Gieisei nikki
The Gieisei nikki is the only surviving record (outside of poetry collections) written by a member of a Ryukyuan mission to Edo while on the mission. It was written by Gima peechin Sai Shû, the gieisei (head of street musicians) on the 1832 Ryukyuan mission to Edo, and by the mission's deputy envoy (fukushi) Takushi ueekata Mô Ishin, who took over after Gima's death. The document, some one hundred pages in modern movable type (katsuji) transcription, details the weather, travel route, clothing, lodging, and food for each day of the journey, as well as Shimazu directives and communications, among other matters, beginning with the mission's departure from Kagoshima on 1832/9/1, and ending with consideration of documents received from the shogunate[1] on 1833/4/23 in Shuri, after the mission's return to Kagoshima in 1833/3.
While quite detailed, the Gieisei nikki still omits many details, often referring the reader to the Chief Ambassador's diary, the Seishi-no-kata go-nikki, which today no longer survives. This is particularly the case when it comes to describing events where the Chief Ambassador (seishi) was present and the gieisei or fukushi was not, such as the seishi's audiences with the shogun.
Though this is the only such surviving diary by a member of a Ryukyuan mission, similar diaries or records written by members of the Korean missions survive in great numbers, including records for all (each) of those Korean missions.
External Links
- The full text of the diary (in Japanese modern movable type transcription) can be found in: Ikemiya Masaharu, Shiryô shôkai: Gieisei nikki 資料紹介・儀衛生日記, Nihon tôyô bunka ronshû 1 (1995), 109-233.
References
- Ikemiya Masaharu, Shiryô shôkai 資料紹介, Gieisei nikki 儀衛生日記, Nihon tôyô bunka ronshû 1 (1995), 109-112.
- Yokoyama Manabu 横山学, Ryûkyû koku shisetsu torai no kenkyû 琉球国使節渡来の研究, Tokyo: Yoshikawa kôbunkan (1987), 149-150.