Difference between revisions of "Naeshirogawa"
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The community soon established their own shrine, called [[Tamayama Shrine]]<!--玉山神社-->, where Korean-style worship and rituals could take place.<ref>Gallery labels, [[Shokoshuseikan|Shôkoshûseikan]], Kagoshima.</ref> | The community soon established their own shrine, called [[Tamayama Shrine]]<!--玉山神社-->, where Korean-style worship and rituals could take place.<ref>Gallery labels, [[Shokoshuseikan|Shôkoshûseikan]], Kagoshima.</ref> | ||
| − | [[Satsuma han]] maintained records of the official status (''mibun'') of nearly everyone within the domain, and regulated their movement and intermarriage. Members of the Naeshirogawa "Korean" community were forbidden from marrying out of the community, though others could marry in. Beginning in [[1695]], they were obliged to use Korean personal names, and forbidden from using Japanese ones.<ref>Clements, "'Koreans' in Satsuma Domain," 8.</ref> These and other regulations helped the village retain this special character | + | [[Satsuma han]] maintained records of the official status (''mibun'') of nearly everyone within the domain, and regulated their movement and intermarriage. Members of the Naeshirogawa "Korean" community were forbidden from marrying out of the community, though others could marry in. Beginning in [[1695]], they were obliged to use Korean personal names, and forbidden from using Japanese ones.<ref>Clements, "'Koreans' in Satsuma Domain," 8.</ref> Some sources suggest they may have also been obliged to wear Korean-style clothing and to use Korean language rather than Japanese in everyday life.<ref>Clements, "'Koreans' in Satsuma Domain," pp8-9.</ref> These and other regulations helped the village retain this special character well into the 19th century. Notable figures who visited the village include [[Tachibana Nankei]] in [[1782]], [[Furukawa Koshoken|Furukawa Koshôken]] in [[1783]], [[Takayama Hikokuro|Takayama Hikokurô]] in [[1792]], [[Ino Tadataka|Inô Tadataka]] in [[1812]], and [[Rai Sanyo|Rai San'yô]] in [[1818]]; many of them described the distinctive local culture in their diaries.<ref>Gallery labels, Chinjukan Museum.[https://www.flickr.com/photos/toranosuke/51667840243/sizes/k/]</ref> |
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| + | Lords of Satsuma regularly visited the village on ceremonial occasions, viewing performances and displays of Korean culture and exchanging gifts with local officials. These visits resembled formal visits to other communities and locations within the domain, where gift exchanges and other ceremonial acts ritually reaffirmed loyalty to the relationship between the locality and the lord; in the case of Naeshirogawa, however, the foreignness (Koreanness) of the local community added an additional layer to framings of [[Shimazu clan]] power and legitimacy, as a clan to whom not only Japanese but also foreigners paid [[tribute]] or fealty. Representatives of the community may also have been obliged to appear at [[Kagoshima castle]] on particular occasions, and to participate in audience ceremonies or other rituals of fealty alongside samurai vassals and [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryukyuan]] officials.<ref>Clements, "'Koreans' in Satsuma Domain," pp9-10.</ref> | ||
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Latest revision as of 06:29, 27 January 2026
- Japanese: 苗代川 (Naeshirogawa)
Naeshirogawa (today, Miyama) is a village in Higashi-ichiki, Hioki City, Kagoshima prefecture, which in the Edo period was home to a community of potters descended from some 70[1] to 100[2] Korean ceramics experts forcibly taken from Korea to Japan during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea c. 1598/12. The community is particularly notable for having been forced to retain a distinct identity as "Koreans" throughout the Edo period. Even today, the village is home to an honorary consulate of the Republic of Korea.
While these potters and others are typically said to have been "kidnapped," "taken prisoner," "taken as slaves," or by other such phrases, more recent research as well as the narratives put forth by the Chinjukan Museum (the chief museum of this history, run by one of the potter families) itself use much more neutral phrases such as torai ("crossed over to [Japan]") and tomonatte kita ("accompanied [the Shimazu] and came [to Japan]").[3]
The community soon established their own shrine, called Tamayama Shrine, where Korean-style worship and rituals could take place.[4]
Satsuma han maintained records of the official status (mibun) of nearly everyone within the domain, and regulated their movement and intermarriage. Members of the Naeshirogawa "Korean" community were forbidden from marrying out of the community, though others could marry in. Beginning in 1695, they were obliged to use Korean personal names, and forbidden from using Japanese ones.[5] Some sources suggest they may have also been obliged to wear Korean-style clothing and to use Korean language rather than Japanese in everyday life.[6] These and other regulations helped the village retain this special character well into the 19th century. Notable figures who visited the village include Tachibana Nankei in 1782, Furukawa Koshôken in 1783, Takayama Hikokurô in 1792, Inô Tadataka in 1812, and Rai San'yô in 1818; many of them described the distinctive local culture in their diaries.[7]
Lords of Satsuma regularly visited the village on ceremonial occasions, viewing performances and displays of Korean culture and exchanging gifts with local officials. These visits resembled formal visits to other communities and locations within the domain, where gift exchanges and other ceremonial acts ritually reaffirmed loyalty to the relationship between the locality and the lord; in the case of Naeshirogawa, however, the foreignness (Koreanness) of the local community added an additional layer to framings of Shimazu clan power and legitimacy, as a clan to whom not only Japanese but also foreigners paid tribute or fealty. Representatives of the community may also have been obliged to appear at Kagoshima castle on particular occasions, and to participate in audience ceremonies or other rituals of fealty alongside samurai vassals and Ryukyuan officials.[8]
References
- Kurushima Hiroshi, et al., Satsuma Chôsen tôkô mura no yonhyaku nen, Iwanami Shoten (2014), v.
- Herbert Plutschow, A Reader in Edo Period Travel. Global Oriental, 2006. pp75-88.
- ↑ Ono Masako, Tomita Chinatsu, Kanna Keiko, Taguchi Megumi, "Shiryô shôkai Kishi Akimasa bunko Satsuyû kikô," Shiryôhenshûshitsu kiyô 31 (2006), 227.
- ↑ Rebekah Clements, "'Koreans' in Satsuma Domain," Global Japanese History and Culture: De-Isolating Japan from Past to Present, White, Screech, Kataoka (eds.), Routledge (2026), 7.
- ↑ Gallery labels, Chinjukan Museum, Miyama (Naeshirogawa), Kagoshima pref.; Rebekah Clements, "Captured Korean Potters and Alternate Attendance in Japan’s Satsuma Domain, 17th -18th Centuries," Aftermath of the East Asian War of 1592-1598 webinar, 13 Oct 2021. At the Yonhyakunen gama 400年窯, another kiln within the village, explanatory plaques use the phrase tsure kaerimashita, indicating that the Shimazu "brought [the potters] along with them when they returned." Explanatory plaques on-site, 400-nen gama kiln, Miyama.
- ↑ Gallery labels, Shôkoshûseikan, Kagoshima.
- ↑ Clements, "'Koreans' in Satsuma Domain," 8.
- ↑ Clements, "'Koreans' in Satsuma Domain," pp8-9.
- ↑ Gallery labels, Chinjukan Museum.[1]
- ↑ Clements, "'Koreans' in Satsuma Domain," pp9-10.