Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-tf8b9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-29T15:41:43.215Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Exchange of Envoys between Korea and Japan during the Tokugawa Period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

George M. McCune
George M. McCune
Affiliation:
Occidental College
Get access

Extract

In the Korean records, the relations between Korea and Japan are termed kyorin, meaning neighborly relations with a neighboring country. That term contrasts sharply with the term used for the relations between China and Korea usually called sadae, serving the great. Korea always demonstrated an attitude of great deference to the Chinese Empire, her communications being often almost servile in tone; whereas, in regard to the Japanese, the position was almost reversed. The Japanese were treated peremptorily; envoys were frequently scorned and their requests considered as coming from a suppliant.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 3 , May 1946 , pp. 308 - 325
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1946

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1 Korean sources are primarily used in this article. The major ones are: (1) Tongmun'g'wanji [Records of the office of interpreters] (3rd. edition, 1881, modern edition, Seoul, 1913)Google Scholar, 12 bks.; (2) Chüngbo munhỏn pigo [Revised official encyclopedia] (Seoul, 1907), 250 bks.; (3) Chǔngjŏng kyorinji [Extended account of relations with Japan] (Seoul, 1862), 6 bks., partially translated by H. B. Hulbert in the Korea review (Seoul), 3 and 4 (1903–1904); (4) Yijo sillok [Yi dynasty annals] (Photolithographic printing by Keijo Imperial University of original, 1930–1934), 864 vols.; (4) Chōsen shi [History of Korea] (Seoul, 1931–1938), 35 vols., compilation of abstracts from Korean manuscript and published official sources. The first source is cited below by book number of 1881 edition and page number of modern edition; the Sillok is cited by reign series, volume and page, to which date of entry in eastern calendar is added. In the absence of other citation it may be assumed that the source is the Tongmun'gwanji.

2 The erroneous notion that Korea was a sort of tributary state of Japan, or that Korea sent frequent embassies to Japan, continues to appear in various western studies of Far Eastern affairs. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Professor Kuno, Yoshi S., Japanese expansion on the Asiatic continent (2 vols., Berkeley: University of California Press, 1937–1940), vol. 1, pp. 234–243Google Scholar, attributes the common error concerning tributary status to an incorrect extension into a later period of a pre-seventh century relationship between Japan and part of south Korea.

3 The term “Lord”is used to follow the Korean terminology, although in Japan he was called a daimyo. The Korean records do not use the latter term. The Korean records use Tacmado-ju or simply Toju literally master, prince, ruler or lord of Tsushima.

4 Korean records stress the humility of Japan in renewing relations. Japanese accounts confirm them. See Kuno, op. rif., vol. 2, pp. 17–20.

5 The dates of the despatch of envoys as found in the Korean records follow. Japanese sources are almost identical. See Kuno, op. cit., vol. 2 pp. 336 and 339.

6 The translation “Communication Envoy” is chosen for brevity and usefulness rather than literal accuracy. The characters mean: Communicate-letter-envoy, i.e. an envoy who carried letters of communication. Kuno terms them “Envoys of Good Will and Enquiry,” a phrase which might more aptly be applied to the Muntvigivan , lesser officials sent to Tsushima, discussed below.

7 A complete account of this embassy is contained in the Haehaeng ch'ongjai , 3 vols. in manuscript, written in 1764 by the Document Official, Nam Suan , who wrote a diary of the trip and described the country. This manuscript was lent to the present writer by a descendant of the official. Each volume contains 100 double pages. The contents briefly are as follows: Volume 1, general introduction; leaving the palace; travel to the coast of Korea; Volume 2, sailing to Osaka; overland travel to Yedo; Volume 3, delivering the message to the Shogun; return by land and sea; report to the king; general observations. Another diary, that of the envoy who went in 1719, is translated and published in Japanese, Sin Yuhan Haeyurok (Seoul, 1923). See also Kuno, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 334–343, who quotes extensively from many Japanese authors concerning these embassies.

8 Vongmun'gwmji, bk. 5, p. 109.

9 Haehaeng ch'ongjae, vols. 1 and 2 passim; similar lists are also contained in T'ongmun'gwanji, bk. 6, pp. 145–146.

10 Haehaeng ch'ongjae, vol. 1. A partial list of gifts exchanged between the Shogun and the Korean envoy in 1719, 1748, and 1811, taken from Japanese records, is given by Kuno, op. cit., vol. 2, pp. 339–341. The lists he presents do not include the gifts granted to Japanese officials other than the Shogun. T'mgmun'gwanji, bk. 6, p. 138 ff. itemizes in detail all of the gifts which Korea sent to Japan in each of the embassies, 1606–1763, but includes only a partial list of the gifts received.

11 Sunjo sillok, vol. 12, p. 40b (Western year 1809; Eastern 8th month, 27th day). Hereafter cited as 12:40b (1809, 8/27).

12 The Sunjo sillok, vols. 7–14 (1805–1811), has numerous references to the negotiations and to the embassy which was despatched. It also contains many of the documents and memorials concerned. The protocol of 1810 is to be found in Sunjo sillok, 13:45b (1810, 11/11), and the report of the 1811 envoy when he returned, ibid., 14:50b (1811, 7/26).

13 Chösen shi, series 6, vol. 3, p. 18 (Western year 1841; Eastern 6th month, 10th day). Hereafter cited 6, 3: 18 (1841,6/10).

14 ibid., 6, 3:94 (1844, 9/7).

15 ibid., 6, 3:180 (1847, 7/5).

16 ibid., 6, 3:435 (1855, 1/10).

17 ibid., 6,4:16 (1864, 3/17).

18 T'ongmu'gwanji, bk. 5, pp. 109–110, gives the names of the other Japanese nobles and a considerable account of the ceremonies performed.

19 ibid., bk. 5, pp. 123–124.

20 T'ongmun'gwumji, bk. 5, pp. 110–111, 129–130; Munhtm pigo, bk. 178, p. 17b. This treaty is discussed more fully in the following pages.

21 Kyorinji, bk. 3, p. 300; see also T'ongmm'gwimji, bk. 5, p. 110.

22 T'ongmun'gwanji, bk. 6, p. 152.

23 Within the Korean government itself, there was an official known as a Munviigvian whose duty it was to visit provincial areas on behalf of the court to “comfort” the people when there was a disturbance and to inquire into their grievances. For characters see note 6 p. 310.

24 The Tüksongsa are also called the Toju Songsa (Envoys of the Island Lord); the Sudoŏ-sŏn were accompanied by Songsa (Envoys), bearing the name of their respective lords. The Lord of Tsushima himself was one of the Japanese officials granted a seal by the Korean Government, there being six in all. The granting of a seal placed these Japanese in a semi-tributary relationship to the Korean court, but allowed them to engage in trade with Korea. The Titled Officers were rewarded because of services they had rendered Korea at the time of the Hideyoshi invasion. T'ong-munwanji, bk. 5, pp. 111, 114–116. For a study of the origins of the seal-granting, see Nakamura Eikō “Sensho ju-tosho jin kō” [A study of the persons who received seals in the early Yi dynasty], Seikyü|gakusö (Seoul, 1932), vol. 7, pp. 79–100, and vol. 8, pp. 88–123.

25 The names “Seal Ships” and “Title Ships” were still used in the nineteenth century.

26 T'engmun'g'wanji, bk. 5, pp. 118–123, contains detailed information concerning the composition, gifts, and other aspects, of all Japanese Messengers and six additional representatives.

27 The subject of trade between Korea and Tsushima is only touched upon incidentally in this study of the exchange of envoys.

28 Itemized requisitions to cover the needs of the Japanese, tabulated as daily allotment per person, may be found in T'ongmun'g wanji, bk. 5, pp. 111–113.

29 This term generally applies to gifts given to royalty by subjects and is frequently used in Korean records to refer to articles sent by country officials to the palace as special contributions. It is a further indication that the Lord of Tsushima was considered a tributary of Korea.