An Island's Place in History: Tsushima in Japan and in Chosŏn, 1392-1592

Abstract

The proximity of the Japanese island of Tsushima to the Korean peninsula made plausible the views among Korean elites in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries that the island had been Korean territory in the historical past. The Chosŏn court expressed historical and contemporary possession of Tsushima/Taema-do through assertions of the island's Korean history, dispatch of officials bearing domestic administration posts, and cartography. The court's claims neither challenged the Muromachi bakufu nor threatened the authority of the governor of Tsushima, who encouraged treatment of the island as Korean territory as well as Japanese territory. The incomplete insertion of royal power into the island highlights different forms of sovereignty. In the early Chosŏn period, the area was encompassed within the king's territorial sovereignty. The jurisdictional Chosŏn composed a different space than the territorial. Within this gap between the two Chosŏns can be seen underappreciated features of Korean history and Chosŏn society.