뉴스레터

The Japanese clans Oya (大谷) and Murakawa (村川) from Yonago (米子) of Tottori Domain (鳥取藩) frequented the Korean island Ulleungdo for seven decades after receiving permission to do so from the Edo Bakufu in the 1620s. The clans collected a considerable amount of natural produce on the island and around its waters, which they took to sell in Japan or offer to influential members of the Tokugawa shogunate. It was also fishermen of the Oya clan who took the Koreans An Yong-bok and Bak Eo-don away from Ulleungdo to Tottori Domain. How then did those fishermen come to travel to Ulleungdo in the first place?

Tottori Domain, the Oya Clan, and Ulleungdo

After the Battle of Sekigahara in 1600, Tottori Domain with a potential rice production of 60,000 koku (石) across two of its provinces Inabanokuni (因幡國) and Hokinokuni (伯耆國) was awarded to Ikeda Nagayoshi (長吉), the younger brother of Okayama Domain's Ikeda Terumasa (池田輝政). The massive extent of the Ikeda clan's domain at the time amounted to 1 million koku and the awarding of Tottori Domain seems to have been done to replace its lord as the bakufu arranged for either Himeji or Okayama domain to be relocated due to its political motives and needs in the early modern times.

Ancestors of the Oya clan used to go by the surname Wada (和田) up until the early days of the Sengoku period (戰國時代), or the Age of Warring States. The Wada family used to be powerful in Izuminokuni (part of today’s Osaka Prefecture), but nearly became extinct from being defeated in the 1399 Oei (應永) Disturbance. Little Ryosei (良淸) was the only one who survived and once he grew up, he was summoned by the Kiso (木曾) Fukushima (福島) family in 1466 to become a vassal in charge of land worth 3,000 kan (貫). He later resigned from his position after getting caught up in a conspiracy surrounding the Fukushima clan and went into seclusion at a place called Oyatani (大屋谷) of Tajimanokuni (today's Hyogo Prefecture).

Meanwhile, the daimyo of Odaka, Hokinokuni (today's Yonago) who belonged to the Sugihara (杉原) family repeatedly asked Ryosei to enter into public service. However, Ryosei refused, saying he could never serve two different lords, and instead had his grandson Genba (玄番) enter into public service under the surname "Otani" created after his place of seclusion rather than the surname Wada. When Sugihara Morishige (杉原盛重) died in battle and ended the family's lineage, Genba became determined to quit being a warrior and placed his two sons under the care of his nephew Jinkichi (甚吉) and had them move to Yonago of Hokinokuni.

In old documents of the Oya clan, Oya Jinkichi is described as the first person to witness Ulleungdo and is named as the one who reported about traveling to Ulleungdo in the "Permit to Sail to Takeshima" later issued by the bakufu. While in Yonago between 1558 and 1570, Oya Jinkichi settled down in a town named Nadamachi (灘町) and opened a shipping business that transported goods like rice and liquor from mountainous areas to Ou (奥羽) of Hokuriku (北陸) along the East Sea between Korea and Japan. In 1617, a ship returning from Echigo Province (today's Niigata Prefecture) got swept up in a storm and drifted for a few days until it washed ashore upon the island Ulleungdo. Oya Jinkichi explored the island and discovered that it was uninhabited and had lots of local produce to take advantage of. So, after he managed to get back to his base in Yonago, Oya Jinkichi began to make plans to travel to Ulleungdo.

Tottori Domain and the Murakawa Family

According to Murakawa-shi kyuki (村川氏舊記), or "Old Records of the Murakawa Clan," the Murakawa clan's forefather is a person named Yamada Taro (山田太郞) of the Owari Seiwa Genji (尾張淸和源氏). A person named Yamada Masanari (山田正齊) used to be a vassal to the Hisamatsu clan (久松氏) who had been closely related to Tokugawa Ieyasu until an incident in April 1581 caused him to commit suicide by seppuku (切腹). Yamada Masanari's son Masakazu (正員) thereafter moved with his mother to Yonago and assumed his mother's surname Murakawa (村川).

In 1617, the year Oya Jinkichi drifted upon Ulleungdo, major changes were taking place in Tottori Domain and the castle of Yonago with their lords were being replaced. Ikeda Nagayuki. the second daimyo of Tottori Domain, was reassigned to the Bitchu Matsuyama Domain, and Ikeda Mitsumasa, the legitimate son of Hemiji Domain's second daimyo Ikeda Toshitaka, became appointed as Tottori Domain's third daimyo to cover a land worth 320,000 koku. Ikeda Mitsumasa had inherited his father's domain of 420,000 koku at the age of seven when his father Ikeda Toshitaka passed away in 1616. However, for reasons of being too young, he ended up being transferred to the smaller Tottori Domain and moved into Tottori Castle in March 1618. The bakufu ruling the country had been reluctant to have young daimyos run major strategic points like Hemiji Domain and Okayama Domain in the Chugoku region, so they took advantage of Tottori Domain ruled by the same clan to arrange the transfers. As for Yonago, the lord Kato Sadayasu was reassigned to Ozu (大洲), Iyonokuni (today's Ehime Prefecture) while an elder family member of Ikeda Mitsumasa named Ikeda Yoshinari took up Kato Sadayasu’s former position.

The bakufu then dispatched Abe Masayuki (阿部正之), a samurai ranked Hatamoto, to Tottori Domain to keep an eye on whether the domain was being properly managed. While serving the second shogun Tokugawa Hidetada and the third shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu, Abe Masayuki rose through the ranks of Shoinban, Tsukaiban, and Metsuke to mainly serve as an inspector surveilling transferred or replaced daimyos or a magistrate administering large-scale construction projects. According to the Otani family documents (大谷家文書), Oya Jinkichi's nephew Katsumune (勝宗) was the one who asked Abe Masayuki to "put in a good word with the bakufu." Katsumune called upon Abe Masayuki while he was staying in Tottori Domain to consult him alongside the Murakawa clan about traveling overseas, and Abe Masayuki subsequently helped put in a request to the bakufu under Oya Jinkichi and Murakawa Ichibei's name. As a result, the bakufu had a senior state councilor (roju) issue a letter (hosho) addressed to the daimyo of Tottori Domain Ikeda Mitsumasa, giving permission to travel across the sea to Takeshima (竹嶋), which is what the Japanese called Ulleungdo at the time. This senior state councilor's letter is what is now commonly referred to as the "Permit to Sail to Takeshima" (竹嶋渡海免許).

This permit to sail to Takeshima was co-signed by other senior state councilors of the bakufu including Nagai Naomasa (永井尙政) and stated that "the shogun permits the clans of Oya and Murakawa, merchants (chonin) of Yonago, to sail across the sea to Takeshima (Ulleungdo)," providing the two families grounds for alternately traveling to Ulleungdo each year.

The Two Families with Permission to Cross the Sea

At a time when people from a broad range of mountainous areas had already been going over to fish at Ulleungdo, the senior state council's letter served as an official warrant allowing the two families to travel to Ulleungdo and helped them monopolize the rights over the island. The Murakawa clan had long been acquainted with Abe Masayuki by the time the request was being made to the bakufu, and the senior state councilor Inoue Masanari (井上正就) who signed the letter on behalf of the bakufu was a relative of Abe Masayuki. Hence, the permit was especially issued thanks to the personal connections between the Murakawa clan, Abe Masayuki, and Inoue Masanari. Those personal connections are also presumed to have something to do with the fact that the two families had served as warriors (samurai) during the Age of Warring States in Japan. The two families not only acquired the senior state council's letter with help from the bakufu's vassals, but were also granted an individual audience with the shogun himself. Even after the bakufu later altogether banned sailing to Ulleungdo, Tottori Domain and Yonago showed leniency toward the two families for their economic survival. It is therefore likely that the two families' identity had been closer to that of warriors rather than mere merchants (chonin), which must have been part of the reason why their domain officials had continued show them such economic leniency.

Since obtaining permission, the Oya and Murakawa families alternately traveled to Ulleungdo each year and also traveled to Edo every four or five years for an audience with the shogun. The audiences were possible because the Abe clan had thereafter become even closer friends with two families and would apply on their behalf for the audiences to the Jisha-bugyo, the commissioner of the Tokugawa shogunate. Hence, the relationship between the bakufu and the two families with the Abe clan acting as agent had been personal and irregular rather than official and regular.

Tottori Domain financially sponsored the two families as well. The domain provided loans to fund the expenses for traveling to Ulleungdo, which were sometimes paid back with abalones collected from Ulleungdo. Such abalones would also be purchased by the domain to present to the shogun's family or high-ranked bakufu officials. Abalones from Ulleungdo became widely recognized as a delicacy representative of Tottori Domain. The ships the two families used to sail to Ulleungdo was allowed to hang a flag with the shogun's clan crest in the shape of hollyhocks, which was also embroidered on the robes the shogun had given them. Their trips to Ulleungdo that lasted for nearly seven decades until they were banned in the late seventeenth century allowed them to build their reputation as privileged merchants within Tottori Domain.

They would usually depart from Tottori Domain's Yonago around February or March and stop by Shimane Prefecture's Kumodzu (雲津) and Dozen (島前) of Oki Islands (隱岐) before arriving at Fukuura (福浦) on the island Dogo (島後). They would stay there for repairs and preparations, set sail for Ulleungdo in April, and return around July or August after fishing and collecting from the island.

Hunting and Collecting on Ulleungdo

Below is a map including Ulleungdo and Dokdo kept at the Museum of Tottori Prefecture. It is presumed to be a map Tottori Domain submitted to the bakufu during the dispute over Ulleungdo between Joseon and Japan that took place in the late seventeenth century, and features in a single page today's Shimane Prefecture, Oki Islands, Dokdo, Ulleungdo, as well as Joseon.

The two islets at the center marked as "Mastushima" (松嶋) are today's Dokdo and the larger island to their left marked as "Isotakeshima" (磯竹嶋) is today's Ulleungdo. The land marked as "Goryeo" (かうらい) to the left of Ulleungdo near the top left-hand corner refers to Joseon. Each port on the map is labeled with a name, which is likely to have been names used by sailors of the two families who traveled to Ulleungdo. What is interesting about this map is that the purpose of using each port is separately listed in detail on the top right-hand corner.

Abalones and sea lions took up a majority of the products the two families acquired from Ulleungdo in addition to sea cucumber, mushrooms, and lumber. The waters of Ulleungdo were known to have plenty of fish and clams, and lots of abalones could be found along the island's shores. Abalones would be dried, skewered, or pickled with salt, while sea cucumber and wood ear mushrooms would also be collected for sale back in Japan. A tremendous amount of abalones were presented to the shogun, high-ranked bakufu officials as well as Tottori Domain officials and they were even sold from receiving orders for abalones. For instance, when Murakawa Masazumi was granted an audience with the shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu in Kyoto in 1626, he presented the shogun with paulownia wood and 500 abalones and presented 300 abalones each to high-ranked bakufu officials.

Sea lions called Gangchi in Korean used to live on Ulleungdo and Dokdo. They would come to the islands every June to give birth. Japanese fishermen dug holes on the seashore, waited until sea lions crawled into those holes, and shot them with firelocks. Captured sea lions were skinned and put into wooden barrels to be transported to Japan. Sea lion liver was particularly valued as an aphrodisiac. When a Murakawa clan ship from Ulleungdo drifted ashore upon Ulsan at the southeastern part of the Korean peninsula in 1637, it was supposedly loaded with "314 barrels of sea lion oil, 406 rows of dried abalone, 4 sacks of salted abalone, 2 barrels of slightly salted abalone, 253 sheets of sea lion skin, 8 sacks of wood ear mushrooms, and 60 sacks of sea lion meat." This shows that they took a considerable amount of abalone as well as a hefty amount of processed goods made out of sea lion. They would all be taken to Nagasaki to be traded with goods imported from Tang China such as silk fabrics, tiger skin, and sweeteners, which were then transported all across Japan to be sold for high profits. Santalales and paulownia trees were known as quality wood, and white sandalwood in particular was recognized as high-end construction material. When the Edo Castle's Nishinomaru used as a residence for the crown prince or former shoguns was being repaired in 1638, the wood the two families presented were used for the mausoleum's floor boards and bookshelves. So, without Joseon's acknowledgement, wood on Ulleungdo had been taken through abnormal channels other than trade to be used in decorating parts of the Edo Castle.