Kaido yuku Han no Kuni Kiko (On the Road: Travels in the Land of Han)

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Summary

Travel is an act for human beings to visit new places and experience different cultures and histories. Through travel, people can actually feel historical events and people’s lives by visiting historical places and cultural heritage sites, and can gain a deeper understanding of history and broaden their own perspectives. In this section, we will discuss the historical background of the trip and the places visited based on Ryotaro Shiba’s “Kaido yuku” (On the Road) about this journey and history.

On the Road: Travels in the Land of Han

In the previous article, I described nara totsukawa kaido. This time it will be a trip to Korea. Ryotaro Shiba embarked on a journey through the farming villages of Korea to experience ancient Korea. At Yongdusan (Mt. Yongdu) in Busan, he sees a statue of Yi Sun-sin and pays homage to the sea captain who saved his country. In Gimhae, near Busan, he visits the tomb of King Suro, the founder of the Kim family, and sees people worshipping at the tomb. At Bulguksa Temple in the suburbs of Gyeongju, we encounter an outdoor playground reminiscent of “utagaki” in the Manyoshu, and at nearby Gakreung, we join a group of elderly people enjoying a drink reminiscent of ancient times. In the village of Yulgok-dong (Yulgok-ri) near Daejeon, the visitors will experience the reality of a warlord who surrendered in Korea during Hideyoshi’s invasion of Korea, and in Buyeo, the former capital of Baekje, they will ponder the relationship between ancient Japan and Baekje and the emotions of the soldiers who died in the Baekchon River.

This trip will be a journey to Korea, which has a close historical relationship with Japan. The trip is divided into three parts: “Journey to Kara,” “Journey to Silla,” and “Journey to Baekje. The history of the Korean Peninsula dates back to the period known as Ko-joson (around 195 B.C.), when a state called Minji Joseon was born, and Eijo-joson was destroyed by Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty and ruled for 400 years. Baekje was established in the southwest, Silla in the southeast, and Gaya (Kala and Rinna), a cohabitation of smaller states, in the southern tip of the peninsula.

Around the 7th century (Asuka and Nara periods in Japan), Silla formed a military alliance with the Tang Dynasty on the Chinese mainland and successively destroyed Baekje and Goguryeo to unify most of the Korean peninsula as the unified Silla state.

In the 10th century, Silla’s local forces became independent and established Go-Goguryeo and Go-Baekje, ushering in the Later Three Kingdoms period, but eventually the newly emerged Goryeo, which had destroyed Go-Goguryeo, rose to power, destroyed Silla, and unified the country, extending its power to the southern bank of the Yalu River and the Tumen River area.

In the 13th century, the Goryeo came under the control of the Mongol Empire (Yuan) after the Mongol invasion, and fought against Japan as Yuan’s pawns in the Mongol Invasion, as described in “On the Road to Karatsu, Hirado, Sasebo, and Nagasaki“. After the Yuan’s decline, Japan recovered its lost independence and northern territories, but when the Yuan fled to the north in the 14th century, the Joseon Dynasty, founded by Yi Seong-gye, who is said to have been pro-Ming, conquered the Korean peninsula and paid tribute to the Ming Dynasty.

The Yi Dynasty continued for about 600 years until the Pacific War period (19th century).

Ryotaro Shiba, a famous Japanese author, attributes the strong Confucian ideology (the ideology of respect for elders and ancestors (family), which is still seen in Korean dramas today, to the Yi clan. Incidentally, in the netflix Korean drama “Woo Yeon Woo is a Genius,” which became popular the year before last, the judge and the lawyer are asked, “Where is your true motive? The lawyer says, “I am Mr. Pungsan Ryu,” to which the judge replies, “I am also Mr. Pungsan Ryu,” and when asked how many generations he is, he replies, “The 26th generation of the Pungsan Ryu family.

When I saw this story, at first I wondered what he was talking about, but it seems that Honkan refers to the place of origin or the place of origin of the person who is considered to be the ancestor of the family that is traced back through the male lineage, and simply put, if the ancestor was born and has the same Honkan and the same family name (same family name), then these people are the same clan, linked by male lineage. The term “ancestor” is used to describe a very Confucian conversation, in which the generation closest to the ancestor is the greater one.

The “Road Trip” is a journey to visit the history and ruins of the period when the country was divided into four main states: Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla, and Gaya (known as “Gaya” in Japanese history textbooks as “Rinna”).

The first leg of the tour will be the “Kara Journey,” which will start from Busan. Kara refers to the small countries scattered along the Nakdong River basin in the central and southern part of the Korean Peninsula from the 1st century to the mid-6th century. It was located 220 km from Hakata, Kyushu, and 114 km from Tsushima, which is mentioned in “The Road to Iki and Tsushima,” so there were many Japanese in the area.

The small country group in Kala is also described as a road leading to Yamataikoku in “The Road to Iki and Tsushima“. It is also confirmed that there was a group of people with Japanese surnames among the powerful in Kara, and the presence of people from Japan is also confirmed in Baekje, which will be discussed later. The presence of Japanese immigrants has also been confirmed in Baekje, which will be discussed later.

Next, Ryotaro Shiba visited Baekje. Baekje had Hanseong (present-day Seoul) as its capital, but was driven out of Hanseong by the invasion of Koguryo, a Tungusic nation in the Manchurian region to the north, and moved its capital to Xiongjin and Sibi (Sihi, which is now Buyeo-eup in the southwest of Chungcheongnam-do).

As described in “On the Road: China’s Roads,” China during the Baekje period was a period of turmoil until the fall of the Han Dynasty and the unification of the Sui and Tang dynasties, and was called the Six Dynasties period, which consisted of many states in southern China near the Yangtze River.

As described in “Buddhism, Scriptures, and Mahayana Sects,” Buddhism was introduced to China during the Later Han Dynasty, and the Laozhuang school of thought, which is also described in “Living Like Water: The Fundamental Path of Laozi’s Thought,” flourished, and the Lotus Sutra, which was a model change to the teachings of the Prajnaparamita Sutra, was also introduced. The Mahayana Buddhist philosophy of emptiness, which is also mentioned in “The Lotus Sutra,” was absorbed by the aristocrats of the Six Dynasties, who were more afraid of Buddhist punishment and devoted themselves to Buddhist affairs than they were afraid of the king, according to Ryotaro Shiba. Furthermore, the Six Dynasties had the full-blown civilization of Gangnam, which was more absorbed in ideology and art than in national independence.

Baekje, facing the Yellow Sea, had strong cultural contact with the Six Dynasties, and Buddhism was introduced to Baekje, but Baekje also had a disposition to be absorbed in thought and art. As described in “History of Japanese Art and Buddhist Statues,” Buddhism was introduced to Japan from Baekje, along with Buddhist statues such as the Vajra image of the Sakyamuni Buddha (below).

The Asuka culture of Nara, as described in “Kaido yuku Yamato Tsubozaka-michi,” was also strongly influenced by the Rokucho culture via Baekje.

Baekje was later invaded by Silla, which was supported by the Tang Dynasty, a unified state established in China. Japan, which had strong ties with Baekje, asked the Yamato Imperial Court for help, and in response, Emperor Nakataio and others, who carried out the Taika Reformation (645) as described in “Kaido yuku Inaba Hoki no michi,” decided to support Baekje and went to Korea, where they were severely defeated by the combined forces of Silla and Tang in the famous “Battle of Hakumura-gang. (663).

After the Battle of Hakchon, Baekje was destroyed and many Baekje people fled to Japan, where they became the supporting force of the early Yamato Imperial Court. Later, Goguryeo was also destroyed by the Tang Dynasty, and the Korean peninsula was unified under Silla.

Ryotaro Shiba and others view the only remaining Baekje structure in Buyeo, a five-story stone pagoda called Baekje Pagoda.

After visiting the Baekje ruins, the tour will head to Gyeongju (Kyongju) to visit the ruins of Silla, and then to Bulguksa Temple, the oldest Buddhist structure in Korea, comparable to Horyu-ji and Toshodai-ji in Japan.

Further back in time, the statue of Yi Sun-sin, who defeated the Japanese army during Toyotomi Hideyoshi’s invasion of Korea to conquer the Ming Dynasty in 1592-1598 (the Japanese invasion of Korea during the Japanese Invasion of Korea in 1592-1598), can be seen.

The trip also ends with a visit to Yulk-dong in Gyeongsangbuk-do, which is said to be home to the descendants of a military commander named Sayaka, who is said to have surrendered to the Joseon side at that time.