Kim Ju-song's Japan Field Trip Report Following the Path of the Joseon Diplomatic Missions (2)

The afternoon schedule of the second day of the journey following the path of the Joseon Diplomatic Missions was the Murotsu Maritime Museum in Tatsuno City near Himeji. This was where the diplomatic envoy delegation anchored and stayed before heading to the Kobe region.

As a result, the place I visited this time was a location where traces of the diplomatic missions were felt more deeply than anywhere else.

At the Murotsu Maritime Museum, replicas of food supplied to the Joseon Diplomatic Missions during the Edo period were on display, allowing visitors to understand what meals were provided to the envoy delegation that arrived in this region.

Additionally, there was a folding screen, though a replica held at another museum, that gave a glimpse of the Joseon Diplomatic Mission processions, allowing visitors to observe the grand and dignified processions of that era.

Beyond this, there were lodging records remaining of the Joseon Diplomatic Missions dispatched to Japan in 1748, providing a vivid picture of that time.

Apart from the Joseon Diplomatic Missions, the Murotsu region was also the route taken by Japanese daimyo who conducted sankin-kotai (a system implemented by the Edo period shogunate to control regional powers) as they passed through the Seto Inland Sea to head to Edo. Many documents remained showing that daimyo from Shikoku and other regions stayed at the Murotsu Maritime Museum for sankin-kotai.

The Murotsu Harbor was a stopover that provided a comfortable resting place for everyone, including the Joseon Diplomatic Missions, who traversed the Seto Inland Sea.

Although the maritime museum was built in the 19th century, the fact that it was constructed as a two-story building showed that it had prospered significantly as an intermediate stopover.

This field trip was a journey tracing the route of the diplomatic missions to Osaka in reverse. On the first day, from a high mountain where the final anchorage and arrival point could be observed, the diplomatic mission route could be surveyed. On the second day, Murotsu was examined on the way to Osaka. On the third day, finally, the envoy delegation departing from Busan could be observed passing through Tsushima, Iki Island, and Ainoshima, and viewing Shimonoseki, the gateway to the Seto Inland Sea.

There were two places related to the Joseon Diplomatic Missions in Shimonoseki. One was a monument erected in 2001 at the region where they landed, and the other was the Akama Shrine (赤間神宮) built on the site of Amitaji Temple (阿彌陀寺) where they stayed. The envoy delegation departing from Busan anchored in Shimonoseki before entering the Seto Inland Sea after passing through Tsushima, Iki Island, and Ainoshima. At that time, they landed via a specially installed pier in front of Amitaji Temple.

Even today, looking at these two places, there is a staircase located directly across from the shrine leading to the sea, and beside it stands the Monument to the Landing and Stay of the Joseon Diplomatic Missions (朝鮮通信使 上陸淹留之碑).

Shimonoseki was originally called Akama Sekki (赤間關). The name changed to the current place name in 1902, and the old name is preserved in the name of the shrine built on the site of Amitaji Temple (阿彌陀寺), Akama Shrine (赤間神宮).

Additionally, from 1905, shipping routes began operating between Busan and Shimonoseki, which were interrupted after liberation in 1945 and resumed again in 1970. The Shimonoseki region proved to be a place that has connected Japan and Korea not only during the Joseon Dynasty but also to the present.

Furthermore, this region is an area where a crab called heikegani (平家蟹) is caught in large quantities, and legends related to the Battle of Dannoura, which took place during the Heian period in the Kanmon Strait between the Shimonoseki and Moji regions of Kitakyushu City, are transmitted in connection with this crab.

Specifically, it is said that people who died in this naval battle became crabs with human-like faces. And content related to this battle is also transmitted at the shrine where the diplomatic missions stayed, with a tradition that Taira no Tokiko and Emperor Antoku jumped into the sea together as they were defeated in the war.

In the afternoon of the third day, we headed to the Nagoya Castle Museum and Nagoya Castle in Saga Prefecture.

Right after crossing the bridge over the Kanmon Strait, traffic became severely congested, and upon arrival, the museum was on the verge of closing.

Therefore, hurrying inside for a quick look, the Nagoya Castle Museum was displaying artifacts excavated from the surrounding areas, explaining from which parts of the Korean Peninsula these artifacts were transmitted and in which era they were transmitted.

Ultimately, the artifacts in this place explained that the Korean Peninsula and Japan had maintained very close exchanges from the era of the Three Kingdoms and before. The format mainly explained culture transmitted from the Korean Peninsula, including official Joseon documents and artifacts related to the dispatch of Joseon Diplomatic Missions.

There are two Nagoya regions in Japan, one is the major city of Nagoya (名古屋) in Aichi Prefecture, and the other is the Nagoya (名護屋) region in Karatsu City, Saga Prefecture.

The place I visited this time was the latter, Nagoya, which was an area established as a military base by Toyotomi Hideyoshi during the Imjin War for the invasion of Joseon. Centered on Nagoya Castle under the command of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, daimyo from various regions of the country were stationed within a 3-kilometer radius.

Nagoya Castle can be said to be smaller in scale compared to other Japanese castles, but the area where the castle was located was an open place where all the garrisons in the vicinity, as well as the sea leading to the Korean Peninsula, could be widely surveyed.

Through this, one could understand how thoroughly Japan had prepared for the invasion of Joseon at that time.

The final destination of the field trip was Kushida Shrine in Fukuoka. In the alley leading to Kushida Shrine, a stone torii built in Showa 9 (1934) stood.

On the torii, the name of a person called Hakada (博多 産子中) who built this structure and dedicated it to Hakata Shrine was inscribed. At this shrine, the sun goddess Amaterasu and the god of the sea Susanoo were enshrined.

These were enshrined as the main deities in the center, and around them were many small shrines dedicated to various other deities believed in by the local people constructed within the shrine grounds.

In the Hakata region where Kushida Shrine stands, the Hakata Gion Matsuri is held in July, and there is an event where ornate mikoshi are carried in a procession. It is said that each village in the Hakata region creates a mikoshi to submit to regional events.

Within the Kushida Shrine grounds, this year's award-winning mikoshi was on display. Its height was very high, and it was decorated with various designs including waves, making it seem that the people carrying the mikoshi must have worked very hard.

According to the guide, the people carrying this mikoshi, like those performing purification ritual (齋戒), disciplined their minds and bodies and devoted themselves to practice until the event took place. One could see that the festival was conducted with sincerity.

Another notable thing at Kushida Shrine is two stones presumed to be anchor stones left by the Yuan-Mongol allied forces, which were displayed as support stones under an ancient ginkgo tree with an estimated age of over a thousand years.

The artifact presumed to be an anchor stone reflects the urgency of Japan when faced with invasion by the Yuan-Mongol allied forces during the Kamakura shogunate period, and it is transmitted that, regarding the repelling of the Yuan-Mongol allied forces by a sudden strong wind as divine protection, the stone was moved to Kushida Shrine to commemorate this.

Although this field trip was conducted over a short period, by confirming the traces of the Yuan-Mongol allied forces and relics related to the Imjin War, as well as the route of the Joseon Diplomatic Missions that followed, one could verify the history that took place between Korea and Japan at that time.