Soda Saemontaro
- Japanese: 宗田 左衛門太郎 (Souda Saemontarou)
Sôda Saemontarô was a wakô leader and agent/representative of the Sô clan governors of Tsushima Island, prominent in the early 15th century. According to some scholars, his activities may have been a significant contributing factor to the 1419 decision by Joseon Korea to attack Tsushima in what is known as the Ôei Invasion.[1]
The Ôei Invasion ended with the Sô agreeing to act as administrators or officials in service to the Joseon court, and to have Tsushima be considered part of Korea's Gyeongsang province.[2] However, the Sô remained (simultaneously) loyal to the Muromachi shogunate, and continued to govern the island as they had before. While this meant some changes to how the Sô interacted with the Koreans, little changed on the ground in Tsushima, or in terms of Tsushima's relationship with the shogunate. In early 1420, as Korean envoy Song Huigyong was traveling to Kyoto along with a shogunal envoy returning from Korea, Song met with Sôda, who reportedly responded with great anger to the suggestion of Tsushima being, or becoming, Korean territory; he asserted that the island belonged to the Shôni clan (to whom the Sô were retainers), and that the Shôni would "'fight 100 battles and die 100 deaths' before giving the island to the king of [Joseon]."[3] Shortly afterwards, a letter bearing the name of Sô Sadamoori was sent to Joseon contesting and rejecting the incorporation of Tsushima or the Sô clan into the kingdom of Joseon.[3]
Saemontarô's son Sôda Rokurôjirô continued many of Saemontarô's same activities, both as a wakô leader and agent of the Sô clan, as well as in facilitating relations between Korea and the Ryûkyû Kingdom, including the repatriation of castaways.[1]
References
- ↑ Jump up to: 1.0 1.1 Gregory Smits, Maritime Ryukyu, University of Hawaii Press (2019), 42.
- ↑ Kenneth Robinson, “An Island’s Place in History: Tsushima in Japan and in Choson, 1392–1592,” Korean Studies 30 (2006), p45.
- ↑ Jump up to: 3.0 3.1 Robinson, 46.
