Wokou

Wokou
An 18th-century Chinese painting depicting a naval battle between wokou pirates and the Chinese
Chinese name
Chinese	倭寇
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin wōkòu Bopomofo ㄨㄛ ㄎㄡˋ Wu Romanization u kheu Hakka Romanization vo24 kieu55 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping wo1 kau3 Southern Min Hokkien POJ E-khò͘ Tâi-lô e-khòo
Korean name
Hangul	왜구
Hanja	倭寇
Transcriptions Revised Romanization waegu McCune–Reischauer waegu
Japanese name
Kanji	倭寇
Kana	わこう
Transcriptions Romanization wakō

Wokou (Chinese: 倭寇; pinyin: Wōkòu; Japanese: 倭寇; Hepburn: Wakō; Korean: 왜구; Hanja: 倭寇; RR: Waegu; Chinese transliteration: "dwarf bandits"), which translates to "Japanese pirates", were pirates who raided the coastlines of China and Korea from the 13th century to the 17th century.^[1][2] The wokou were made of various ethnicities of East Asian ancestry, which varied over time and raided the mainland from islands in the Sea of Japan and East China Sea.^[3] Wokou activity in Korea declined after the Treaty of Gyehae in 1443^[1] but continued in Ming China and peaked during the Jiajing wokou raids in the mid-16th century. Chinese reprisals and strong clamp-downs on pirates by Japanese authorities saw the wokou disappear by the 17th century.