Japanese missions to Joseon

Japanese missions to Joseon represent a crucial aspect of the international relations of mutual Joseon-Japan contacts and communication. The bilateral exchanges were intermittent.

The unique nature of these bilateral diplomatic exchanges evolved from a conceptual framework developed by the Chinese. Gradually, the theoretical model would be modified. The changing model mirrors the evolution of a unique relationship between two neighboring states.

Muromachi shogunate missions to Joseon

The Muromachi bafuku's diplomatic contacts and communication with the Joseon court encompassed informal contacts and formal embassies. Muromachi diplomacy also included the more frequent and less formal contacts involving the Japanese daimyo (feudal lord) of Tsushima Island.

In addition, trade missions between merchants of the area were frequent and varied.

Year	Sender	Japanese chief envoy	Joseon monarch	Comments
1403	Ashikaga Yoshimochi	–	Taejo	.
1404	Ashikaga Yoshimitsu	–	Taejong	.
1432	Ashikaga Yoshinori	–	Sejong	.
1456	Ashikaga Yoshimasa	–	Sejo	.
1474	Ashikaga Yoshihisa	–	Seongjong	.
1499	Ashikaga Yoshizumi	–	Yeonsangun	.

• 1403 – A Japanese diplomatic mission from the Japanese shogun, Ashikaga Yoshimochi, was received in Seoul; and this set in motion the beginnings of a decision-making process about sending a responsive mission to Kyoto.

• 1404 – Former-Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimitsu causes a message to the Joseon king to be sent; and the sender is identified as "king of Japan". The salutation construes the Joseon monarch as the sender's co-equal peer.

• 1422 – Nihonkoku Minamoto Yoshimochi sent the Joseon king a letter in Ōei 29, as time was reckoned using the Japanese calendar system.
• 1423 – Nihonkoku Dosen sent the Joseon king a letter in Ōei 30.
• 1424 – Nihonkoku Dosen sent the Joseon king a letter in Ōei 31.
• 1428 – Nihonkoku Dosen sent the Joseon king a letter in Ōei 35.
• 1432 – Shogun Ashikaga Yoshinori sent an ambassador to the Joseon court.
• 1440 – Nihonkoku Minamoto Yoshinori sent the Joseon king a letter in Ryakuō 3, which the Japanese era at that time.
• 1447 – Nihonkoku ō Minamoto Yoshinari sent the Joseon king a letter in Jōwa 3, which was the Japanese era at that time.
• 1456 – Shogun Ashikaga Yoshimasa caused a letter to be sent to the king of Joseon.

• 1474 – Shogun Ashikaga Yoshihisa sent an ambassador to China, stopping en route at the Joseon court in Seoul. The ambassador's charge was to seek an official seal from the Imperial Chinese court.

• 1499 – Shogun Ashikaga Yoshizumi dispatched an envoy to the Joseon court asking for printing plates for an important Buddhist text; and although the specific request was not fulfilled, the Joseon court did agree to offer printed copies.

Tokugawa shogunate missions to Joseon

In the Edo period of Japanese history, diplomatic missions were construed as benefiting the Japanese as legitimizing propaganda and as a key element in an emerging manifestation of Japan's ideal vision of the structure of an international order with Edo as its center.

Japanese-Joseon diplomacy adapting

Japanese-Joseon bilateral relations were affected by the increasing numbers of international contacts which required adaptation and a new kind of diplomacy.

1876

The Korea-Japan Treaty of 1876 marked the beginning of a new phase in bilateral relations.

See also

• Joseon missions to Japan
• Joseon missions to Imperial China
• Japanese missions to Imperial China
• Korean Empire
• Japanese missions to Paekche
• Japanese missions to Silla

References

• Ferris, William Wayne. (2009). Japan to 1600: a Social and Economic History. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press. ISBN 978-0-824-83379-4
• Hall, John Whitney. (1997). The Cambridge History of Japan: Early Modern Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-22355-3; OCLC 174552485
• (Korean) 한일관계사연구논집편찬위원회. (2005). 통신사・왜관과한일관계 (Han Il kwangyesa yŏngu nonjip, Vol. 6). 경인문화사. ISBN 978-8-949-90308-8.
• Kang, Etsuko Hae-jin. (1997). Diplomacy and Ideology in Japanese-Korean Relations: from the Fifteenth to the Eighteenth Century. Basingstoke, Hampshire; Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-312-17370-8; OCLC 243874305
• Kang, Woong Joe. (2005). The Korean Struggle for International Identity in the Foreground of the Shufeldt Negotiation, 1866-1882. Latham, Maryland: University Press of America. ISBN 978-0-761-83120-4; OCLC 238760185
• Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834). [Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/Hayashi Gahō, 1652], Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 84067437
• Toby, Ronald P. (1991). State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-0-804-71951-3; OCLC 25473164
• Walker, Brett L. "Foreign Affairs and Frontiers in Early Modern Japan: A Historiographical Essay," Early Modern Japan. Fall, 2002, pp. 44–62, 124-128.

External links

• UNESCO: Map of South and North Korea in Eight Province