Korean embassies to Edo

• Japanese/Korean: 通信使 (tsuushinshi / t'ongsingsa)

Twelve Korean embassies visited Edo period Japan between 1607 to 1811. These were perceived as tribute missions by the Tokugawa bakufu, and paralleled Ryukyuan embassies sent by the Kingdom of Ryûkyû.

Each mission consisted of roughly 500 Koreans, and roughly 1500 Japanese escorts from Tsushima han, the domain which managed Japan-Korea relations in this period.

All but the last mission traveled to Edo, going via Tsushima, through the Inland Sea to Osaka, and then overland from there; the 1811 mission only journeyed as far as Tsushima. From 1607 until 1682, the Koreans were lodged at the temple of Honsei-ji in the Bakurochô neighborhood of Edo; the temple burned down in the Oshichi fire of 1682, and from then on Korean embassies stayed at the Higashi Honganji in Asakusa.

Japan obtained a variety of goods from Korea during this period, either through tribute or the associated trade, or other gifts, including rice, textiles, ceramics, mother-of-pearl inlays, books, documents such as Buddhist sutras, Buddhist sculptures, and temple bells. However, the greatest bulk of the trade was for ginseng, which comprised 27% of the Korean goods flowing into Japan, and which at times created monetary and trade deficit issues for the Japanese.

References

• Schottenhammer, Angela. "The East Asian maritime world, 1400-1800: Its fabrics of power and dynamics of exchanges - China and her neighbors." in Schottenhammer (ed.) The East Asian maritime world, 1400-1800: Its fabrics of power and dynamics of exchanges. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2007.