Yorifune (drifting ships and wreckage) (寄船)
"Yorifune" meant ships drifting or drifted ashore and their loads after having met with some mishaps in the medieval and modern times in Japan. On the other hand, driftage in general was referred to as "Yorimono." Furthermore, it is also said that drifting ships were particularly referred to as "nagarebune" while only ships drifted ashore were referred to as "Yorifune."
Since ancient times in Japan, people considered a shipwreck itself as a divine punishment, so that any ship drifting or drifted ashore might be looted and captured by a person or persons who found it or rescued somebody from it. According to common law, any ship drifting or drifted ashore was regarded as a property owned by a local feudal lord or the local people or as a common property of the region, but its ownership often triggered conflicts among the people. In order to evade such conflicts, various decrees were issued, beside that people donated the ship to a shrine or temple intending to avoid conflicts among them and obtain religious benefits at the same time. Already in the Kamakura Period, Munakata Taisha Shrine near Hakata was said to have purveyed its repairing costs for the past several hundred years from donation of Yoribune (ships drifted ashore) and Yorimono (driftage) only, according to Kansenji (an edict from Daijokan (the Grand Council of State)) dated May 15, 1231.
According to Kaisen Shikimoku (the oldest sea law of Japan), common law of Kaizoku-shu (pirates) drafted on the pretense of statutory law of Kamakura Bakufu Government in the Mromachi Period, confiscation of a wrecked ship was allowed only when no survivor nor owner of the ship was found but otherwise prohibited without consensus of survivors or shipowners, if any. This regulation was inherited by bunkokuho (the law individual sengoku-daimyo enforced in their own domain) of the Sengoku Period (the Period of Warring States in Japan), such as Imagawa Kana Mokuroku (Kana List of Articles of the Imagawa). However, in fact, there were some people who intentionally sank others' ships and looted the loaded goods as driftage of yorifune. Toyotomi and Tokugawa governments tightened control of unlawful acts, but at the same time they tried to solve problems by instituting such laws as to assure Buichi and other particular rights of a finder or rescuer of drifting/drifted ships.