So clan
- Japanese: 宗家 (Sou-shi)
The Sô clan, based on Tsushima since the Kamakura period, were the traditional intermediaries in Japan-Korea relations.
Their relationship with the royal court of Joseon Dynasty Korea dates back to 1443. Joseon had already entered into various arrangements with other samurai clans, including the Ôuchi, offering opportunities for engaging in officially authorized trade in exchange for the samurai taking action against the wakô pirates harassing Korean shores. In 1443, Joseon entered into one such arrangement with the Sô, offering them authorization to send fifty trading ships to Korea each year and to levy certain maritime fees and cargo taxes, as well as an annual stipend of 200 koku of rice. In exchange, the Sô were to take a lead role in ensuring that all Japanese trading ships traveling to Korea were properly authorized, and in dealing with those which were not (namely, the wakô).[1]
Proving themselves effective in policing the waters around their domain, and in otherwise managing Korean-Japanese interactions, the Sô quickly found they had made themselves indispensable enough that both Korean and Japanese (shogunate) authorities had difficulty removing them from this unique and privileged position. An incident in 1510, in which Sô clan ships aided Japanese fishermen and traders in attacking Korean ships as part of protests for concessions from Korean officials, was to be only the first of many in which Sô actions frustrated or directly opposed either Korean or Japanese authorities, but which ended in the Sô retaining their monopoly on Korean-Japanese relations.[1]
After playing a role in Toyotomi Hideyoshi's Korean Invasions in the 1590s, Sô Yoshitoshi, reaffirmed as Lord of Tsushima han by the Tokugawa shogunate, worked to restore relations with Korea, and eventually succeeded. The Sô would retain their unique position throughout the Edo period, entrusted by the shogunate with being the sole Japanese authorities engaging in trade and diplomatic relations with Korea. Tsushima officials regularly traveled to Pusan, some of the only Japanese to travel between Japan and the outside world in this period, and between 1607 and 1811, twelve official Korean embassies visited Japan, most traveling to Edo for an audience with the shogun. Though only holding an official kokudaka of 100,000 koku, the importance of the Sô clan / Tsushima han in maintaining relations with Korea was of great significance for Edo period Japan.
In the Bakumatsu period, the Sô stood in support of the shogunate, and against the sonnô ("Revere the Emperor") movement.
Members: Sô Yoshishige and Sô Yoshitoshi (Yoshitomo)
References
- "Sô-ke" 宗家. Edo daimyô hyakka 江戸大名百家. Bessatsu Taiyô 別冊太陽. Spring 1978. p28.
