Joseon was poor and had no dyeing skills. All they had were cotton clothes faded from washing.
December 21, 2021
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7) The Joseon missions to Japan are Japan's Greatest Deficit
Takayama
What Japan needs to learn about diplomacy is its relationship with the Korean Peninsula.
When Empress Saimei led a fleet of ships to help Baekje, she was defeated by a large Tang Dynasty army waiting for her at the Baekgang.
If you listen to the Koreans, you will always be in a bad situation.
At this time, Japan built a water fortress and fortified its domestic defenses in preparation for the arrival of the Tang Dynasty's large army.
During the two Mongol raids in 1274 and 1281, it was not the Mongol army but the Goryeo army.
Next came the Joseon missions to Japan.
After Yoshimitsu, they started coming from the time of Yoshinori.
The missions who came in the Muromachi period were like short-term international students dispatched by King Sejong, the fourth generation of the Joseon Dynasty.
King Sejong ordered them to learn what they needed to know, and the first thing they did was ask Japan to teach them how to make water wheels for irrigation.
They also asked us to teach them how to plate, make paper, and dye.
Korea had no such culture at all.
Miyazaki
Didn't they also learn how to reproduce?
Takayama
We did teach them that, but it was not worth teaching at all, and the next time they came back, they would ask us to teach them the same thing again.
It would have been useless if they had taken the trouble to learn the culture from Japan.
As Professor Hiroshi Furuta of Tsukuba University has pointed out, the culture of the Korean Peninsula has been receding and declining.
They used to be able to do woodwork, but finally, they couldn't do that anymore.
They couldn't even make wheels out of wood anymore.
However, they learned the functions of hiragana and katakana.
Seeing that the Japanese were using hiragana while using Chinese characters, Sejong probably came up with the idea of writing the proverbial "onmon," or what is now called Hangul.
"Then, I'll try to make up some Korean katakana at home," like 'munida.
In short, the Japanese-style kana became Hangeul.
When I mentioned my speculation to Ms. Junko Miyawaki, a historian of the Orient, she told me that the proverbial script was an imitation of the Mongolian Paspa script (Mongolian script).
They learned the concepts of hiragana and katakana at this time, reading Chinese characters in their language.
However, they probably used the Paspa characters because they have no originality.
This Joseon missions to Japan never opens his mouth without saying, "Oh, I'm so frustrated," as if to say, "Japan has such nice places," or "I'm so frustrated that they have such tile roofing."
In short, they are mad with jealousy and envy.
King Sejong created the proverb, saying, "This is good," but the next generation had their unique reaction, saying, "What, Japan inspired the saying?"
Miyazaki
So they thought it was "shameful" that they learned it from Japan?
Takayama
It makes a lot of sense when we think about it.
That may have been why they stopped using proverbs after King Sejong.
Miyazaki
Since the annexation of Japan and Korea in 1910, Japan has established 4,000 schools and popularized reading and writing.
It has been 500 years since King Sejong.
Even in the case of the waterwheel, they knew the principle that water flows from high to low, and they knew the application of the lever of the waterwheel.
However, in Japan, a technology used gears to exert force in different directions.
It is a dizzying application of technology.
For example, it is the same for potters.
Everyone says they came from the other side but are totally different.
Ryotaro Shiba's "'Kokyo wasurejigataku soro' (I miss my hometown)" is quite a ridiculous book that cuts Japanese history from the perspective of other countries.
That called an excellent potter, and Japan gave him a pile of clay and even a field, and the treatment was perfect.
Japan taught everything about painting techniques.
So they all called comrades because this is the best environment.
Even though Japan said, "You guys can go home," no one returned to Korea.
Takayama
Yes, yes. So, it is not that Hideyoshi brought them there by force.
It is entirely different from what is commonly believed.
It is the first Joseon mission to Japan, and it will be restarted as the Tokugawa Shogunate, but the second time, it has an entirely different personality.
It was more like an invitation trip for them.
It started with the cleanup of the conquest of Korea, "During the era of Hideyoshi, we wreaked a lot of havoc in your country. We invite you to our country, so let's resume friendship and trade."
The man in charge of the negotiations was Yoshitoshi Soh, the 20th generation of the Soh family in Tsushima.
At the Battle of Sekigahara, he joined the Western army and was defeated by Tokugawa.
He was ordered to "repair relations with Korea and resume Korean trade," where the territory would have been confiscated and changed.
However, during Hideyoshi's conquest of Korea, Yukinaga Konishi defeated the Joseon army and lost Hanseong, so the first negotiator to Korea was slaughtered.
It was very typical of Joseon.
Nevertheless, they managed to restore the relationship.
The result was the Chosun envoys of the Edo period, but the Japanese side owed a debt of gratitude for the conquest of Korea.
They took advantage of that.
About 400 came to Edo on a literal tour of feudal lords each time.
Since the country was poor, they brought everything from tableware served at inns along the way to pottery on the floor, hanging scrolls, and the futon of Donsu.
There is still a painting of the Chosun envoy's journey in the collection of Kyoto University that depicts them stealing chickens from a private house and the residents chasing after them to punish the Koreans.
Interestingly, the Koreans are depicted wearing all-white kimonos, while the Japanese residents wear plaid and black costumes.
Miyazaki
The Koreans were poor and had no dyeing techniques.
The historical story that everyone wore only washed cotton clothes was depicted correctly.
Takayama
That's right.
Whenever a new shogun of the Tokugawa family was appointed, the group would use that as an excuse to come and have a good time.
During the sixth shogun Ienobu (Ienobu) reign, Arai Hakuseki proposed the abolition of the envoys, saying that they were not intellectually stimulating and just wasting money for no reason.
It cost one million Ryo permission. That's a lot of money. The Shogunate also had to pay for their theft along the way.
Miyazaki
However, some shallow Japanese people like Yasuo Fukuda don't do things other people don't like and want to be seen well by other countries.
At this time, Masanao Tsuchiya, Rōjū, tried to put on a good face.
Takayama
Hakuseki also instructed them to be frugal in their entertainment, hide nice things in their lodgings, and cut their expenses in half.
Miyazaki
What made Hakuseki great was that he was well-versed in international affairs.
He used the missionary Sidotti, who had violated the ban and entered Japan, to find out about the situation in the West.
Takayama
Sidotti came to Japan in 1708.
Miyazaki
His real name was Giovanni Battista Sidotti, a Catholic priest born in Sicily, Italy.
Regardless of the Edo Shogunate's policy of forbidding the practice of religion, he sailed to Japan during the period of national isolation.
He first landed on Yakushima Island in Kagoshima Prefecture but was captured because he could not speak the language and was escorted from Nagasaki to Edo.
Arai Hakuseki, who was in charge of the shogunate administration, interrogated him directly, and he left behind two famous books, "Seiyo Kibun" (Travels in the West) and "Sairan Igen" (World Geography), which summarized the contents of his interrogations.
Hakuseki proposed to the Shogunate to "repatriate" him, but the Edo Shogunate imprisoned him in the Kirishitan residence in Myogadani.
It should be noted that the Edo shogunate treated him very generously, without torture, and he was not a prisoner but an appanage with 20 Ryo and five dependents.
However, because he broke the condition that he should not proselytize, he was moved to a dungeon and died of consumption in 1714 (Shoutoku 4).
As a side note, when the site of this Kirishitan mansion was excavated in 2014, human bones were surprisingly unearthed. When the National Museum of Nature and Science investigated, they were found to be the human bones of Sidotti.
He truly buried his bones in a foreign country.
Looking at the difference in response to Joseon missions to Japan, it can be concluded that Joseon missions to Japan had no benefits for Japan.
Takayama
Looking at the difference in response to Joseon missions to Japan, it can be concluded that Joseon missions to Japan had no benefits for Japan.
Hakuseki's anti-Joseon missions to Japan sentiment was later rekindled during the 11th generation, Ienari, when Rojyu Matsudaira Sadanobu decided that Joseon missions to Japan no longer had to come to Edo and that Joseon missions to Japan would be entertained at some suitable location, around Tsushima.
It said goodbye.
It was the so-called "Ekchi-heirei（sending items to a different location).
The Joseon side made a lot of noise and demanded that they be allowed to go to Edo (now Tokyo) to see more sights, but in 1811, there was a diplomatic mission in Tsushima, and after that, the Joseon side stopped coming.
But in 1811, after the exchange of diplomatic representatives in Tsushima, the Joseon side stopped coming.
Their purpose was to sponge something off Japan.
This ending speaks well.
Miyazaki
It was standard practice for the Joseon missions to Japan to enter the Seto Inland Sea from Tsushima and land at Tomonoura in Hiroshima.
It was a place with a spectacular view, but more than that, it was also a strategic point in the Seto Inland Sea.
That's why when Nobunaga chased Ashikaga Yoshiaki and fell from the capital, he set up his Shogunate there for about two months.
Saigo, Okubo of Shimazu, and Ryoma of Tosa always stayed in Tomonoura.
It was, after all, a central transportation hub and a center of domestic and international information at the time.
Takayama
Tomonoura is now the site of a strange left-wing group that opposes development and refuses to widen the road.
Tomonoura is now completely deserted and is no longer a significant transportation hub.
*Yoji Yamada sent an ale to this strange left wing in "Tsuribaka Nisshi." After reading this, I was convinced he was a post-war leftist cultural figure. I will write about this later.*
Miyazaki
I went to Tomonoura a year ago, and there were many foreign tourists there.
Japan and Korea are working hard to have it designated as a UNESCO Memory of Japan Heritage site next year or so.
Rather than embellishing Joseon's missions to Japan with plausibility, I would appreciate it if they were made into a UNESCO Memory of Japan Heritage site that clearly shows that they were chicken thieves and are no different than they are now...
Takayama
There is a misconception that cultural relics from China were introduced to Japan via Korea.
The reality of these two Joseon missions to Japan during the Muromachi and Edo periods shows that this was a huge mistake.
They called chili pepper "wagarashi" (Japanese hot pepper).
It indicates that it was introduced from Japan.
It would be evidence that the cultural relics and daily furnishings that came to Japan via the southern part of the Chinese continent, Ningbo or Guangdong, were brought to the peninsula from Japan.
Currently, the river's name on the peninsula is called Nakdong 江 or Han 江. The "江" in Edo means river.
In China, the area around Beijing, which is supposed to be close to Korea, is called Hwang 河 (Yellow River), Hwang 河 (Hot River), Liao 河 (Liao River), and other rivers are written as "河 (river).
In contrast, south of Ningbo, which was in contact with Japan, "江" is used for the Yangtze, Huangpu, and Pearl Rivers.
The flow of Chinese characters into Korea was also via Japan.
Kō Bun'yū points out that there was not even a "cu" in culture there, there were no proper social groups, and culturally, the area was uninhabited for a long time.
They didn't even know how to make a water mill.
