Korean embassies to Edo

• Other Names: 回答兼刷還使 (J: kaitouken sakkanshi)
• Japanese/Korean: （朝鮮）通信使 ((Chousen) tsuushinshi / (Joseon) 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.

The first several missions, in 1605, 1607, 1617, and 1624, are generally counted separately from the tsûshinshi ("diplomatic embassies"), as these missions focused on the repatriation of captives (from the 1590s wars), and for the negotiation of the resumption of relations. It was only from 1636 onwards, according to many interpretations, that formal relations were established and were being performed.

Unlike the shogunate's relationship with Ryûkyû, which was seen as a vassal to Satsuma han, however, the shogunate regarded Joseon Dynasty Korea as an equal, at least nominally, in certain respects. In practice, while the two countries spoke of one another as equals in certain contexts, in other respects they actively looked down upon one another, with the shogunate seeing these Korean embassies as "tribute" missions, and the Korean court seeing the Sô clan of Tsushima han, who facilitated such relations, as their vassals. The Korean court is said to have seen these missions to Edo as "inspection tours," in which Korean envoys kept an eye out to ensure the Japanese were not planning or preparing for another invasion of Korea, as they had done under Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the 1590s.

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.

The total voyage from Pusan to Edo covered a distance of nearly 1,100 km each way, and usually took about nine or ten months, round-trip.

Logistics & Ritual Performance

Each mission was led by a civil official, usually of the third rank (in the Korean court hierarchy), and consisted of roughly 350-500 Koreans, and roughly 1500 Japanese escorts from Tsushima han, the domain which managed Japan-Korea relations in this period. From 1655 onwards, all of the missions were sent, nominally, to congratulate a new shogun on his succession; unlike was the case with the Ryûkyû Kingdom, Korea did not send missions upon the succession of their own kings in order to request any sort of ritual acknowledgement or recognition of their new king.

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.

The missions sailed aboard a fleet of three Korean ships from Pusan to Tsushima, accompanied by three cargo ships, and escorted by a number of ships from Tsushima. Leaving their Korean ships behind at Tsushima, they then rode on Japanese ships from there on, accompanied by the lord of the Sô clan and 800-1500 of his men, as far as Osaka. They passed through stops at Ikishima and along the coasts of Chikuzen and Buzen provinces (in northern Kyushu), before passing through the straits at Shimonoseki (aka Akamagaseki).

The tiny island of Ainoshima, located in the Genkai Sea just north of the dual ports of Fukuoka and Hakata, serves as illustrative of the expenses and preparations involved in receiving a Korean mission at any one of these stopover points. More than a year in advance, Fukuoka han authorities funded and oversaw the construction of a new reception hall on the island. Villagers' homes, among other buildings, were used to house the other 350-500 Koreans, plus the lord of Tsushima and his men. The chief Buddhist temple on the island would be renovated, to serve as lodging for Fukuoka domain officials acting as hosts. Repairs were also made to harbors on the island, and at the port of Shingû; all of these efforts involved considerable corvée labor. In 1748, Fukuoka han deployed 443 small boats with 1,625 crew members plus another 1,174 corvée boatmen from across a number of coastal villages, to help provide transport for Fukuoka officials and supplies to Ainoshima, to mark shallows and help ensure a safe route for the Korean & Tsushima ships, and to provide enough fresh seafood to feed roughly 1,000 people (Koreans plus samurai).

After arriving in Fukuoka, the embassies made their way east around Kyushu, through the straits at Shimonoseki, into the Inland Sea. The maritime journey through the Inland Sea was accomplished aboard a fleet of vessels, numbering as many as one hundred according to one 1821 painting; for at least a portion of this journey, the fleet was preceded by a ship flying the banners of the Murakami clan, who in the Sengoku period had been the dominant power in these waters. The three lead Korean ambassadors each rode in separate thirty-meter-long vessels with red and gold banners, while smaller ships carried other members of the mission and their luggage. These lead ships, usually numbering four, were yakata bune commissioned by the shogunate, from regional daimyô, for this purpose.

At the port of Kaminoseki, near the easternmost reaches of Chôshû han, which might serve as a representative case, most of the houses along the main street, as well as a number of houses along the main street of the neighboring port of Murotsu, were made to house Tsushima or Chôshû officials accompanying the Korean missions. As they made their way through the Inland Sea, the mission stopped at port-towns such as Kamagari, Tomonoura, Ushimado, Murotsu, and Hyôgo no tsu, where they were provided formal receptions, food, and lodgings, as the Ryukyuan missions did as well.

After traveling through the Inland Sea by ship to Osaka, the embassy was lodged in the city's branch temple of Nishi Honganji, which boasted a massive compound more than capable of hosting all thousand-something members of the Korean & Tsushima retinues. From there, they then rode seven luxurious private riverboats (kawa gozabune lent by the daimyô of the eastern Inland Sea area for this purpose in partial fulfillment of their corvée obligations) up the river to Fushimi, and thence from Kyoto, set out overland. Roughly one hundred members of the mission were left behind in Osaka to guard the ocean-going vessels. Between Kyoto and Nagoya they took a combination of various highways which, in aggregate, came to be known as the Chôsenjin kaidô (“Koreans’ Highway”). This took them through Hikone, Ôgaki, and several other towns bypassed by the Tôkaidô. From Nagoya’s Miya-juku the rest of the way to Edo, they took the Tôkaidô. Pontoon bridges (funabashi, lit. "boat bridges") were thrown across the Tenryûgawa, Fujigawa, and the Tonegawa for the Koreans to cross over those places. Shoguns were the only other travelers for whom such bridges were constructed; daimyô on sankin kôtai journeys, as well as Ryukyuan embassies, generally had to make use of ferry boats. The journey from Kyoto to Edo took about one month, with the Korean mission being subsumed within a far larger group of some 2,500 people in total.

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.

The lead envoy (seishi) on such missions wore a robe decorated with kirin. Formal letters from the King of Korea were carried in a special chest, by a number of Korean officials; this was in contrast to the Ryukyuan embassies to Edo, in which a secretary (shokanshi) carried formal letters on his person. Even the open-sided palanquin of the lead envoy himself (making him more visible for onlookers) was carried by Japanese porters, showing the great esteem accorded these communiques. The streets were prepared ahead of time by having the streets swept, and water sprinkled to settle the dust. During the procession, men with long bamboo poles helped push the crowds out of the way, to make room for the procession to pass down the road. While many paradegoers simply stood or sat on the side of the road, others set up viewing booths, complete with tatami and sliding screen (fusuma) paintings.

Once the Korean envoys arrived at the shogun's castle, before they entered the audience chamber (Ôhiroma), the shogun and a number of his officials and retainers arranged themselves within the chamber. A record from 1719 indicates that at that time, the shogun, tairô, two protocol officers, and a retinue carrying their swords, arranged themselves in the upper dan, or dais, of the three in the chamber, and were mostly concealed with blinds (only the middle blind was raised); only the Kii and Mito lords (members of the Gosanke, holding the name Tokugawa) sat in the middle dan, while a variety of daimyô and other retainers sat in the lower dan; the figures seated in the upper dan were not at all visible from the lower dan.

The Korean envoys would then pass through the several anterooms, each also filled with daimyô and other retainers, and made their way to a wooden veranda outside of the audience chamber. In total, between the various rooms, all daimyô in the city were supposed to be present. They remained there while their formal missive from the king of Korea was passed forward, eventually being placed on the tatami just below the upper dan. The Korean envoys bowed and withdrew, and then the master of ceremonies moved the letter to a small alcove behind the shogun's seat. The leaders of the Korean mission (Lead Envoy, Vice Envoy, and Secretary) then approached, one at a time, in order of their status, coming as far as the second tatami mat below the edge of the middle dan (i.e. sitting in the lower dan), and paid their formal respects, before withdrawing once again.

Finally, the formal gifts offered by the envoys to the shogun were arranged for display in the garden. These generally included fine silks, ginseng, ramie textiles, tiger and fox furs, sharkskins, paper, brushes, wax, inkstones, and the like. The blinds separating the three dan were lowered; when the envoys returned to the audience chamber, two layers of blinds would separate them from the shogun. The three leaders of the mission ventured into the ôhiroma, and withdrew, three more times: first, to offer personal greetings, then to partake of a drink, and finally to partake of some food. The Lead Envoy alone was permitted to advance to the middle dan for the drink of saké, but only at that time.

Discussions between the shogun and the envoys were conducted through a series of intermediaries, with the shogun speaking to the rôjû, who passed the message to the lord of Tsushima han, who in turn told the Korean language interpreters, who in turn communicated the shogun's words to the Korean envoys. The audience lasted several hours in total, and while the daimyô and other officials of middling and high-rank were permitted to withdraw from the Ôhiroma while the banquet was being prepared, those in the san-no-ma and yon-no-ma (third and fourth antechambers) were obliged to remain in place throughout the event.

The shogun reciprocated the Korean king's gifts by presenting the envoys with helmets and armor, swords, gold-foil-backed folding screen paintings, volumes of silver, or brocades, among other products. Additional gifts were also exchanged between the Korean envoys and the rôjû and other high-ranking shogunate figures.

Decline and End of Missions

These missions were very expensive affairs, with the shogunate loaning around 50,000 ryô to the domain in 1711, 1718, and again in 1746, and granting (not loaning) the domain a whopping 100,000 ryô in 1764 to help pay for them. All of these were loans the domain struggled to pay back, and for the most part never did. The missions were expensive for the Korean Court as well, in part because they had to pay to host preparatory missions from Tsushima. In 1753, even Amenomori Hôshû, who had previously memorialized the shogunate in support of the importance of these missions, urged that the missions were "not of great benefit to the Japanese realm," and not worth the great financial cost.

Thus, after 1764, the shogunate demurred from interest in receiving further missions. With Tokugawa hegemony firmly established after more than 150 years in power, the role of the embassies for supporting or enhancing Tokugawa legitimacy was long obsolete. Financial and diplomatic status matters were also of concern. These missions were expensive, costing the Sô clan, the shogunate, and others considerable amounts to feed, house, and otherwise provide for the Korean envoys during their time in Japan. Further, having the Korean embassies come only as far as Tsushima would better mirror the restrictions placed on Japanese officials in Korea, who were not permitted to travel beyond Pusan. In 1788, Tairô Matsudaira Sadanobu advised Tsushima to seek some kind of revision of the diplomatic protocols, so as to reduce the costs of the impending mission to congratulate Tokugawa Ienari on becoming shogun; Sadanobu then suggested in 1791 that further missions not travel all the way to Edo, but instead meet with shogunal representatives in Tsushima. The Koreans initially rejected this suggestion, asserting the importance of continuing the established practices, but after much negotiations, a mission was finally dispatched in 1811 to congratulate Ienari, 27 years after his succession. This would turn out to be the last Korean mission of the Edo period.

The shogunate ordered Tsushima in 1860 to request another mission from the Korean court, to be scheduled for 1866, and to come only so far as Tsushima (not to Edo). However, in 1865, the shogunate then ordered Tsushima to postpone this mission until 1876; the shogunate fell three years later, and that mission never manifested.

Timeline of Missions

• 1605 - Samyeongdang and Son Munik, the first Korean envoys to Japan since the invasions of Korea of the 1590s, meet with Tokugawa Ieyasu and Hidetada at Fushimi castle, having traveled to Kyoto with Sô Yoshitoshi, lord of Tsushima han, despite the Korean Court having likely only expected the envoys to go as far as Tsushima. They meet as well with Honda Masanobu and Saishô Shôtai, while staying at the temple of Honpô-ji in Kyoto. This is not counted among the twelve official missions of the Edo period, but represents the beginning of rapprochement. Among other terms of negotiations, 3000 Korean prisoners of war are returned to Korea.
• 1607 - A mission is led by Ryeo Ugil (aka Chiwon , with Vice Envoy Gyeong-seom (aka Chil-song), and Secretary (jongsagwan) Jeong Ho-sil (aka Il-chwi). Many members of the mission are former samurai who, after surrendering to Korean forces during Hideyoshi's invasions, were permitted to take Korean names and to assimilate into Korean society, becoming either court officials of some sort, or soldiers (warriors) in service to the court. The mission meets with Shogun Tokugawa Hidetada in Edo, and then on the return journey meets with Tokugawa Ieyasu at Sunpu.
• 1617 - A Korean mission meets with Tokugawa Hidetada in Kyoto. Hayashi Razan is among those invited to attend the reception.
• 1624 - A mission travels to Edo. Led by Chŏng Ip, it is the smallest of the missions, involving only 300 members.
• 1636 - The first formal tongsinsa (tsûshinshi) is dispatched. It is led by Im Kwang, and travels to Edo and to Nikkô Tôshôgû. Among the terms discussed is the frequency of munwigwam missions to Tsushima.
• 1643 - The mission is led by Yun Sunji and consists of 462 members. It is sent nominally to congratulate the shogunate on the birth of a shogunal heir (Tokugawa Ietsuna was born in 1641). The envoys travel to Nikkô Tôshôgû, where they present a temple bell as a gift from King Injo, cast on the orders of the shogunate. The bell continues to hang at the Yômeimon in Nikkô today.
• 1655 - The mission, led by Jo Hyeong (1606-1679) and Nam Yong-ik (1628-1692), and consisting of 488 members, travels to Edo, and to Nikkô, where they present a number of lanterns for the mausoleum of Tokugawa Iemitsu; this is the last time a Korean embassy visits Nikkô. It is also the first Korean mission to Edo since the fall of the Ming Dynasty, and the beginning of Korean submission to the Qing Dynasty.
• 1682 - A mission travels to Edo. It is led by Yun Chiwan (尹趾完), with Yi Ŏn'gang (李彦綱) as vice-ambassador, and Pak Kyŏngsun (朴慶俊) as secretary.
• 1711 - A mission travels to Edo. It consists of 569 Koreans, plus whatever number of Tsushima officials, porters, etc. The mission is the only one to have four interpreters, while most have three, and some only one or two. The interpreters on this mission were Ch'oe Sangjip (崔尚山＋集), Yi Sŏngnin (李碩麟), Yi Sŏngnyŏn (李松年), and Kim Sinam (金始南).
• 1719 - A mission led by Lead Envoy Hong Ch'ijung, Vice Envoy Hwang Sŏn, and Secretary Yi Myŏng'ŏn, travels to Edo, staying at Honnô-ji in Kyoto for one night on their way, and several more nights on their way back. The mission includes three interpreters: Pak Chaech'ang (朴再昌), Han Huyŏn (韓後瑗), and Kim T'onam (金圖南). The chesulgwan (製述官, chief composer of documents) on the mission, Sin Yu-Han, composes the Haeyurok, perhaps one of the most extensive travel diaries of a Korean official in Tokugawa Japan extant.
• 1748 - A mission travels to Edo.
• 1764 - A Korean mission travels to Edo for the last time during the Tokugawa period. The mission consists of 498 people, and their total journey takes 382 days.
• 1809 - Korean envoys in Tsushima are informed that the next mission would only be expected to come as far as Tsushima, and not to go to Edo.
• 1811 - The final formal Korean mission of the Edo period meets with Sô clan officials in Tsushima, and does not travel to the Japanese "mainland," let alone to Edo.
• 1841 - An envoy from Tsushima travels to Pusan and requests that a mission be sent to Tsushima, but none ever is.
• 1844 - The shogunate requests, via Tsushima, that Korea send a mission in 1846, but this is ultimately cancelled.

References

• Lillehoj, Elizabeth. "A Gift for the Retired Empress." in Lillehoj (ed.). Acquisition: Art and Ownership in Edo-Period Japan. Floating World Editions, 2007. pp91-110.
• 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.
• Anne Walthall, "Hiding the shoguns: Secrecy and the nature of political authority in Tokugawa Japan," in Bernard Scheid and Mark Teeuwen (eds.) The Culture of Secrecy in Japanese Religion, Routledge (2006), 341-344.