to the island. He reclaimed wide areas of the adjacent reef flats, and built stone canoe-docks and sea-walls as a protection against erosion. To provide manual labour, he allowed fishermen from Beqa and craftsmen from Kadavu to settle on the island in the areas known as Lasakau and Soso. The Lasakau people of the Yavusa Nabou clan trace their roots to Delailasakau Naitasiri and the Nakauvadra ranges foothills where their original ancestral home or ''yavutu'' was located. The clan re-located to Bau from Beqa Island on the invitation of the Vunivalu Ratu Banuve. This was after the banishment of the Levuka and Butoni people from Bau around the 1760s. A branch of the Lasakau clan from Beqa headed South to Yale, Kadavu Island. In addition an earlier migration of the Lasakau clan had also journeyed from Nakauvadra to Wainibuka with the Rokotuibau and on to Kubuna at Tai ko Bau with the Butoni and Levuka clans. The seafaring exploits of Bau's sea warriors, recounted through the lineage of the Lasakau Nabou sub-clan of Mataqalikira and in particular the two chiefly households of ''Nacokula'' and ''Nadrakuta'' reflected the Machiavellian and martial mores of the times. Through the chiefs of these two households, Bau's fortunes were intrepidly pursued by the Vunivalu Tui Kaba. Ratu Pope Seniloli the Vunivalu of Bau (1883–1936), in his sworn statement at the Native Lands Commission in 1933 for the Village of Lasakau asserted, ''Ai tokatoka ka liu ko Nacokula. Sa bula eso na kena kawa''. (The leading family is of the household Nacokula. The descendants are alive).''Oi rau vata ko Nacokula kei Nadrukuta'' (Nacokula and Nadrukuta are of the same household). ''A vale ruarua koya e rau i liuliu ni kai Lasakau kece edaidai.'' ( These two households are the present leaders of the Lasakau people)〔NLC Tukutuku Raraba Yavusa Nabou, Lasakau, Bau, 1933, p. 51.〕 There are strong geneaological and traditional evidence that suggests that the ancestors of these two households originated from within the Tui Kaba Vunivalu clan and not the Tunidau ni Bau clan as made out. In fact in his detailed drawing of the Islet of Bau in 1856 Joseph Waterhouse (minister) singles out Cakobau and Lasakau chief Kolivisawaqa II, also known as Kamikamica, and son of Ratu Loaloadravu Tubuanakoro who was also known as Kolivisawaqa, the elder half brother of Cakobau, residential sites or ''yavus'' from all others, signifying their high status in Bauan society.〔Marshall David Sahlins, ‘Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture’, University of Chicago Press, 2004, See p, 32 for Bau Islet plan- 1856〕 McGillivray described Kolivisawaqa’s house Nacokula as " the neatest he has seen in Fiji, with a number of chests of drawers,some trunks and other European goods in it." (David:1995:111) The surname 'Kamikamica' or 'pleasant' and 'sweet' that survives in the Nacokula household today is an allusion to the personality, chiefly character and high intellect of Ratu Loaloadravu Tubuanakoro alias Kolivisawaqa I. He was slain by Bauan rebels in antipathy to his father Ratu Tanoa Visawaqa's rule as Vunivalu. Tubuanakoro's son was named ' Kamikamica' alias Kolivisawaqa II to immortalize the fallen chief.Osbourne (1966:55) mentions Kamikamica as “Rev Lorimer Fison knew a Lasakauan, whose admiring countrymen, to give him his due, called him, Kolivisawaqa. Warrior and club went on to fame together”.(Fison:1871b:31) Another of Ratu Tubuanakoro's son was Ratu Vuniani Vukinamualevu who later was Roko Tui Ba in the 1880s. French Captain Dumont D'Urville in his 1827 expedition of the Fiji archipelago, was amazed at Tubuanakoro's seafaring skills and knowledge of the group of islands when Cakobau's elder half brother acted as pilot on board his ship the ''Astrolabe''. Captain D'Urville was particularly taken by Tubuanakoro's " gentle manners,agreeable appearance and accommodating character".〔Marshall David Sahlins, ‘Apologies to Thucydides: Understanding History as Culture’, University of Chicago Press, 2004, See pp. 52-53〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Lasakau sea warriors」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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