Jun 1, 2024
This is Part 2 of our special Gishiwajinden Tour from Gaya toTsushima, Iki, Matsuro, Ito, and Na--aka Gimhae and Busan toTsushima, Iki, Karatsu, Itoshima, and f*ckuoka. This time wetalk about the island of Tsushima, the border island between Japanand Korea. While itself a difficult place to make a living,it has long been the border--a place for foreign ambassadors,invadors, and pirates alike.
For photos and more, check out our blogpost: https://sengokudaimyo.com/podcast/tsushima
Rough Transcript
Welcome to Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles ofJapan. My name isJoshua and this is Gishiwajinden Tour Stop 2: Tsushima.
As I mentioned last episode, we are taking abreak right now from the workings of the Chronicles while I prep abit more research on the Taika reform. As we do so, I’m taking youthrough a recent trip we took trying to follow the ancient searoutes from Gaya, on the Korean peninsula, across the islands toNa, in modern f*ckuoka. This may have been firstdescribed in the Wei Chronicles, the Weizhi, but it was the pathwaythat many visitors to the archipelago took up through the famousMongol invasion, and even later missions from the Joseon kingdom onthe Korean peninsula.
Last episode, we talked about our start atGimhae and Pusan.Gimhae is the old Geumgwan Gaya, as far as we can tell, and hadclose connections with the archipelago as evidenced by the commonitems of material culture found on both sides of thestrait. From thecoast of the Korean peninsula, ships would then sail for the islandof Tsushima, the nearest of the islands between the mainland andthe Japanese archipelago. Today, ships still sail fromKorea to Japan, but most leave out of the port ofPusan. This includesregular cruise ships as well as specialty cruises andferries. For thosewho want, there are some popular trips between Pusan and f*ckuoka orPusan all the way to Osaka, through the Seto InlandSea. For us, however,we were looking at the shortest ferries, those toTsushima.
Tsushima is a large island situated in thestrait between Korea and Japan. Technically it is actually threeislands, as channels were dug in the 20th century to allow shipsstationed around the island to quickly pass through rather thangoing all the way around. Tsushima is the closest Japanese islandto Korea, actually closer to Korea than to the rest of Japan, whichmakes it a fun day trip from Pusan, so they get a lot of Koreantourists.
There are two ports that the ferries run to,generally speaking.In the north is Hitakatsu, which is mainly a port for people comingfrom Korea. Furthersouth is Izuhara, which is the old castle town, where the So familyonce administered the island and relations with the continent, andwhere you can get a ferry to Iki from.
Unfortunately for us, as I mentioned lastepisode, it turned out that the kami of the waves thwarted us inour plans to sail from Busan to Tsushima. And so we ended up flying intoTsushima Airport, instead, which actually required us to take aninternational flight over to f*ckuoka and then a short domesticflight back to Tsushima. On the one hand, this was a lotof time out of our way, but on the other they were nice shortflights with a break in the f*ckuoka airport, which has greatrestaurants in the domestic terminal. Furthermore, since we came intothe centrally-located Tsushima airport, this route also gave usrelatively easy access to local rental car agencies, which washelpful because although there is a bus service that runs up anddown the islands, if you really want to explore Tsushima it is bestto have a car. Notethat also means having an International Driver’s Permit, at leastin most cases, unless you have a valid Japanese drivers’license.
As for why you need a car: There is a bus route from northto south, but for many of the places you will likely want to gowill take a bit more to get to. If you speak Japanese and have aphone there are several taxi companies you can call, and you cantry a taxi app, though make sure it works on theisland. In the end,having a car is extremely convenient.
Tsushima is also quite mountainous, without alot of flat land, and there are numerous bays and inlets in whichships can hide and shelter from bad weather—or worse.
Tsushima is renowned for its naturalbeauty. Flora andfauna are shared with continent and the archipelago. There are local subspecies ofotter and deer found on the islands, but also the Yamaneko, orMountain Cat, a subspecies of the Eurasian leopard catthat is onlyfound in Japan on Tsushima and on Iriomote, in the southernOkinawan island chain. They also have their own breedof horse, as well, related to the ancient horses bred there sinceat least the 8th century.
Tsushima is clearly an important part ofJapan, and the early stories of the creation of the archipelagooften include Tsushima as one of the original eight islandsmentioned in the creation story. That suggests it has beenconsidered an ancient part of the archipelago since at least the8th century, and likely much earlier.
Humans likely first came to Tsushima on theircrossing from what is now the Korean peninsula over to thearchipelago at the end of the Pleistocene era, when sea levels weremuch lower. However,we don’t have clear evidence of humans until later, and this islikely because the terrain made it difficult to cultivate the land,and most of the activity was focused on making a livelihoodout of the ocean.
Currently we have clear evidence of humans onthe island from at least the Jomon period, including remnants suchas shellmounds, though we don’t have any clear sign ofhabitation. It ispossible that fishermen and others came to the islands duringcertain seasons, setting up fish camps and the like, and thendeparted, but it could be that there were more permanentsettlements and we just haven’t found them yet. Most of the Jomon sites appearto be on the northern part of Tsushima, what is now the “upperisland”, though, again, lack of evidence should not be taken asevidence of lack, and there could be more we just haven’t foundyet. After all, siteslike Izuhara, which was quite populated in later periods, may havedisturbed any underlying layers that we could otherwise hope tofind there, and perhaps we will one day stumble on something morethat will change our understanding.
Things change a bit in the Yayoi period, andwe see clear evidence of settlements, pit buildings, graves, andgrave goods at various sites up through the Kofunperiod.Unsurprisingly, the assembly of goods found include botharchipelagic and continental material, which fits with its positionin between the various cultures.
Understandably, most of these archeologicalsites were investigated and then either covered back up forpreservation or replaced by construction – so in many cases thereisn’t anything to see now, besides the artifacts in themuseum. But some ofthe earliest clear evidence that you can still go see today are theseveral kofun, ancient tumuli, scattered around the island atdifferent points.
Most of the kofun on the island appear to besimilar, and overall fairly small. These are not the mostimpressive kofun—not the giant mounds found in places like Nara,Osaka, Kibi, or even up in Izumo. However, to students of the erathey are still very cool to see as monuments of that ancienttime. One example ofthis that we visited was the Niso-kofungun, or the Niso Kofungroup. The NisoKofungun is not like what you might expect in the Nara basin or theOsaka area. First,you drive out to the end of the road in a small fishing community,and from there go on a small hike to see the kofunthemselves. Today themounds are mostly hidden from view by trees, though there are signsput up to mark each one. Some of them have a more welldefined shape than others, too, with at least one demonstratingwhat appears to be a long, thin keyhole shape, taking advantage ofthe local terrain.Most of these were pit style burials, where slabs of localsedimentary rock were used to form rectangular coffins in theground, in which the individuals were presumablyburied. On one of thekeyhole shaped mounds there was also what appears to be a secondaryburial at the neck of the keyhole, where the round and trapezoidalsections meet.However, we don’t know who or even what was buried there in someinstances, as most of the bones are no longer extant.
Besides the distinctively keyhole shaped tomb,two more kofun in the Niso group caught my attention. One, which is thought to havebeen a round tomb, had what appeared to be a small stone chamber,perhaps the last of the kofun in this group to be built, as that isgenerally a feature of later period kofun. There was also one that washigher up on the hill, which may also have been a keyhole shapedtomb. That one struckme, as it would likely have been particularly visible from seabefore the current overgrown forest appeared.
There are also plenty of other kofun to gosearching for, though some might be a little more impressive thanothers. In the nextepisode, when we talk about the island of Iki, we’ll explore thatancient kingdom’s much larger collection of kofun.
After the mention of Tsushima in the Weizhi inthe third century, there is a later story, from about the 6thcentury, involving Tsushima in the transmission ofBuddhism. This storyisn’t in the Nihon Shoki and was actually written down much later,so take that as you will. According to this account, theBaekje envoys who transmitted the first Buddha image to Japanstopped for a while on Tsushima before proceeding on to the Yamatocourt. While theywere there, the monks who were looking after the image built asmall building in which to conduct their daily rituals, effectivelybuilding the first Buddhist place of worship in thearchipelago. A templewas later said to have been built on that spot, and in the mid-15thcentury it was named Bairinji. While the narrative is highlysuspect, there is some evidence that the area around Bairinji wasindeed an important point on the island. Prior to the digging of the twochannels to connect the east and west coasts, the area nearBairinji, known as Kofunakoshi, or the small boat portage, was thenarrowest part of Tsushima, right near the middle, where Aso Bayand Mitsuura Bay almost meet. We know that at least in the 9thcentury this is where envoys would disembark from one ship which had broughtthem from the archipelago, and embark onto another which would takethem to the continent, and vice versa. Likewise, their goods wouldbe carried across the narrow strip of land. This was like a naturalbarrier and an ideal location for an official checkpoint, and inlater years Bairinji temple served as this administrative point,providing the necessary paperwork for crews coming to and fromJapan, including the various Joseon dynasty missions in the Edoperiod.
Why this system of portage and changing ships,instead of just sailing around? Such a system was practical forseveral reasons. Forone, it was relatively easy to find Tsushima from themainland. Experiencedships could sail there, transfer cargo to ships experienced withthe archipelago and the Seto Inland Sea, and then return swiftly toKorea. Furthermore,this system gave Yamato and Japan forewarning, particularly ofincoming diplomatic missions. No chance mistaking ships for aninvasion or pirates of some kind, as word could be sent ahead andeverything could be arranged in preparation for the incomingmission. These aredetails that are often frustratingly left out of many of the earlyaccounts, but there must have been some logistics to take care ofthings like this.
Whether or not Bairinji’s history actuallygoes back to 538, it does have claim to some rather ancientartifacts, including a 9th century Buddha image from the Unified,or Later, Silla period as well as 579 chapters of the Dai HannyaHaramitta Kyo, or the Greater Perfection of Wisdom Sutra, from a14th century copy.These were actually stolen from the temple in 2014, but laterrecovered. Otherstatues were stolen two years previously from other temples onTsushima, which speaks to some of the tensions that still existbetween Korea and Japan. Claims were made that thestatues had originally been stolen by Japanese pirates, or wakou,from Korea and brought to Japan, so the modern-day thieves weresimply righting an old wrong. However, Korean courtseventually found that the items should be returned to Japan, thoughthere were those who disagreed with the ruling. This is an example of theongoing tensions that can sometimes make study of inter-straithistory a bit complex.
More concrete than the possible location of atheoretical early worship structure are the earthworks of Kanedafortress. This is amid-7th century fort, created by Yamato to defend itself from apresumed continental invasion. We even have mention of it inthe Nihon Shoki. Itappears to have been repaired in the late 7th century, and thencontinued to be used until some time in the 8th century, when itwas abandoned, seeing as how the invasion had never materialized,and no doubt maintaining the defenses on top of a mountain all theway out on Tsushima would have been a costly endeavor.
Over time the name “Kaneda” was forgotten,though the stone and earthworks on the mountain gave the site thename “Shiroyama”, or Castle Mountain, at least by the 15thcentury. In the Edoperiod, scholars set out trying to find the Kaneda fortressmentioned in the Nihon Shoki, and at one point identified this withan area known as Kanedahara, or Kaneda Fields, in the modern Sasudistrict, on the southwest coast of Tsushima. However, a scholar named SuyamaDon’ou identified the current mountaintop site, which has generallybeen accepted as accurate. The earthworks do appear to showthe kind of Baekje-style fortifications that Yamato built at thistime, which took advantage of the natural features of theterrain. Thesefortresses, or castles, were more like fortified positions—longwalls that could give troops a secure place to entrenchthemselves. Theywould not have had the impressive donjon, or tenshukaku, that isthe most notable feature of of later Japanese and even Europeancastles.
Most of the Baekje style castles in Japan areprimarily earthworks—for example the Demon’s castle in modernOkayama. Kaneda isunique, though, with about 2.8 kilometers of stone walls, most ofwhich are reportedly in quite good condition. There were three main gates andremains of various buildings have been determined from post-holesuncovered on the site. There is a name for the top ofthe mountain, Houtateguma, suggesting that there may have once beensome kind of beacon tower placed there with a light that couldpresumably be used to signal to others, but no remains have beenfound.
The defensive nature of the position is alsoattested to in modern times. During the early 20th century,the Japanese military placed batteries on the fortress, and anauxiliary fort nearby. These constructions damaged someof the ancient walls, but this still demonstrates Tsushima’s placeat the edge of Japan and the continent, even into modern times.
For all that it is impressive, I have to saythat we regrettably did not make it to the fortress, as it is ahike to see everything, and our time was limited. If you do go, be prepared forsome trekking, as this really is a fortress on a mountain, and youneed to park and take the Kaneda fortress trail up.
Moving on from the 8th century, we haveevidence of Tsushima in written records throughout the next severalcenturies, but there isn’t a lot clearly remaining on the islandfrom that period—at least not extant buildings. In the records we can see thatthere were clearly things going on, and quite often it wasn’t greatfor the island. Forinstance, there was the Toi Invasion in the 11th century, whenpirates—possibly Tungusic speaking Jurchen from the area ofManchuria—invaded without warning, killing and taking people awayas slaves. It washorrific, but relatively short-lived, as it seems that the invadersweren’t intent on staying.
Perhaps a more lasting impression was made bythe invasions of the Mongols in the 13th century. This is an event that has beenhugely impactful on Japan and Japanese history. The first invasion in 1274, theMongols used their vassal state of Goryeo to build a fleet of shipsand attempted to cross the strait to invade Japan. The typical narrative talksabout how they came ashore at Hakata Bay, in modern f*ckuoka, andthe Kamakura government called up soldiers from across the countryto their defense. Notonly that, but monks and priests prayed for divine intervention toprotect Japan.According to the most common narrative, a kamikaze, or divine wind,arose in the form of a typhoon that blew into Hakata Bay and sankmuch of the Mongol fleet.
That event would have ripple effectsthroughout Japanese society. On the one hand, the Mongolsbrought new weapons in the form of explosives, and we see changesin the arms of the samurai as their swords got noticeably beefier,presumably to do better against similarly armored foes. The government also fortifiedHakata Bay, which saw another attack in 1281, which similarlyfailed.
Though neither attempted invasion succeeded,both were extremely costly. Samurai who fought for theircountry expected to get rewarded afterwards, and not just with highpraise. Typicallywhen samurai fought they would be richly rewarded by their lordwith gifts taken from the losing side, to include land andproperty. In the caseof the Mongols, however, there was no land or property to giveout. This left theKamakura government in a bit of a pickle, and the discontentfomented by lack of payment is often cited as one of the keycontributors to bringing down the Kamakura government and leadingto the start of the Muromachi period in the 14th century.
The invasions didn’t just appear at Hakatathough. In1274, after theMongol fleet first left Goryeo on the Korean Peninsula, they landedfirst at Tsushima and then Iki, following the traditional traderoutes and killing and pillaging as they went. In Tsushima, the Mongol armiesarrived in the south, landing at Komoda beach nearSasuura. Lookouts sawthem coming and the So clan hastily gathered up a defense, but itwas no use. TheMongol army established a beachhead and proceeded to spend the nextweek securing the island. From there they moved on to Iki, the nextisland in the chain, and on our journey. Countless men and women werekilled or taken prisoner, and when the Mongols retreated after thestorm, they brought numerous prisoners back with them.
Although the Mongols had been defeated, theywere not finished with their plans to annex Japan into theirgrowing empire. Theylaunched another invasion in 1281, this time with reinforcementsdrawn from the area of the Yangtze river, where they had defeatedthe ethnic Han Song dynasty two years prior. Again, they landed at Tsushima,but met fierce resistance—the government had been preparing forthis fight ever since the last one. Unfortunately, Tsushima againfell under Mongol control, but not without putting up afight. When theMongols were again defeated, they left the island once again, thistime never to return.
If you want to read up more on the events ofthe Mongol Invasion, I would recommend Dr. Thomas Conlan’s book,“No Need for Divine Intervention”. It goes into much more detailthan I can here.
These traumatic events have been seared intothe memories of Tsushima and the nearby island of Iki. Even thoughboth islands have long since rebuilt, memories of the invasion areembedded in the landscape of both islands, and it is easy to findassociated historical sites or even take a dedicatedtour. In 2020,the events of the invasion of Tsushima were fictionalized into agame that you may have heard of called Ghost ofTsushima. I won’t getinto a review of the game—I haven’t played it myself—but many ofthe locations in the game were drawn on actual locations inTsushima. Most, likeKaneda Castle, are fictionalized to a large extent, but it didbring awareness to the island, and attracted a large fanbase. Indeed, when wepicked up our rental car, the helpful staff offered us a map withGhost of Tsushima game locations in case we wanted to see them forourselves.
As I noted, many of the places mentioned inthe game are highly fictionalized, as are many of the individualsand groups—after all, the goal is to play through and actuallydefeat the enemies, and just getting slaughtered by Mongols andwaiting for them to leave wouldn’t exactly make for greatgameplay. Shrinesoffer “charms” to the user and so finding and visiting all of theshrines in the in-game world becomes a player goal. And so whenfans of the game learned that the torii gate of Watatsumi Shrine,one of the real-life iconic shrines in Tsushima, was destroyed by atyphoon in September of 2020, about a month after the game wasreleased, they came to its aid and raised over 27 million yen tohelp restore the torii gates. A tremendous outpouring from thecommunity.
And while you cannot visit all of thelocations in the game, you can visit Watazumi Shrine, with itsrestored torii gates that extend into the water.
Watatsumi Shrine itself has some interesting,if somewhat confusing, history. It is one of two shrines onTsushima that claim to be the shrine listed in the 10th-centuryEngi Shiki as “Watatsumi Shrine”. This is believed to have beenthe shrine to the God of the Sea, whose palace Hiko Hoho-demitraveled down to in order to find his brother’s fishhook—a storynoted in the Nihon Shoki and which we covered in episode23. Notwithstandingthat most of that story claims it was happening on the eastern sideof Kyushu, there is a local belief that Tsushima is actually theplace where that story originated.
The popular shrine that had its torii repairedis popularly known as Watatsumi Shrine, today. The other one is known asKaijin Shrine,literally translating to the Shrine of the Sea God, and it is alsoknown as Tsushima no kuni no Ichinomiya; That is to say the first,or primary, shrine of Tsushima. Some of the confusion may comeas it appears that Kaijin shrine was, indeed, the more important ofthe two for some time. It was known as the mainHachiman shrine in Tsushima, and may have been connected with alocal temple as well.It carries important historical records that help to chart some ofthe powerful families of Tsushima, and also claims ownership of anancient Buddhist image from Silla that was laterstolen. In the 19thcentury it was identified as the Watatsumi Shrine mentioned in theEngi Shiki, and made Toyotama Hime and Hikohohodemi the primarydeities worshipped at the shrine, replacing the previous worship ofHachiman.
Shrines and temples can be fascinating tostudy, but can also be somewhat tricky to understand,historically. Giventheir religious nature, the founding stories of such institutionscan sometimes be rather fantastical, and since they typicallyaren’t written down until much later, it is hard to tell what partof the story is original and what part has been influenced by laterstories, like those in the Nihon Shoki or the Kojiki.
Another interesting example of a somewhatunclear history is that of the Buddhist temple,Kokubun-ji. Kokubunjiare provincial temples, originally set up inthe decree of 741 thathad them erected across the archipelago, one in each province atthe time, in an attempt to protect the country fromharm, Knowing thelocation of a Kokubunji can therefore often tell you somethingabout where the Nara era provincial administration sat, as it wouldlikely have been nearby. In many cases, these wereprobably connected to the local elite, as well.
This is not quite as simple with TsushimaKokubun-ji. While itwas originally designated in the decree of 741, a later decree in 745 statedthat the expenses for these temples would come directly out of taxrevenues in the provinces, and at that time Tsushima wasexcluded. Moreover,the Kokubunji on nearby Iki island was funded by taxes from Hizenprovince. So it isn’tuntil 855 that we have clear evidence of an early provincial templefor Tsushima, in this case known as a Tobunji, or Island Temple,rather than a Kokubunji.
The location of that early temple is unknown,and it burned down only two years later when Tsushima was attackedby forces from Kyushu. It is unclear whathappened to it in the following centures, but by the 14th or 15thcentury it was apparently situated in Izuhara town, near the siteof what would become Kaneishi Castle. It was later rebuilt in itscurrent location, on the other side of Izuhara town. It burned down in the Edoperiod—all except the gate, which was built in 1807. This gate is at least locallyfamous for its age and history. It was also the site of theguesthouses for the 1811 diplomatic mission from Joseon—the dynastythat followed Koryeo.
Those missions are another rather famous partof the history of Tsushima, which, as we’ve seen, has long been agateway between the archipelago and the peninsula. In the Edo period, there werenumerous diplomatic missions from the Joseon dynasty to theTokugawa shogunate, and these grand affairs are often touted in thehistory of Tsushima, with many locations specifically calling outthe island’s deep involvement in cross-straitrelations. Relationswhich, to really understand, we need to probably start with a lookat the famous (or perhaps even infamous) Sou clan.
The Sou clan became particularly influentialin Tsushima in the 13th century. The local officials, the Abiruclan, who had long been in charge of the island, were declared tobe in rebellion against the Dazaifu, and so Koremune Shigehisa wassent to quell them.In return, he was made Jito, or land steward, under the Shoni clan,who were the Shugo of Chikuzen and Hizen, including the island ofTsushima. The Souclan, descendents of the Koremune, ruled Tsushima ever since, firstas vassals of the Shoni , but eventually they ran thingsoutright.
Thus, Sou Sukekuni was in charge when theMongols invaded in 1274. Despite having only 80 or somounted warriors under his charge, he attempted to defend theisland, dying in battle. Nonetheless, when the Mongolsretreated, the Sou family retained their position. Later, they supported theAshikaga in their bid to become shogun, and were eventually namedthe Shugo of Tsushima, a title they kept until the Meijiperiod.
As we’ve mentioned, despite its size, Tsushimais not the most hospitable of locations. It is mountainous, with manybays and inlets, making both cross-land travel and agriculturerelatively difficult.And thus the Sou clan came to rely on trade with the continent fortheir wealth and support. Although, “trade” might be a bitnegotiable.
Remember how the early Japanese regularlyraided the coast of the peninsula? It was frequent enough that aterm arose—the Wakou, the Japanese invaders, or Japanesepirates. In fact, theterm “wakou” became so synonymous with piracy that almost anypirate group could be labeled as “wakou”, whether Japanese ornot. Some of themthat we know about were downright cosmopolitan, with very diversecrews from a variety of different cultures.
Given its position, the rough terrain, andmyriad bays that could easily hide ships and other such things,Tsushima made a great base for fishermen-slash-pirates to launchfrom. Particularly inharsh times, desperate individuals from Tsushima and other islandsmight take their chances to go and raid the mainland.
In the early 15th century, the new Joseondynasty had had enough. They sent an expeditionary forceto Tsushima to put an end to the wakou. The expedition came in1419. The yearbefore, the head of the Sou clan, Sou Sadashige, haddied. His son, SouSadamori, took his place, but had not yet come of age, leavingactual power in the hands of Souda Saemontarou, leader of the Wakoupirates.
Eventually the Joseon forces were defeated bythe forces of Tsushima, including the wakou. The Joseon court consideredsending another punitive expedition, but it nevermaterialized. Whatdid eventually happen, though, was, oddly, closer ties between thepeninsula and Tsushima. Sou Sadamori, who grew up inthat tumultuous time, worked to repair relationships with theJoseon court, concluding a treaty that that allowed the Sou clan tobasically monopolize trade with the Korean peninsula. Treaty ports on the peninsulabegan to attract permanent settlements of Japanese merchants, andthese “wakan”, or Japanese districts, came nominally under thejurisdiction of the Sou of Tsushima.
The Sou clan maintained their place as theintermediaries with the Joseon state through the 16thcentury. Messagessent from the Japanese court to Joseon would be sent to the Sou,who would deliver them to the Joseon court, and in turn handle allreplies from the peninsula back to the Japanesemainland. And thisover time led them to develop some, shall we say, specialtechniques to make sure these exchanges were as fruitful aspossible.
You see, the treaties with the Joseon courtonly allowed fifty ships a year from Tsushima to trade with thepeninsula. But sinceall of the documents flowed through the Sou, they had plenty oftime to study the seals of both courts—those of the Joseon kingdomand those of Japan – and have fake seals created for their ownends. In part throughthe use of these fake seals, the Sou clan were able to pretendtheir ships were coming from other people—real or fake—and thus getaround the 50 ship per year limit. They also used them in otherways to try and maintain their position between the twocountries.
All of this came to a head when the Taikou,Toyotomi Hideyoshi, began to dream of continentalconquest. Hideyoshi,at this point the undeniable ruler of all of Japan, had a bit of anego—not exactly undeserved, mind you. His letter to the Joseon kingSeongjo, demanding submission, was quite inflammatory, and the Souclan realized immediately that it would be taken as aninsult. Not onlycould it jeopardize relations with the continent, it could alsojeopardize their own unique status. Which is why they decided tomodify it using what in modern computer hacker terms might becalled a man-in-the-middle attack – which, with their fake sealgame, they had plenty of experience with. The Sou were able tomodify the language in each missive to make the language moreacceptable to either side. They also dragged their feet inthe whole matter, delaying things for at least two years
But Hideyoshi’s mind was set onconquest.Specifically, he had ambitions of displacing the Ming dynastyitself, and he demanded that the Joseon court submit and allow theJapanese forces through to face the Ming dynasty. The Joseon refused to grant hisrequest, and eventually Hideyoshi had enough. He threatened an invasion ofKorea if the Joseon dynasty didn’t capitulate to his requests.
Throughout this process, the Sou attempted tosmooth things over as best they could. However, even they couldn’tforge the words presented by a face-to-face envoy, nor could theyput off Hideyoshi’s anger forever. And thus Tsushima became one ofthe launching off points for the Japanese invasions of Korea in1592 and again in 1597. Tsushima, along with nearby Iki,would have various castles built to help supply the invadingforces. One suchcastle was the Shimizuyama-jo, overlooking the town ofIzuhara. Some of thewalls and earthworks can still be seen up on the mountainoverlooking the town, and there are trails up from thesite of Kaneishi castle, down below.
Both of these invasionsultimately failed, though not without a huge loss of life anddestruction on the peninsula—a loss that is still felt, eventoday.
The second and final invasion ended in1598. Both sides wereexhausted and the Japanese were losing ground, but the truecatalyst, unbeknownst to those on the continent, was the death ofHideyoshi. TheCouncil of Regents, a group of five daimyo appointed to rule untilHideyoshi’s son, Hideyori, came of age kept Hideyoshi’s death asecret to maintain morale until they could withdraw from thecontinent.
With the war over, the Sou clan took the leadin peace negotiations with the Joseon court, partly in an attemptto reestablish their position and their trade. In 1607, after Tokugawa hadestablished himself and his family as the new shogunal line, theSou continued to fake documents to the Joseon court, and then tofake documents right back to the newly established bakufu so thattheir previous forgeries wouldn’t be uncovered. This got them in a tightspot.
In the early 1600s, one YanagawaShigeoki had a grudge to settle with Sou Yoshinari, and so he wentand told the Bakufu about the diplomatic forgeries that the Sou hadcommitted, going back years. Yoshinari was summoned to Edo,where he was made to answer the allegations byShigeoki. Sureenough, it was proven that the Sou had, indeed, been forging sealsand letters, but after examination, Tokugawa Iemitsu, the thirdTokugawa Shogun, decided that they had not caused any great harm—infact, some of their meddling had actually helped, since they knewthe diplomatic situation with the Joseon court better than justabout anyone else, and they clearly were incentivized to seepositive relations between Japan and Korea. As such, despite the fact thathe was right, Yanagawa Shigeoki was exiled, while the Sou clan wasgiven a slap on the wrist and allowed to continue operating as theintermediaries with the Joseon court.
There was one caveat, however: The Sou clan would no longer beunsupervised.Educated monks from the most prestigious Zen temples in Kyoto,accredited as experts in diplomacy, would be dispatched to Tsushimato oversee the creation of diplomatic documents and other suchmatters, bringing the Sou clan’s forgeries to a halt.
Despite that, the Sou clan continued tofacilitate relations with the peninsula, including some twelvediplomatic missions from Korea: the Joseon Tsuushinshi. The first was in 1607, toTokugawa Hidetada, and these were lavish affairs, even moreelaborate than the annual daimyo pilgrimages for the sankin-kotai,or alternate attendance at Edo. The embassies brought almost 500people, including acrobats and other forms ofentertainment.Combined with their foreign dress and styles, it was a real eventfor people whenever they went.
Today, these Tsuushinshi are a big draw forKorean tourists, and just about anywhere you go—though especiallyaround Izuhara town—you will find signs in Japanese, Korean, andEnglish about locations specifically associated with thesemissions. And in years past, they’ve even reenacted some of theprocessions and ceremonies.
Speaking of Izuhara, this was the castle townfrom which the Sou administered Tsushima. Banshoin temple was the Soufamily temple, and contains the graves of many members of the Soufamily. In 1528, theSou built a fortified residence in front of Banshoin, andeventually that grew into the castle from which they ruledTsushima. Today, onlythe garden and some of the stone walls remain. The yagura atop the main gatehas been rebuilt, but mostly it is in ruins. The Tsushima Museum sits on thesite as well. Nearbythere is also a special museum specifically dedicated to theTsuushinshi missions.
Izuhara town itself is an interestingplace. Much of whatyou see harkens back to the Edo period. Much like Edo itself, thedensely packed wood and paper houses were a constant fire hazard,and there were several times where the entire town burned to theground. As such theybegan to institute firebreaks in the form of stone walls which wereplaced around the town to help prevent fire from too quicklyspreading from one house to the next. This is something that wasinstituted elsewhere, including Edo, but I’ve never seen so manyextant firewalls before, and pretty soon after you start lookingfor them, you will see them everywhere.
The area closest to the harbor was an areamostly for merchants and similar working class people, and eventoday this can be seen in some of the older buildings and propertylayouts. There arealso a fair number of izakaya and various other establishments inthe area. Furtherinland you can find the old samurai district, across from theHachiman shrine. Thehouses and the gates in that area are just a little bitnicer. While manymodern buildings have gone up in the town, you can still findtraces of the older buildings back from the days of the Sou clanand the Korean envoys.
Today, Izuhara is perhaps the largest town onTsushima, but that isn’t saying much—the population of the entireisland is around 31,000 people, only slightly larger than that ofnearby Iki, which is only about one fifth the size of Tsushuma inland area. FromIzuhara, you can catch a ferry to Iki or all the way to Hakata, inf*ckuoka. You can alsoalways take a plane as well.
Before leaving Tsushima, I’d like to mentionone more thing—the leopard cat of Tsushima, theYamaneko. This hasbecome something of a symbol in Tsushima, but unfortunately it iscritically endangered, at least on the island itself. It is all but gone from thesouthern part of Tsushima—human encroachment on its habitat hasbeen part of the issue, but so has the introduction of domesticatedcats. The yamanekoitself is about the size of a typical housecat, and might bemistaken for one, though it has a very distinctive spottedappearance.Domesticated cats have been shown to outcompete their wild cousins,while also passing on harmful diseases, which also affect thepopulation. Justabout everywhere you go you’ll see signs and evidence of thisspecial cat. There is also a breeding program in the north if youwant to see them for yourself. Even the small Tsushima Airport isnamed Yamaneko Airport, and the single baggage claim features awhole diorama of little plush leopard cats wearing traditionalclothing and waving hello to new arrivals.
If you like rugged coastlines, fascinatingscenery, and the odd bit of history thrown in, might I suggesttaking a look at Tsushima, the border island between Japan andKorea.
We only had a few days, but it was a trulywonderful experience.Next up we caught the ferry to Iki island, the site of the ancientIki-koku, possibly represented by the Yayoi era Harunotsujisite. Of all theplaces I’ve been so far, this is second only to Yoshinogari in thework and reconstruction they’ve done. They’ve even discovered whatthey believe to be an ancient dock or boat launch. But we’ll cover that next week,as we continue on our self-guided Gishiwajinden tour.
Until then, thank you for listening and forall of your support.
If you like what we are doing, tell yourfriends and feel free to rate us wherever you listen topodcasts. If you feelthe need to do more, and want to help us keep this going, we haveinformation about how you can donate on Patreon or through our KoFisite, ko-fi.com/sengokudaimyo, or find the links over at our mainwebsite, SengokuDaimyo.com/Podcast, where we will have some morediscussion on topics from this episode.
Also, feel free to reach out to us at ourSengoku Daimyo Facebook page. You can also email us atthe.sengoku.daimyo@gmail.com.
Thank you, also, to Ellen for their workediting the podcast.
And that’s all for now. Thank you again, and I’ll seeyou next episode on Sengoku Daimyo’s Chronicles of Japan.
