Im Gwang

1636 mission to Japan

In 1636, King Injo sent a mission to Japan led by Im Gwang. This diplomatic mission functioned to the advantage of both the Japanese and the Koreans as a channel for developing a political foundation for trade.

This delegation was explicitly identified by the Joseon court as a "Communication Envoy" (tongsinsa). The mission was understood to signify that relations were "normalized."

According to the Japanese calendar, the mission reached Japan in the 12th month of the 13th year of Kan'ei (1635).

This mission to the court of Shogun Tokugawa Iemitsu in Edo also encompassed a pilgrimage to the first shogun's mausoleum at Nikkō. The grand procession of the shogun and his entourage, which included the Joseon ambassador and his retinue, was recorded to have occurred in the 4th month of the 14th year of Kan'ei, as reckoned according to the Japanese calendar.

Recognition in the West

Im Gwang's historical significance was confirmed when his mission and his name were specifically mentioned in a widely distributed history published by the Oriental Translation Fund in 1834.

In the West, early published accounts of the Joseon kingdom are not extensive, but they are found in Sangoku Tsūran Zusetsu (published in Paris in 1832), and in Nihon ōdai ichiran (published in Paris in 1834). Joseon foreign relations and diplomacy are explicitly referenced in the 1834 work.

Notes

References

• Daehwan, Noh. "The Eclectic Development of Neo-Confucianism and Statecraft from the 18th to the 19th Century," Korea Journal (Winter 2003).
• Lewis, James Bryant. (2003). Frontier contact between chosŏn Korea and Tokugawa Japan. London: Routledge.
• Titsingh, Isaac, ed. (1834). Siyun-sai Rin-siyo/[Hayashi Gahō, 1652], Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon. Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. OCLC 84067437
• Toby, Ronald P. (1991). State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
• Walker, Brett L. "Foreign Affairs and Frontiers in Early Modern Japan: A Historiographical Essay," Early Modern Japan. Fall, 2002, pp. 44–62, 124-128.

References

1. Toby, Ronald P. (1991). ''State and Diplomacy in Early Modern Japan: Asia in the Development of the Tokugawa Bakufu,'' pp. 205-207; Titsingh, Isaac. (1834). ''Annales des empereurs du japon,'' p. 411; n.b., the name ''Nin kwô'' is a pre-[[Hepburn romanization. Hepburn]] Japanese [[transliteration]] and ''Jin kuang'' is a pre-[[McCune–Reischauer]], Korean [[romanization]] devised by [[Julius Klaproth]] and [[Jean-Pierre Abel-Rémusat]] in 1834.
2. Titsingh, p. 411.
3. Walker, Brett L. "Foreign Affairs and Frontiers in Early Modern Japan: A Historiographical Essay," ''Early Modern Japan.'' Fall, 2002, pp. 48.
4. Lewis, James Bryant. (2003). [https://books.google.com/books?id=0YIbNlliRswC&pg=RA1-PA21 ''Frontier contact between Chosŏn Korea and Tokugawa Japan,'' pp. 21-24.]
5. Toby, p. 105 n16; Walker, [https://kb.osu.edu/dspace/bitstream/1811/609/1/V10N2Walker.pdf p. 50.]
6. Vos, Ken. [http://www.rmv.nl/publicaties/11Koreavroeg/e/accidentalacquisitions.pdf "Accidental acquisitions: The nineteenth-century Korean collections in the National Museum of Ethnology, Part 1,"] {{webarchive. link. (June 22, 2012 p. 6.)