뉴스레터

Editor's Note: On June 17, 2015, the International Conference on the 50th Anniversary of the Normalization of Korea-Japan Diplomatic Relations, co-hosted by the Northeast Asian History Foundation and a number of other research institutes, was held under the auspice of the Korean and Japanese Ministries of Foreign Affairs. The opening ceremony attracted attention as it included the screening of a documentary film, "Korean Envoys to Japan during the Edo Period," by the late Korean Japanese historian Shin Ki-su (辛基秀, 1931-2002). His daughter, producer Rika Shin, who divides her time between Korea and Japan making efforts to revive the memory of exchange between the two countries, gave an interview to NAHF Education Team Manager Lee, Won-Woo.

Lee, Won-Woo For our readers, please tell us briefly about Mr. Shin Ki-su, your late father, and his film "Korean Envoys to Japan during the Edo Period."

Rika Shin My father was born in Kyoto, Japan and graduated from the College of Business Administration at Kobe University. He spent most of his time studying Korea-Japan relations spanning from the Edo period to World War II and beyond. One thing he never ceased to repeat to me was that if the Japanese occupation of Korea during the 1900s was a dark period of the history between the two countries, the Edo period from the 1600s to the 1800s was a bright one. He said that the bright as well as dark periods of history needed to be documented. He practiced what he believed in by writing over twenty books and making five documentary films. In particular, Korean envoys to Japan during the Joseon Dynasty (a.k.a. Joseon Tongsinsa in Korean and hereinafter "Tongsinsa") were the subject that he devoted his entire life to studying. He collected 110 related documents and 35 folding screens with paintings of Tongsinsa. As a result, he was awarded, unusually for a Korean Japanese. the Osaka Citizen Cultural Achievement Award (1997), Medal with Dark Blue Ribbon (2003), and other awards and prizes. 'Korean Envoys to Japan during the Edo Period'(1979) is his magnum opus, a monumental film that highlighted the significance of Tongsinsa and the evidence of the glorious cultural exchange between Korea and Japan.

Lee, Won-Woo You were working for BBC when you decided to come to Korea and start learning about Korean history and culture a few years ago. Was there any special reason for that decision?

Rika Shin It happened as I tried to introduce my father's film, 'Until the Day of Liberation: The Footprints of the Korean Japanese'(1986), to audiences in Korea. When I was a producer in the U.K., I was assigned to a program about war. For the program, I requested for an interview with the veterans and POWs who had fought with Japanese troops at the Battle of Imphal as part of the Burma (present-day Myanmar) Campaign during World War II. But they refused at first when they learned that I was from Japan. When I explained that "my parents were Korean," they still refused, saying that "they had been beaten up every day in the POW camp by Korean military officers." I visited them every week for a year and a half until they opened up to talk to me. 'Operation Imphal' is called 'the forgotten war' in the U.K. Imphal was so far away from the center of the European theater of World War II that even the fact that there had been a tragic battle there was little known to the general public. Those survivors of the Battle of Imphal reminded me of the first-generation Korean Japanese, those Koreans who had been taken to Japan and sent to war but never highlighted in the history of Japan or any other country. From this experience that I had in the U.K., I realized how difficult it must have been for my father to make his film "Until the Day of Liberation" because it involved the interviewing of the Korean Japanese or Japanese who had been taken away by force. And I was surprised very much when I learned that my father owned a certain film about war which I had looked for in vain in the U.K. and Russia. "Until the Day of Liberation," featuring rare footage and photographs not found anywhere else in the world, was also used in NHK's program 'The Century of Video.' As someone who'd been engaged in the production of videos, I wanted to have this film released in Korea as early as possible while the victims of forced draft were alive. And this desire led me to start learning about Korean history and culture.

Lee, Won-Woo What do you think of the recent changes in Korean and Japanese societies that you have observed while travelling between the two countries?

Rika Shin I am under the impression that the recently ongoing historical debate between Korea and Japan is discouraging ordinary citizens who are not politicians from holding even events of cultural exchange. That's a shame because I believe that culture and ordinary citizens have power and it is important in times like these. For example, Children's Dance in Okayama Prefecture and the Mock Procession of the Dang People in the city of Tsu in Mie Prefecture were both influenced by Tongsinsa. Japanese traditional dolls, also influenced by Tongsinsa, are found everywhere in the country, including even those areas that didn't include the routes of Tongsinsa, such as Aomori (靑森), Akita, Miyagi, and Fukushima. While exchange at the state or government level is important, I would like to call attention to the historical fact of a culture that flourished through the exchange of ordinary citizens ranging from artists to common people. One may think that they were nobody and had no power, but I think it was because they exchanged with another country without thinking too much about national interests that they could enjoy a culture that was free and influential.

Lee, Won-Woo The late Mr. Shin Ki-su brought back to light 'Korean envoys to Japan during the Edo period' that would otherwise have been forgotten at that time, when there was animosity between Korea and Japan and the two countries were in conflict with each other. I wonder how he started to do what he did.

Rika Shin In the early 1970s, my father came across a rolled-up picture in an antique book market that would change his life completely. Since he grew up in Japan and received an one-sided education on history, the picture was a revelation to him and made him wonder, "The two countries became enemies after the Imjin War. How could they restore their relations in less than ten years after the war was over?" A few years later, he came upon another rolled-up picture that was 120 meters in total length and vivid in color. The picture featured the 8th batch of Tongsinsa that came to visit Japan in 1711. It was a magnificent procession of a total of 4,800 people, including Japanese samurais who served as guides. My father thought that this work that captured the vivid details of people in the procession was equivalent to today's 'document film.' He set out to make a documentary film to bring light back to history based on this picture and other related pictures discovered all over Japan and related festivals still held in the country. He went from Tsushima to Osaka and all the way to Edo (Tokyo), following the tracks of Tongsinsa. He filmed anything related to Tongsinsa that he came across in the process. But since not many people knew about Tongsinsa at that time, he had many difficulties. To film a certain thing, he needed to get permission from its owner. And it was extremely difficult to get such permission, especially from temples. For instance, Sennyuji Temple (泉桶寺) in Higashiyama, Kyoto, a temple connected to the imperial family, held a certain folding screen featuring the reception of Korean national envoys (朝鮮國使歡待圖屛風) that he wanted to film. He had to go ask for permission for as many as seven times before it was finally granted. Overcoming difficulties like these was also a part of the process of healing the wounds left on Korea and Japan since the Meiji Restoration. Describing his feelings at that time, my father said to me, "I feel like a 'modern Tongsinsa.' Perhaps it is my mission to serve as one to restore dynamism to history."

Lee, Won-Woo When your father was engrossed in collecting materials and making films that were related to Tongsinsa, what were your thoughts as you watched him　do what he did?

Rika Shin I didn't understand him when I was young. I thought it strange when my father brought home things that seemed old and not pretty to my child's eye but apparently delighted him and my mother. I was very surprised when the principal of my middle school told me, after my father's film was recognized by the Japanese Ministry of Culture, "Your father's film led to the revision of the textbooks." Only then did I begin to understand what great work my father was doing.

Lee, Won-Woo When 'Korean Envoys to Japan during the Edo Period' was made and released in 1979, how was it received in Japan?

Rika Shin Tongsinsa disappeared from history by Japan's national policy after the Meiji Restoration, and they had been forgotten until this film brought life back to them. When the film was completed in 1979, it was even mentioned in an Asahi Shimbun editorial. And the film went on to be not only shown in theaters across Japan, but also aired in Korea that August by the Tongyang Broadcasting Company (TBC). The film made headlines as it won a Mainich Film Award in 1980 and was also recognized by the Japanese Ministry of Culture. As my father recalled, "it spread like wildfire." After the film, there was news on the discovery of materials related to Tongsinsa all over the country. My father would go anywhere in Japan as long as there was any material related to Tongsinsa. Although in the past only a limited number of scholars had been interested, Tongsinsa became so widely known to the general public that they even appeared in Japanese history textbooks. Up until that point, the Japanese history textbooks had nothing written about the period following Toyotomi Hideyoshi (豊臣秀吉)'s 'dispatch of troops to Korea' to the rise of advocates for the invasion of Korea in the early Meiji period. After the release of the film, many monuments were erected across the country in areas that included the routes of Tongsinsa. And temples with signs that mistakenly described Tongsinsa as "Chinese envoys" corrected their signs. In 1980, the year after the film was made, the mock procession of Tongsinsa started in Tsushima, to reproduce the original one from 170 years ago, and this event has continued to this day.

Lee, Won-Woo At the international conference held on June 17 to celebrate the 50th year since Korea and Japan restored their diplomatic relations, the participants from both countries watched the film together. The film is also scheduled to be shown at the National Assembly on June 30. How did the Koreans who had already watched it respond to this film?

Rika Shin The response to the film is more or less the same, whether in Japan or in Korea. A majority of the viewers said that "from Tongsinsa they gained the courage and wisdom to move toward the future." A woman living in Busan said, "I've taken my children to the annual mock procession of Tongsinsa in my hometown, but I didn't really understand its underlying significance until I saw the film." A Japanese who is married to a Korean said, "My children used to say that they'd feel small and intimidated in history class in school, but I think that they've begun to feel confidence once they learned about the history of the friendship between Korea and Japan." When the film was shown at the University of Seoul to an audience of about 140 students in their freshman to senior years, I was pleasantly surprised by their response that exceeded my expectations. They asked serious questions like "How could the two neighboring countries maintain peace between them for as many as 200 years? That's unthinkable in Europe" and "If Tongsinsa contributed to stability in East Asia, what about their economic effect on the region?" I was happy about the enthusiastic response of the students, but at the same time felt a sense of responsibility that I should not stop here but continue to do my work.

Lee, Won-Woo What do you think Tongsinsa might mean to the strained Korea-Japan relations?

Rika Shin During his visit to Japan in May 1990, the then Korean president Roh Tae-woo gave a speech at the parliament where he praised Amenomori Hoshu (雨森芳洲) as 'a man of sincerity and faith.' Hoshu was a diplomat and Confucian scholar of Tsushima-han who welcomed the eight and ninth batches of Tongsinsa. Hoshu said, 'Don't lie to each other, don't quarrel with each other, but be friends to each other based on faith and trust.' I think what he said is a classic motto of good-neighbor relationship that both Korea and Japan should remember at times like these. There were as many as twelve batches of Tongsinsa. Their visits had both bright and dark sides, and not everything went well. But it was thanks in large part to Tongsinsa that Korea and Japan, while recovering from the damage of the war started by Toyotomi Hideyoshi to invade Korea. which had turned out to be a disaster to both countries, managed to maintain peace between each other for over 200 years. I remember how an Englishman looked surprised and impressed when I talked to him about 'the peace maintained between two neighboring countries for as many as 200 years.' It is extremely important that we learn the wisdom and insight of our ancestors who sent envoys to Japan, which brought stability to East Asia in general and led to the Silk Road' and the Silver Road and apply the lessons learned to today's issues. Tongsinsa is a reminder that the relationship between the two countries can develop only if they continue their exchange, regardless of their political situation.

Still pictures from the documentary film 'Korean Envoys to Japan during the Edo Period'
(original at the National Film Center, the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo)

Lee, Won-Woo Is there anything you want to do to carry on with the late Mr. Shin's lifetime work and research into Tongsinsa?

Rika Shin For Korea and Japan, the past fifty years is a very short time, considering their long relationship spanning over a thousand years. My father said in his life, "We should always think about 100 years or 200 years in the future." Keeping that in mind, I'd like to continue to introduce my father's films to many people for friendship between Korea and Japan and peace in East Asia. I hope that (my father's film about) Tongsinsa will help many people remember the history of exchange between the two countries.