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Tsuko ichiran (通航一覽), which can roughly be translated as "Survey of Foreign Relations," is a chronological collection of documents related to Japan's foreign relations with its neighboring countries between 1566 and 1825 that was compiled around 1853 by multiple scholars including the neo-Confucianist scholar Hayashi Fukusai (林復斎) according to the Edo bakufu's order. For offering a wealth of information on not only the visits Korean envoys made to Japan, but on the exchanges Japan engaged in with its neighbors, Tsuko ichiran is considered an essential source for studying the history of Japanese diplomacy during the Edo period. This source also happens to include an interesting story involving the Korean mission to Japan in 1748. The following introduces an annotated summary of the story described in volume no. 62, or the thirty-eighth volume about the Joseon dynasty (朝鮮國部) in Tsuko ichiran.

The Story of a Korean Envoy

In April 1748, an envoy who was visiting Japan as a member of the Joseon mission took a translator with him to pay a visit to a man named Shirohei (四郞兵衛), the owner of an incense shop in Kyutaro-machi, Osaka. It was customary for Joseon envoys to travel along a prearranged route on land and lodge along the way at accommodations prepared for them by the Japanese, but this particular envoy had obtained permission to veer off course to search for and meet the merchant Shirohei based in Osaka. For a person from Joseon to show up at the village was an unusual sight, so those who grew curious came over to Shirohei's place one by one to see what was going on.

Once the man from Joseon came face to face with Shirohei, this is what he said in Japanese: "I'm actually from a village called Sena (瀬名村) of Arita-gun (有田郡), Kii domain (紀伊藩：presently Wakayama domain) and I once worked at this shop run by your father. Then I stole money worth 4 Kanmon (貫文) and ran away to Kyoto (京都), but things didn't work out, so I moved on to Nagasaki (長崎). There I heard people say "a good living can be made in Tsushima (對馬)," so I went to Tsushima and stayed there for six years. Things got better over the years, enough to obtain a permit to sail to Joseon. Once in Joseon, I went through a couple of different experiences before becoming the son-in-law of a Joseon person. My father-in-law is the descendent of a low-ranking government official, which is why I've been able to join this Joseon mission to Japan. I wanted to take this opportunity to stop by the shop I used to work at to offer an explanation, and if possible, learn any news of my hometown in Kii domain. I own a house back in Joseon and I'm more or less living in comfort." The man then pulled out three roots of ginseng and ten small plates and presented them as a gift to Shirohei.

When Shirohei offered to pay, the man from Joseon said "I cannot accept money from a Japanese because I am being strictly monitored, so I will only take 100 Bun (文) out of what you are offering. I shall tell my wife once I return to Joseon that there is much gold and silver in Japan. This incident was reported to the bakufu by the Sakai bugyō (堺奉行), a government official, named Iwami Awanokami (稻生安房守).

The Journey Between Joseon and Edo Japan

The gist of what a Japanese official working for the bakufu reported to his superiors about the above incident in Osaka during a Joseon mission's visit in 1748 was as follows. "A Japanese" originally from Sena (瀬名) who went over to Tsushima and later settled down in Joseon came across the opportunity to accompany Joseon envoys to visit his homeland, so he stopped by the shop he used to work at on the mission's way past Osaka to confess his transgressions and catch up with his former acquaintances. In the presence of his fellow Joseon envoys, he only accepted 100 Bun (文) out of the money Shirohei offered him, saying that he was being strictly monitored. That was because members of the Joseon mission were prohibited from personally engaging in the sale of goods with locals in Japan. The plates and three roots of ginseng he presented to Shirohei must have been a gift to make amends for his past transgressions.

Whatever the case, it wouldn't be a stretch to say that this incident should come as a shock to most of those who are studying the relations between Joseon and Japan during the Edo period. To think that a Japanese man from the first half of the eighteenth century actually went over to Joseon through Tsushima domain, married a Joseon woman, and settled down in Joseon. And he even managed to use his personal connection to the descendent of a low-ranking Joseon official to join a group of envoys dispatched by the Joseon government on a diplomatic mission to the Edo bakufu. Out of context, the life story of a Japanese man who settled down in Korea and traveled back and forth to Japan seems modern enough not to come across as out of place in the twenty-first century. But what makes the story shocking is the fact that it took place during a time of seclusion in the eighteenth century, not when it is more than possible for a random citizen to relocate or immigrate to a foreign country and marry a foreigner. It is almost inconceivable to think that such a case existed in Joseon during King Yeongjo's reign. Could the case be indicating that Joseon society had actually been as open to foreigners as Korea is today, enough for an eighteenth-century Joseon family to be able to accept a son-in-law from Japan, from a people known to be impossible to live with under the same sky (不俱戴天之倭人) at the time?

For the purpose of improving his financial circumstances, the man whose name is not mentioned in Tsuko ichiran kept moving from Kii to Osaka, to Kyoto, then Nagasaki, and then Tsushima. All those moves do not seem out of the ordinary because they took place within Japan, but his moves beyond Tsushima to Joseon stand out. Tsuko ichiran tells nothing of what the man went through after he arrived at Joseon, but the fact that he sailed to Joseon means he would have first landed at the waegwan in Choryang, Busan. A waegwan refers to a "guest house" of sorts that existed since the early days of the Joseon dynasty for the purpose of accommodating Japanese diplomats and tradesmen visiting Joseon. By the latter half of the Joseon dynasty, only those from Tsushima were allowed to trade with Joseon from Japan, and once diplomatic relations became re-established during the early seventeenth century after Joseon was horrendously invaded by Japan through the Imjin War, Joseon greatly tightened its regulation toward and management of waegwans.

The Strictly Controlled Choryang Waegwan

Japanese who sailed to Joseon were strictly prohibited from walking around villages nearby waegwans and the movements of Joseon officials who went in and out of waegwans were subjected to regulation as well. A frightful agreement was even made in 1683 that allowed any Japanese to be executed near a waegwan for failing to abide the boundary of actions approved by the Joseon government. The agreement was one the Joseon government had entered into with the authorities of Tsushima domain. It had been part of the Joseon government's efforts to ensure a system that forces the Japanese who come over to Choryang waegwan to remain within the premises until they return to Tsushima. However, the Japanese who visited the waegwan continued to trespass beyond the premises even after the agreement was concluded, causing Joseon to repeatedly run into disputes and conflicts with Tsushima domain over capturing and punishing Japanese trespassers. Tsushima domain knowingly broke the rules from time to time for the sake of profiting from its trade with Joseon, but because the domain was also aware of the fact that doing so would only aggravate matters, it put rules of its own into place to control the actions of its people during their stay at the waegwan.

Those were the circumstances Choryang waegwan was under since the late seventeenth century. And more than half a century later, a Japanese man came to Choryang waegwan, married a Joseon woman, and settled down in the country. Unfortunately, that is all that's been recorded in Tsuko ichiran and no other records mentioning the man have been uncovered so far. So, there is no way to figure out details such as how he managed to get married and settle down in Joseon after coming to the waegwan, what his social status had been in which part of Joseon, and how he was recognized by the Joseon government and the authorities in Tsushima domain. We can only suspect that by the time the man was selected to be part of the Joseon mission to Japan, he must have at least acquired a legitimate status recognized by the Joseon government.

It would be reasonable to assume for now that the man had been an extremely exceptional case. It is therefore impossible to rashly make a generalization about Joseon society based on the story of one man. Nevertheless, at a time when discussions on the Joseon government's policies toward Japan was focused on national justification and policies on waegwans were mainly meant to control and regulate, the fact that the man existed may signify that the society in late Joseon might have been a lot more broad-minded and flexible toward foreigners than what we had originally imagined.