Joseon Tongsinsa

See also: Joseon missions to Japan

A Joseon diplomatic procession through the streets of Edo in 1748 is entitled Chōsen-jin Uki-e by Hanegawa Tōei, c. 1748
Joseon Tongsinsa
Japanese name
Kanji朝鮮通信使
Transcriptions
RomanizationChōsen tsūshinshi
Korean name
Hangul조선통신사
Hanja朝鮮通信使
Transcriptions
Revised RomanizationJoseon tongsinsa
McCune–ReischauerChosŏn t'ongsinsa

The Joseon Tongsinsa (Korean: 조선통신사) were goodwill missions sent intermittently, at the request of the resident Japanese authority, by Joseon dynasty Korea to Japan. The Korean noun identifies a specific type of diplomatic delegation and its chief envoys. From the Joseon diplomatic perspective, the formal description of a mission as a tongsinsa signified that relations were largely "normalized," as opposed to missions that were not called tongsinsa.[1]

Diplomatic envoys were sent to the Muromachi shogunate and to Toyotomi Hideyoshi between 1392 and 1590. Similar missions were dispatched to the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan between 1607 and 1811.[2] After the 1811 mission, another mission was prepared, but it was delayed four times and ultimately cancelled due to domestic turmoil in Japan that resulted in the establishment of the Meiji Restoration in Japan, after which Japanese relations with Korea took a markedly different tone.

  1. ^ Lewis, James Bryant. (2003). Frontier contact between chosŏn Korea and Tokugawa Japan, pp. 21–24.
  2. ^ Sin, Hyŏng-sik. (2004). A Brief history of Korea, p. 90.