Ivory tally system

• Established: 1474
• Japanese: 日朝牙符制 (Nicchou gafusei)

The ivory tally system was a system devised in 1474 to help ensure the authenticity of Japanese envoys to Korea claiming to represent the Ashikaga shogunate.

Pieces of ivory roughly 13.5 cm in circumference were split in half, with one half kept by the Korean court, and one half by the Ashikaga shogunate. Each piece was inscribed Chôson tsûshin (K: Choson t'ongsin) on one side, along with a number from one to ten, and "10th year of Chenghua" (K: songkwa), i.e. 1474, on the other side.

In theory, these might have been distributed among shogunal vassals, to serve for them as a mark of authenticity to give to their envoys. However, it seems the shogunate kept them all, and simply used them in turn.

The Japanese envoy to first bring these tallies back to Japan in 1474, a Zen monk named Shôkyû, was held by the Sô clan of Tsushima, who attempted to gain the tallies from him, and to gain information about how the system worked, presumably so that they could continue to collaborate with imposter envoys. However, they somehow failed to obtain the tallies, and Shôkyû successfully delivered all ten to the shogunate.

References

• Hashimoto Yû. "The Information Strategy of Imposter Envoys from Northern Kyushu to Choson Korea in the Fifteenth and Sixteenth Centuries." in Angela Schottenhammer (ed.) The East Asian Mediterranean: Maritime Crossroads of Culture, Commerce and Human Migration. Harrassowitz Verlag, 2008. pp289-315.