Joseon tongsinsa

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Joseon tongsinsa were Korean envoys dispatched to the Japanese shogun government during the Joseon dynasty from 1413 to 1876.

[edit] History

Following the establishment of diplomatic ties between Joseon and Japan in 1404 (4th year of King Taejong's reign in Joseon), the two countries began to dispatch envoys to handle diplomatic issues. The envoys sent by the Joseon king to the Japanese shogun were called tongsinsa in Korean, while their Japanese counterparts were called nihon kokuōshi, or Japanese King's envoys, in Japanese.

The word "tongsin" means diplomatic exchange between two countries based on good faith. The envoys dispatched by Joseon were not singularly referred to as tongsinsa, however, and a variety of titles were used, including bobingsa, hoeryesa, hoeryegwan, tongsingwan and gyeongchagwan. It was in 1413 (13th year of King Taejong's reign) that the term tongsinsa was used for the first time, with Bak Bun heading the delegation to Japan. Their trip to Japan was cancelled, however, when Bak fell ill in the middle of the voyage. The first actual visit to Japan by Joseon envoys took place in 1429 (11th year of King Sejong's reign) when the delegation, led by Bak Seo-saeng, arrived in Kyoto.

In the years before the 1592 Japanese invasion of Joseon, the main purpose of the tongsinsa visits to Japan was to make formal requests to the shogun to take control of waegu, or Japanese marauders, plundering Joseon’s coastline. But after the war ended, the envoys traveled to Japan to seek a truce agreement while asking for the repatriation of Korean prisoners of war and also inspecting the political situation in Japan. After 1636 (14th year of King Injo's reign), the envoys’ visits revolved around celebrations for the inauguration of the new shogun. The historical significance of the tongsinsa visits to Japan, however, was in their impact not only on the bilateral ties between Joseon and Japan, but also on the peaceful coexistence in all of East Asia, including China.

Each tongsinsa delegation was dispatched according to the following procedures: When the succession of a new shogun was decided, the lord of Tsushima island, upon the order of the shogun government, sent an envoy to carry the message of invitation to Joseon. Upon receiving the invitation, the Joseon government appointed three or fewer government officials as head, deputy head and the document officer (seojanggwan) to organize and lead the delegation, its number usually between 300 and 500. The envoys took a land route from Joseon’s capital city of Hanyang, to Busan, a southern port, and from there sailed the sea to Yodoura wharf in Osaka, via Tsushima Island and Shimonoseki, their fleet guided by the lord of Tsushima. At each stop in their itinerary, the Joseon envoys were given welcoming receptions by the magistrates of the Japanese provinces. From Yodoura, the delegation would set out on land toward its final destination, Kyoto. In early Joseon, Kyoto was where the shogun government was based and thus was the envoys’ final stop, but in late Joseon, Tokyo became their last destination when the shogun government was moved to Edo province. A sophisticated form of communication between the Joseon envoys and the Japanese nobility, by means of exchanging poetry and academic writing, became a fad in areas around the lodges where Joseon envoys stayed en route to the administrative capital. On the other hand, luxurious receptions for Joseon envoys emerged as a cause for financial strains within the Japanese government, forcing Arai Hakuseki, a chief advisor to the Tokugawa shoguns, in 1711 to revise the regulations on the reception of foreign envoys, but they was restored in 1719.

A tongsinsa delegation’s journey to deliver the Joseon king's messages to the Japanese shogun took six months to one year. The Joseon envoys left behind writings, poetry and paintings at each of their stops on the Japanese islands. Folding screens, books and woodcut prints that depict their grand procession still remain today in Japan. After their return, they produced various types of records of their stay in Japan, which were collected under the title, Haehaeng chongjae (Records of Mission Trip to Japan), allowing us a glimpse into the diplomatic roles of tongsinsa and the cultural exchange that took place between Joseon and Japan.