--- title: "Kublai Khan’s Failed 1281 Invasion of Japan Brought Along Dice and Game Tiles" description: "Divers off Takashima found 5 dice and 29 tiles in the stern of a Mongol ship of about 30 metres, close to what looks like its kitchen" author: "Nate Ledger" published: 2026-11-06T20:05:24Z modified: 2026-11-07T09:49:09Z url: https://rews.cc/a/kublai-khan-s-failed-1281-invasion-of-japan-brought-along-di-c92e9a language: en tags: ["archaeology", "history", "china", "japan", "mongolia", "asia"] publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)" --- # Kublai Khan’s Failed 1281 Invasion of Japan Brought Along Dice and Game Tiles *Divers off Takashima found 5 dice and 29 tiles in the stern of a Mongol ship of about 30 metres, close to what looks like its kitchen* By Nate Ledger · November 6, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/kublai-khan-s-failed-1281-invasion-of-japan-brought-along-di-c92e9a ## In brief - Divers found 5 dice and 29 game tiles in a ship from Kublai Khan’s 1281 invasion fleet that sank off Takashima, Nagasaki - Matsuura’s education board and Kokugakuin University’s Yoshifumi Ikeda announced the finds on October 28, 2026 - About 4,000 artefacts have come from the site so far, and these are the first gaming pieces among them - The tiles resemble those of a Chinese game sometimes linked to mahjong, but the exact game has not been identified - The ship is estimated at about 30 metres long, possibly the largest of three invasion wrecks found in the area Kublai Khan, Genghis Khan’s grandson, founded the Yuan dynasty in 1271 and finished conquering China when he beat the Southern Song in 1279. Then he turned to Japan. His first attempt, in 1274, failed. In 1281 he sent a bigger fleet, manned from China and Korea, which ranked among the largest overseas military operations of its time. That failed too. Japanese defenders slowed the advance, the fleet had supply problems, and in August a violent typhoon destroyed much of it. Japanese tradition later tied those storms to the idea of kamikaze, the “divine wind.” Much of the fleet is still on the seabed off Takashima island in Nagasaki Prefecture. In one of those wrecks, archaeologists have now found 29 game tiles and five dice. [According to Arkeonews](https://arkeonews.net/gaming-pieces-found-on-sunken-ship-of-genghis-khans-grandson-who-conquered-china/), this is the first time gaming pieces have turned up among the invasion wrecks in the area. The finds came from a joint dig by the Matsuura City Board of Education and Yoshifumi Ikeda, an underwater archaeologist at Kokugakuin University, and [the Nagasaki Shimbun reported](https://www.nagasaki-np.co.jp/kijis/?kijiid=be55aea5401b44ed90b5c0eb91399bf0) that they announced them on October 28. The dice are each about a centimetre on a side. The tiles measure about 3 centimetres by 1.5 centimetres and are 0.4 centimetres thick. Some are marked with patterns that look like two dice faces set side by side. All 34 pieces were in the stern of a ship lying about 150 metres offshore, in 18 to 19 metres of water. ![Wooden dominoes and dice rest among the curved timbers of an underwater shipwreck, with sunlight streaming down through green water.](https://rews.cc/img/1868c376abbc5d0501a0676163903f38d3d3142e.webp) Archaeologists have pulled roughly 4,000 artefacts out of the water off Takashima over the years, mostly what you’d expect from a sunken invasion: weapons, ceramics, ship parts. None of them was a game until now. Uchino, who heads the cultural properties section of Matsuura’s board of education, told the paper that finding this many gaming pieces at a 13th-century site “is not something that happens very often.” ## Which game, exactly? Nobody knows yet. The tiles look like those of tianjiu, a Chinese game, and the researchers think they belong to a tradition that may connect to later games such as mahjong. They haven’t identified the specific game. [Archaeology Magazine](https://archaeology.org/news/2026/11/06/playing-cards-found-in-mongol-invasion-shipwreck-off-japan/), drawing on the Mainichi Shimbun, calls the pieces “cards” for koppai, a game that came from China, and quotes Ikeda: “The koppai cards, which are considered precursors to mahjong tiles, were likely used for recreation.” In comments [carried by Nagasaki Culture Telecasting](https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/e2924f1e3c0fde734520c3b8e11faf2ef90e907b), he was more careful. There seems to be a game, he said, that is sometimes described as an ancestor of mahjong, and “what has come up this time is almost identical to that game’s tiles.” So the mahjong link is a resemblance to a game that might be an ancestor. That’s two steps of “maybe,” which is about normal for archaeology and a bit less than normal for headlines. ![Two sailors wearing headscarves play a tile game on a wooden table aboard a boat, surrounded by coiled ropes and choppy water.](https://rews.cc/img/f84f5eaea609f1856fd8bbd36742cb71404097a6.webp) ## The kitchen I think the most interesting part is where the pieces were found. The same part of the stern held iron objects thought to be food containers, a grinding bowl and a knife. The Nagasaki Shimbun adds Chinese ceramics, and [Fukuoka Now reported](https://www.fukuoka-now.com/en/news/mongol-invasion-wreck-reveals-gaming-pieces-and-ships-scale/) fish bones as well. The researchers think the stern may have been where food was prepared or supplies were stored. Ikeda’s guess is that the people doing the cooking played during their breaks, and the Nagasaki Shimbun says the team suspects those people were Chinese. It is a hypothesis, and they present it as one. The usual way to tell this story is as a three-way contest between an emperor, the samurai and the weather. But a 13th-century invasion fleet was mostly a floating logistics business. Every soldier on board needed feeding, so the ships carried cooks, sailors and people to haul supplies. Most of those people were not there for the fighting. They had shifts, and between shifts they had free time, and evidently a way to fill it. Ikeda put it this way, quoted [by Nagasaki International Television](https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/e65241a43d113deb735266985d3ed8299d42b595) and others: what has been revealed is the life of “the people who ran the ship, not for war.” Archaeology Magazine’s English version of the same idea is that “The discoveries offer a glimpse into life during wartime.” ![A woodcut-style ship’s galley contains a large cauldron with a wooden ladle, stacked bowls, a mortar and pestle, and an apron beside an ocean-facing window.](https://rews.cc/img/2a8023d8a3b032e33e1a45b10a8bca41ffc590dd.webp) Those people did not get home. The typhoon that ended the invasion sank this ship with everything on it, the dice included. ## The ship This is the third invasion wreck found off Takashima. The first was found in 2011 and the second in 2015. Arkeonews dates the third to 2023, while the Nagasaki Shimbun says it was confirmed in 2024. Since October 2 divers have been digging its western side, which hadn’t been excavated before, and they found what looks like the stern, internal bulkheads and a structure believed to be the keel. About 15 metres of hull survives on the seabed. Combined with earlier survey results, that suggests the ship was about 30 metres long. If that holds, it may be the largest of the three wrecks. Its construction follows Chinese shipbuilding traditions, which makes sense for a fleet assembled from several regions’ ships and crews. The wrecks lie within the [Takashima Kōzaki underwater site](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takashima_K%C5%8Dzaki_Site) at the mouth of Imari Bay. Matsuura and Ikeda say they want to keep working with research bodies in South Korea, Mongolia and China. According to Fukuoka Now, more excavation is planned for 2027. Interest in the Mongol world’s physical remains has been running high lately, from [a rare Mongol-era shield](https://rews.cc/a/shepherd-s-find-in-siberia-is-a-rare-mongol-era-shield-from--f3f4c3) found by a shepherd in Siberia to this wreck. Kublai Khan staked an enormous fleet on taking Japan and lost it. Somebody near the stern had apparently brought a game with lower stakes.