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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 Ryukyu|Kingdom of Ryûkyû]].
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 Ryukyu|Kingdom of Ryûkyû]].
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.<ref>Schottenhammer. pp56-57.</ref>
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.<ref>Schottenhammer. pp56-57.</ref>
==Logistics & Ritual Performance==
==Logistics & Ritual Performance==
Discussions between the shogun and the envoys were conducted through a series of intermediaries, with the shogun speaking to the ''[[roju|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.
Discussions between the shogun and the envoys were conducted through a series of intermediaries, with the shogun speaking to the ''[[roju|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.
==Decline and End of Missions==
These missions were very expensive affairs, with the shogunate loaning around 50,000 ''[[currency|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 Hoshu|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,"<ref>Hellyer, 105.</ref> 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. In [[1788]], [[Tairo|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.<ref>Hellyer, 105-106.</ref>
==Timeline of Missions==
==Timeline of Missions==