Will and Hanada, two monthly magazines that went on sale today, are full of must-read articles for the Japanese people and people worldwide.
And they are only 950 yen each (tax included).
There is nothing more cost-effective than that.
Every Japanese citizen who can read should subscribe to the nearest bookstore.
Japan, the Land of History that Shook the World, a dialogue between Masayuki Takayama, the one and only journalist in the postwar world, and Masahiro Miyazaki, whose footwork rivals that of Tadao Umesao in terms of intellectual production, should be subscribed to by every Japanese citizen, regardless of age or sex, during the year-end and New Year vacations.
7) The Korean Envoys 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 Korean envoys.
After Yoshimitsu, they started coming from the time of Yoshinori.
The ambassadors 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, how to make paper, and how to dye.
There was almost no culture over there.
Miyazaki
Didn't they also learn how to reproduce?
Takayama
I suppose we did teach them that, but it was not worth teaching at all, and the next time we came back, they would ask us to teach them the same thing again.
Even if they had taken the trouble to learn the culture from Japan, it would have been useless.
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, I imagine that 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 concept 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 Korean envoy 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
So, when we think about it, it makes a lot of sense.
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 they are totally different.
Ryotaro Shiba's "Home is Forgotten" 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.
It seems that Japan taught everything about painting techniques.
So they all called comrade because this is the best environment.
Even though Japan said, "You guys can go home," no one went back 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 of them 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, like Yasuo Fukuda, do not do what others do not like and want to be thought well of by foreign countries.
In this case, the old governor, Masanao Tsuchiya, was trying to look good.
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, and he was 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 note 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 the Korean envoys, it can say that the Korean envoys were of no benefit to Japan.
Takayama
Hakusekii's anti-Chosun envoy sentiment was rekindled during the reign of Ienari, the 11th ruler of Japan.
It was the so-called "Hekchi-heirei.
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. I think the end of the story really speaks for itself.
Miyazaki
It was standard practice for the Korean envoys 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 Ashikaga Yoshiaki was chased by Nobunaga and fell from the capital, he set up his Shogunate there for about two months.
Saigo of Shimazu, Okubo, and Ryoma of Tosa always stayed at Tomonoura.
It was, after all, not only a central transportation hub but also 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 that 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 quite a few foreign tourists there.
Next year, Japan and South Korea are working together to make it a UNESCO Memory Heritage site.
I welcome the idea of making the Korean envoys into a heritage site that clearly shows that they were chicken thieves and have not changed.
Takayama
There is a misconception that cultural relics from China were introduced to Japan via Korea.
In fact, the reality of the Korean envoys in the Muromachi and Edo periods shows that this was a great 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.
In fact, on the peninsula, rivers are called Nakdong River or Han River. The "江" in Edo means rivers.
In China, the area around Beijing, which is supposed to be close to Korea, is called the Yellow River, the Hot River, the Liao River, and other rivers are written as "河.
In contrast, south of Ningbo, where there was the exchange with Japan, "江" is used for the Yangtze River, Huangpu River, and Pearl River.
I think it's safe to say that the flow of Chinese characters to Korea was via Japan.
Anyway, Mr. Kō Bun'yū points out that there was no culture, no proper social group, and nobody prolonged culture period.
They didn't even know how to make a water mill.
