Changes

Western ships began to call with significant frequency at Tsushima in the late 1840s, just as they were doing in Ryûkyû at that same time. Whereas Satsuma decided to accommodate and negotiate with the Westerners, and worked to keep their engagement with the Westerners a secret from the shogunate, however, Tsushima actively pursued shogunate aid in strengthening domain defenses. Despite the domain's success in earning financial support to make up for the decline in trade (as described above), however, it was not successful in securing any aid explicitly aimed at the defense of the domain until the 1840s. Whereas the domain had previously, with success, argued for its importance to the defense of the realm because of its role in obtaining intelligence, in 1846, Tsushima officials began to argue more explicitly for Tsushima's strategic or tactical importance in military terms, as a stepping stone or gateway into the realm which needed to be more securely defended. Two high-ranking Sô retainers, [[Yoshikawa Saemon]] and [[Sasu Iori]], submitted a memorial to ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' [[Abe Masahiro]] that year describing Tsushima as a "bulwark," a physical barrier protecting the realm, and suggested that their lord, [[So Yoshiyori|Sô Yoshiyori]], might be granted additional fief land the revenues from which would help pay for the costs of increasing coastal defenses. Their request was rejected. The following year and into [[1848]], on several occasions, officials at the central castle town of Fuchû, and in Pusan, reported hearing cannon fire offshore, but no foreign ships actually appeared in port. When Tsushima officials petitioned the shogunate again, citing in particular the additional costs of fortifying an island, they were granted 10,000 ''ryô'', to be paid out across two years.<ref>Hellyer, 168-170.</ref>

Western ships began to call with significant frequency at Tsushima in the late 1840s, just as they were doing in Ryûkyû at that same time. Whereas Satsuma decided to accommodate and negotiate with the Westerners, and worked to keep their engagement with the Westerners a secret from the shogunate, however, Tsushima actively pursued shogunate aid in strengthening domain defenses. Despite the domain's success in earning financial support to make up for the decline in trade (as described above), however, it was not successful in securing any aid explicitly aimed at the defense of the domain until the 1840s. Whereas the domain had previously, with success, argued for its importance to the defense of the realm because of its role in obtaining intelligence, in 1846, Tsushima officials began to argue more explicitly for Tsushima's strategic or tactical importance in military terms, as a stepping stone or gateway into the realm which needed to be more securely defended. Two high-ranking Sô retainers, [[Yoshikawa Saemon]] and [[Sasu Iori]], submitted a memorial to ''[[roju|rôjû]]'' [[Abe Masahiro]] that year describing Tsushima as a "bulwark," a physical barrier protecting the realm, and suggested that their lord, [[So Yoshiyori|Sô Yoshiyori]], might be granted additional fief land the revenues from which would help pay for the costs of increasing coastal defenses. Their request was rejected. The following year and into [[1848]], on several occasions, officials at the central castle town of Fuchû, and in Pusan, reported hearing cannon fire offshore, but no foreign ships actually appeared in port. When Tsushima officials petitioned the shogunate again, citing in particular the additional costs of fortifying an island, they were granted 10,000 ''ryô'', to be paid out across two years.<ref>Hellyer, 168-170.</ref>

The first face-to-face interaction between Tsushima officials and Westerners took place in [[1849]]/2, when fifteen Western ships were spotted offshore, and a few men came ashore in a launch. Speaking purely through gestures, the samurai somehow determined the men to be Americans; after exchanging a few items, the Americans peacefully and willingly obeyed the officials' request that they leave. Several more Americans appeared two months later, and stayed overnight in a village on the eastern coast of the island. Though Tsushima was fortunate to have not been visited with any true difficulties - such as the use of physical force - yet, the ''daimyô'' sent men to bolster coastal defenses, and sent to the shogunate to ask that interpreters be sent from the ''Wakan'' in Pusan to Nagasaki, to learn "Dutch writing," to help facilitate communication with Westerners who might arrive in future. Indeed, later that year, Tsushima officials began to report sightings of as many as tens of ships, sometimes within just a period of several days, though it is likely that many of these sightings were double-countings of the same ship. Tsushima requests to extend the annual 5,000 ''ryô'' grants granted in 1848 were initially rebuffed, but eventually granted, along with authorization to defer repayments owed on earlier loans taken out by the domain. Subsequent requests from Tsushima also suggested that Western pressures on Korea, and the resulting financial focus of the Korean Court on coastal defense, might cause agricultural production in the kingdom to decline, harming the ability of the kingdom to send rice to Tsushima; a request for an additional 7,000 ''koku'' from the shogunate made around 1851 was rejected.<ref>Hellyer, 170-172.</ref>

The first face-to-face interaction between Tsushima officials and Westerners took place in [[1849]]/2, when fifteen Western ships were spotted offshore, and a few men came ashore in a launch. Speaking purely through gestures, the samurai somehow determined the men to be Americans; after exchanging a few items, the Americans peacefully and willingly obeyed the officials' request that they leave. Several more Americans appeared two months later, and stayed overnight in a village on the eastern coast of the island. Though Tsushima was fortunate to have not been visited with any true difficulties - such as the use of physical force - yet, the ''daimyô'' sent men to bolster coastal defenses, and sent to the shogunate to ask that interpreters be sent from the ''Waegwan'' in Pusan to Nagasaki, to learn "Dutch writing," to help facilitate communication with Westerners who might arrive in future. Indeed, later that year, Tsushima officials began to report sightings of as many as tens of ships, sometimes within just a period of several days, though it is likely that many of these sightings were double-countings of the same ship. Tsushima requests to extend the annual 5,000 ''ryô'' grants granted in 1848 were initially rebuffed, but eventually granted, along with authorization to defer repayments owed on earlier loans taken out by the domain. Subsequent requests from Tsushima also suggested that Western pressures on Korea, and the resulting financial focus of the Korean Court on coastal defense, might cause agricultural production in the kingdom to decline, harming the ability of the kingdom to send rice to Tsushima; a request for an additional 7,000 ''koku'' from the shogunate made around 1851 was rejected.<ref>Hellyer, 170-172.</ref>

 

 

 

 

To accommodate the loss of the crucial shipments of rice from Korea, the Meiji government provided the Sô with 35,000 ''koku'' worth of lands. Meanwhile, unable to get Osaka merchants to loan any money to the heavily indebted domain, Tsushima representatives in Osaka obtained loans from Western merchants; before long, the domain owed 359,000 yen to Western merchants, in addition to its outstanding 700,000 yen in debts to Japanese merchants, making it the third most indebted domain in the country. In [[1871]]/7, however, the [[abolition of the han|domains were all abolished]], and the central government took on the debts of all the domains, thus absolving the now-former ''daimyô'' families of these financial burdens. Yoshiakira at that time ceased to be governor of Tsushima (Izuhara) domain, and was appointed assistant foreign minister. The ''Waegwan'' was renamed the "Japan Mission" (日本公館, ''Nihon kôkan'') soon afterwards, and though Yoshiakira continued to play a prominent role in efforts to restart relations with Korea, he now did so even more fully as merely a representative of the Imperial government. This marked the end of the tributary/vassal relationship between the Sô and the Korean Court, and though Sô Yoshiakira continued to be involved, the end of any privileged position for his family as agents separate from Japanese central authority. Formal diplomatic and commercial relations between Japan and Korea in the modern/Western mode were finally established in [[1876]], with the [[Treaty of Ganghwa]], also known as the Treaty of Amity and Commerce between Japan and Korea, which established for Japan many of the privileges Japan itself extended to the Western powers in its various [[Unequal Treaties|Treaties of Amity and Commerce]] with those powers.<ref>Hellyer, 242-245.</ref>

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