So clan

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The Sô kamon.
  • Japanese: 宗家 (Sou-ke)

The Sô clan, based on Tsushima since the Kamakura period, were the traditional intermediaries in Japan-Korea relations. A tozama clan under the Tokugawa shogunate with an official kokudaka of 100,000 koku, they were also vassals of the Korean king, to whom they sent regular tribute missions, receiving 8,300 koku each year from the mid-17th century onwards, along with various Korean and Chinese goods, in exchange for tribute or gifts of Japanese and imported Southeast Asian goods.

Medieval Period

The Sô clan is believed to be descended from the Koremune clan, officials on Tsushima who took the name Sô when they became samurai. Originally vassals to the Mutô clan (later renamed the Shôni clan, Kamakura shogunate gokenin who were shugo governors of various provinces on Kyushu, the Sô gradually saw their power on Tsushima expand. In the Muromachi period, while the Shôni fought one battle after another on Kyushu, the Sô were able to simply consolidate greater and greater power on the island.[1]

Their relationship with the royal court of Joseon Dynasty Korea dates back to at least 1419. In what is known as the Ôei Invasion, Joseon attacked Tsushima, both claiming the island to have been Korean territory since ancient times and in an effort to curb piracy. Following the Sô surrender, the Joseon court came to increasingly regard Tsushima as part of Korea's Gyeongsang province, and the Sô as officials under the court's authority, albeit while leaving extensive autonomy to the Sô in their governance and administration of the island.

The Sô clan's status as being in some way officials within or vassals to the Joseon court was solidified further in 1443. Even while retaining their status as samurai governors (shugo) of Tsushima in service to the Muromachi shogunate, the Sô simultaneously were granted by the Joseon court exclusive control over issuing permits for Japanese trading or traveling within Korean waters or territory. Any Japanese vessel traveling to Tsushima, or to Korea, required permits from the Sô, stamped with a seal provided to the Sô by the Joseon court for this purpose. From this time forward, it became difficult for any other samurai clan, or other Japanese actors, to skirt or supersede the Sô in political or economic relations with Korea.[2] The court also granted the Sô an annual stipend of 200 koku of rice, and permission to send fifty trading ships to Korea each year, and to levy certain maritime fees and cargo taxes.[3]

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.[3] The number of ships to be sent to Korea every year was reduced as a result, however, from fifty to twenty-five, and Tsushima officials and representatives, previously free to some extent in their movement around Pusan or beyond, were now restricted to the Waegwan, or "Japan House," in Pusan. Another serious incident, known as the Yanagawa Affair, took place in 1634-1635, when the shogunate discovered that the Yanagawa clan, the top retainers to the Sô, had forged diplomatic documents several decades earlier; though it was clear that the Sô were complicit in drafting these documents which purported to speak on behalf of the shogunate without any shogunate approval, only the Yanagawa were punished, because of the importance of the Sô for maintaining trade and diplomatic relations with Korea. Monks were Kyoto were appointed, however, from then on to reside in Tsushima in a rotation, overseeing diplomatic correspondence.[4]

Edo Period

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. In 1607, the Joseon Court entered into relations with the shogunate, with the Sô clan as intermediaries. The Sô would retain their unique position throughout the Edo period, entrusted by the shogunate and by the Korean court 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. The Sô clan was also given a special status in the sankin kôtai system, traveling to Edo only once every three years, instead of every other year.[5]

In the Bakumatsu period, the Sô stood in support of the shogunate, and against the sonnô ("Revere the Emperor") movement.

Heads of the Sô clan

Lords of Tsushima han

  1. Sô Yoshitoshi (d. 1615)
  2. Sô Yoshinari
  3. Sô Yoshizane
  4. Sô Yoshitsugu
  5. Sô Yoshimichi (r. 1694-1718)
  6. Sô Yoshinobu (r. 1718-1730)
  7. Sô Michihiro
  8. Sô Yoshiyuki
  9. Sô Yoshishige
  10. Sô Yoshinaga
  11. Sô Yoshikatsu (Isaburô)
  12. Sô Yoshikatsu (Tomiju)
  13. Sô Yoshitada
  14. Sô Yoshiaya (r. 1838-1842)
  15. Sô Yoshiyori (r. 1842-1862)
  16. Sô Yoshiakira (r. 1862-1869)

Meiji / post-Meiji period heads of the Sô clan

References

  • "Sô-ke" 宗家. Edo daimyô hyakka 江戸大名百家. Bessatsu Taiyô 別冊太陽. Spring 1978. p28.
  1. ↑ Gallery labels, Tsushima Museum.[1]
  2. ↑ Kenneth Robinson, “An Island’s Place in History: Tsushima in Japan and in Choson, 1392–1592,” Korean Studies 30 (2006), pp44-45.
  3. ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 Robert Hellyer, Defining Engagement, Harvard University Press (2009), 31.
  4. ↑ Hellyer, 44.
  5. ↑ Ina Toshisada 伊奈利定, "Tôkaidô Futagawa juku honjin ni okeru daimyô-ke no riyô" 東海道二川宿本陣における大名家の利用, Honjin ni tomatta daimyô tachi 本陣に泊まった大名たち, Toyohashi, Aichi: Futagawa-juku honjin shiryôkan (1996), 55.
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