Earticle

The purpose of this study was to research hats for pyeonbok that were worn by Joseon’s diplomatic delegate to Japan, that is, Tongsinsa since the 18th century, with references to the collection of conversations in writing and exchanged poems and paintings, literature, including Sahaengrok, and other paintings all of which are related to Tongsinsa. The findings of the study can be summarized as follows. First, the members of Tongsinsa that were delegated to Japan in the late Joseon Period included three leading officials or samsa, chief official interpreter or dangsang yeokgwan, general official interpreters or yeokgwan, high literary officials or jesulgwan, clerks or seogi, medical specialists or yangeui, physicians or euiwon, official dictators or sajagwan and official painters or hwawon. All these members wore pyeonbokpo when being on board at sea or staying at lodgings. At the same time, they wore hats for pyeonbok. Second, hats that the diplomatic delegates usually wore when dressed in pyeonbok include waryonggwan, jeongjagwan, dongpagwan, gohugwan, bokgeon, yeonyeopgwan, yukja unyeopgwan, banggwan, gosagwan, hwayanggeon and tanggeon. Among these, jeongjagwan, dongpagwan, gohugwan and tanggeon were often worn by delegate members of different positions. Third, the members of Tongsinsa prepared in advance hats for pyeonbok which allow them to properly appear themselves as Confucianists and keep easily with. Each member often carried a few of the hats and chose from them, whichever was more convenient. Fourth, the collection of conversations in writing and exchanged poems and paintings includes a relatively fewer conversations that samsa made in writing. Records about hats for pyeonbok that are found in that collection are only about waryonggwan and bokgeon. This is because it was in most cases jesulgwan, seogi, yangeui or euiwon who communicated with Japanese by writing. However, it is presumed that samsa also wore different types of hats for pyeonbok including waryonggwan and bokgeon.

There is an art museum called Kiplin Hall in a small village of Yorkshire in North-England. The Kiplin Hall consists of a grand building(Jacobean House) built 400 years ago, beautiful gardens and wide grounds where sheep graze. The museum is filled with collections of artworks gathered in the 1920s by businessman Humphrey Talbot(1883-1944). It turned out that the collection there comprised work depicting Joseon Tongsinsa and their ships that never had been published before. It was a new discovery. The paintings related to Joseon Tongsinsa were displayed in two places in Kiplin Hall. The first place is a room where East Asian style works are displayed. There are four works on the wall where “Kawagozabune”(roofed river boats with tatami reserved for nobles) provided by Japan commonly seen in paintings depicting Joseon Tongsinsa’s ships(Group A). The paintings were cut out from their original picture scrolls and displayed in a picture frame. Another group of works are four pieces that are hung in the corridor. Like the works in the room, these were also cut out from picture scrolls(Group B). Especially in this work Group B the Korean persons and their ships were drawn in a way as I have never seen before in my research on Joseon Tongsinsa. Furthermore, there are no examples of works that drew Korean ships with such precision as these. How many pieces of picture scrolls were purchased by Humphrey Talbot and cut out to be put in picture frames to begin with? There is no record to this regard and it could only be clarified through the analysis of the works. It has not been clarified when, where, and why the works were purchased. Currently, there is an album with a photograph of a room of the Kiplin Hall, which is thought to have been taken after his death. In this room with a wall fireplace, a table and a chair, there are five Picture frames depicting a ship. In the explanation of the Picture frame "the Japanese paintings of ships" was written. This is the only record on these ships paintings. In this paper, since similar works already existed in Japan and Korea for the works of Group A, I could explore the details by comparing these works with the existing works. Regarding the works of group B, since these were completely new works, which I have never seen before, I analyzed the works by studying the depicted background mainly using dissertations etc. and at the same time I also focused attention on the paintings method of the persons and the ships. I hope that the discovery of these works in the UK will further develop the research on Joseon Tongsinsa.

For 157 years, from Keicho(慶長) 12(1607) to Meiwa(明和) 1st (1764), on 23 occasions the Ryukyu Processional Delegation and the Korean Processional Envoys passed through Osaka and Nagoya to reach Edo. The Japanese people who observed these processions were able to distinguish the differences between the Ryukyu people and the Korean people. However, after the Meiwa (明和) 1st(1764), the delegation from Korea stopped coming to Osaka and Edo. For 86 years from Meiwa 1st year(1764) to Kaei(嘉永) 3rd year(1850), only the Ryukyuan delegation came to participate in the processions for a total of 9 times. In Japan, as memories of the Korean delegation processions faded away, the Japanese people found it more difficult to distinguish the Ryukyu people from the Korean people. The eyes of the professional painters were sharp, however, and they excelled in observing, depicting, and distinguishing such differences as the attire, behavior, and culture of the people in the Ryukyuan delegation and the Korean delegation. The Japanese people did not necessarily distinguish such differences because to the Japanese there was only a general awareness of “foreigners” and “foreign countries.” The country which most Japanese people were familiar with as a “foreign country” was “Ryukyu.” In the Japanese mind then, when drawing an illustration of "Ryukyu" it was not necessity to draw specific Ryukyuan images. People came to regard "foreigners” vaguely as “people from Tang(唐人)” During this time, the culture of Edo flourished; Kabuki plays were in fashion, and people read and purchased illustrated books in increasing numbers. International consciousness spread more widely among people as foreign countries became much more familiar and common among the general public. “The festival of Tang people(唐人祭り)” and “the people dance from Tang(唐人踊 り)” were handed down in various places in Japan. The term “people of Tang” will be discussed in more details later. In this paper, I describe a delegation from Korea which passed through Nagoya in Horeki(宝暦) 14th year, Meiwa(明和) 9th year, Bunka(文化) 4th year and Tenpo(天保) 3rd year. In particular, the way in which the procession was viewed by local spectators is clearly shown in an illustrated picture-book(drawn in Nagoya) in those days. Further, I explain how certain aspects of the Ryukyuan delegation and the Korean delegation may be confused or unintentionally misrepresented in illustrations.

The sweet potato reached the Korean Peninsula from Tsushima island, in Japan, in 1763 and 1764, through Jo Eom, who led a Korean Embassy to Japan in the late Joseon period. In the Korean government text Seungjeongwon Ilgi it is written that in 1765 Yun Shi-dong, the Governor of Jeju Island, brought a sweet potato seed to Jeju island with the assistance of Gang Pil-lee, who was the Magistrate of Dongnae County, in Gyeongsang Province. And it was recorded in the Seungjeongwon Ilgi that Yun Shi-dong planted the sweet potato seed which had been sent by Jo Eom in 1767. From these documents, it can be confirmed that the sweet potato entered Jeju Island between 1765 and 1767. Jo Eom wrote in his diary that he met Korean drifters at Tsushima island in the sixth lunar month of 1764. They had been carried to Japan from Jeju two months earlier. According to Tsushima domain records of an investigation conducted on the fifth day of the fourth lunar month, Jeju drifters had been rescued by residents of Tsushima on the second day of the fourth lunar month, that is, three days earlier. The Jeju drifters included seven males and four females including one pregnant woman. The eleven Jeju drifters all returned to Joseon safely after the sixth lunar month of 1764. It is suggested in this paper that more attention should be paid to the experiences of the Jeju drifters who met Jo Eom in Tsushima in 1764, one or three years before the arrival of the sweet potato in Jeju between 1765 and 1767. It is clear that this problem will be solved by additional surveys on the early history of the sweet potato in the Korean peninsula.