뉴스레터

Question

It has been reported that during the later period of Joseon Dynasty a senior military official in Tsushima in exclusive charge of Korea-Japan trade exchanges was executed for his involvement in smuggling. Why did the senior military official get involved in smuggling?

Answer

It is not difficult to find Korea or Tsushima officials involved in small and large smuggling cases during the 250 years of Korea-Japan trade exchanges in the later Joseon period. In Joseon, there were a lot of government interpreters and low-rank public servants involved in trade exchanges with Japan. On the side of Tsushima, a lot of Japanese people in various statuses stayed in the Japanese district in Busan including low to high level military officers, farmers, merchants and industrialists, doctors and Buddhist monks. In my opinion, low level military officers and merchants were those by far most often involved in smuggling. I suppose that there were a lot of opportunities for them to contact each other centering around the Japanese district, which may have led them to get involved.

A rare case happened, however, in 1656 where a senior military official named Sago Shikiemon(佐護式右衛門) was punished for his transaction of gold products with a group of Korean government interpreters visiting Tsushima. When the ship that the Korean interpreters were on board was wrecked in a storm, it was revealed that the ship was loaded with gold products. When the smuggling was detected, the Tsushima authorities seized three large iron canons from Sago, which implies that the transacted items were probably weapons. As sale of weapons was prohibited by the military government law during the Edo period, it would have been a serious crime if Japanese weapons had been sold to Korean government interpreters at that time. Besides, about 20 people attached to the Tsushima government including officials, merchants and industrialists were punished for acting as an agent for loading gold products.

Sago was ordered to commit disembowelment, which was in fact a death sentence. He was in charge of greeting and sending off the interpreters at the time of the incident, and was in charge of greeting and sending off a group of Korean trade delegates in 1655 one year earlier. Having been to Korea as a special delegate many times, he was also famous for achieving the 'rice exchange system' where Joseon (Korea) would give to Tsushima 1,200 bags of rice instead of 300 rolls of cotton fabric that the Korean government used to give to Japan as a payment for the government administered trade. This rice was a very important food item in Tsushima where there was not sufficient farmland. Whenever the period for Joseon's dispatch of the rice was about to end, Tsushima would send a delegate to extend the period, which implies that Sago's achievement was really great for Tsushima. It is really surprising that Sago, who must have secured a stable position in Tsushima for his achievement in the trade with Joseon, was daringly involved only a few years later in the 'sale of weapons' which was prohibited by the military government.

At that time there was a high demand in Korea for Japanese weapons, which would have been in the background of the incident. However, in another opinion, a person jealous of Sago's achievement secretly reported the smuggling to the military government, and once the military government knew the smuggling, Tsushima would not have an option but to execute Sago. But, a question arises if it was true that Sago was involved in smuggling without Tsushima government's knowledge when considering Sago's position in Tsushima. An 'unfounded thought' comes into my mind that perhaps Sago obtained the 'rice exchange system' from the Joseon government for a price of 'supplying weapons'.