Manuscript on paper, entitled on upper cover “Chōsenjin issai kakitome” 朝鮮人一切書留 [“Comprehensive Report about the Korean Mission”]
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22 folding leaves. Narrow, tall 8vo (343 x 123 mm.), orig. self-wrappers, orig. stitching. [Japan]: on upper wrapper (in trans.): “28 January 1764.”
During the Edo period, 12 Korean delegations were sent to Japan, mostly to congratulate a new Tokugawa shogun. The missions, which normally included 300-500 Koreans, accompanied by roughly 1500 Japanese escorts, symbolized the amicable relationship between the two nations and, in the early years, served to legitimize the Tokugawa shogunate.
These delegations, which usually took nine or ten months round-trip, were enormously expensive undertakings for both countries. The Koreans brought many luxurious presents, both public and private offerings, and the Japanese, in turn, furnished equally lavish gifts, including large quantities of silver. During the Korean mission’s stays, the Japanese government was responsible for all expenses and provisions for their guests.
The present manuscript is an account of the diplomatic mission sent by the Koreans in 1763-64. The mission totaled 497 people and took 382 days. The members of the embassy included chief and auxiliary envoys, a document official, three translating officials with assistants, ten translators, two copyists, a poet, a painter, three doctors, army officers, musicians, horsemen, clerks, captains, pilots, servants, commissariat officials, gift guardians, trumpeters (six for each of the three principal envoys), soldiers, and sailors. The mission sailed from Pusan to Osaka, stopping at Tsushima on the way, and then travelled by land to Edo via Kyoto.
Our manuscript provides menus of the elaborate banquets the Japanese offered to their guests, accounts of the special ceramics created at the kilns of Shigaraki used at banquets, itemized lists of the provisions and their quantities (including rice, seasonings, condiments, and miso), routes and stops along the way from Osaka to Edo, housing arrangements, official proceedings, distribution of horses to the delegation, itemized balance sheets detailing expenses of the mission, etc.
The cost of this mission was so enormous for both countries that the next (and final) mission of the Edo period was a toned-down meeting in 1811 on Tsushima island, conveniently located in between both countries.
On the upper wrapper we find the name Imochi Heizaemon 井持平左衛門, and on the penultimate leaf we find the place-name Hachiman 江州八幡町, which is in today’s Shiga Prefecture.
Nice fresh condition. Some worming, carefully repaired.
❧ George M. McCune, “The Exchange of Envoys Between Korea and Japan During the Tokugawa Period” in The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 3 (May 1946), pp. 308-25.
During the Edo period, 12 Korean delegations were sent to Japan, mostly to congratulate a new Tokugawa shogun. The missions, which normally included 300-500 Koreans, accompanied by roughly 1500 Japanese escorts, symbolized the amicable relationship between the two nations and, in the early years, served to legitimize the Tokugawa shogunate.
These delegations, which usually took nine or ten months round-trip, were enormously expensive undertakings for both countries. The Koreans brought many luxurious presents, both public and private offerings, and the Japanese, in turn, furnished equally lavish gifts, including large quantities of silver. During the Korean mission’s stays, the Japanese government was responsible for all expenses and provisions for their guests.
The present manuscript is an account of the diplomatic mission sent by the Koreans in 1763-64. The mission totaled 497 people and took 382 days. The members of the embassy included chief and auxiliary envoys, a document official, three translating officials with assistants, ten translators, two copyists, a poet, a painter, three doctors, army officers, musicians, horsemen, clerks, captains, pilots, servants, commissariat officials, gift guardians, trumpeters (six for each of the three principal envoys), soldiers, and sailors. The mission sailed from Pusan to Osaka, stopping at Tsushima on the way, and then travelled by land to Edo via Kyoto.
Our manuscript provides menus of the elaborate banquets the Japanese offered to their guests, accounts of the special ceramics created at the kilns of Shigaraki used at banquets, itemized lists of the provisions and their quantities (including rice, seasonings, condiments, and miso), routes and stops along the way from Osaka to Edo, housing arrangements, official proceedings, distribution of horses to the delegation, itemized balance sheets detailing expenses of the mission, etc.
The cost of this mission was so enormous for both countries that the next (and final) mission of the Edo period was a toned-down meeting in 1811 on Tsushima island, conveniently located in between both countries.
On the upper wrapper we find the name Imochi Heizaemon 井持平左衛門, and on the penultimate leaf we find the place-name Hachiman 江州八幡町, which is in today’s Shiga Prefecture.
Nice fresh condition. Some worming, carefully repaired.
❧ George M. McCune, “The Exchange of Envoys Between Korea and Japan During the Tokugawa Period” in The Far Eastern Quarterly, Vol. 5, No. 3 (May 1946), pp. 308-25.