근세 돗토리번(鳥取藩) 町人의 울릉도 도해

Abstract

This paper reviews the travel of the Oya family and the Murakawa family from Tottori Domain to Ulleungdo. In particular, the paper studies the origins of the two families, the background of their travel to Ulleungdo in the early seventeenth century, relationships with the Edo shogunate and the Tottori Domain government, usage of Ulleungdo's local products, and progress after travel to Ulleungdo was banned. The two families, having served as warriors in the Warring States period, moved to and settled in Yonago, and maintained some of their warrior-like characteristics until the early seventeenth century. Abe Masayuki (阿部正之), an Edo government official who had connection with the two families, helped them to acquire exclusive rights from the Edo government to travel to Ulleungdo. With those rights, the two families enjoyed various privileges: they were allowed to have an audience with the shogun, and they took turns every year to travel to Ulleungdo and gather tremendous amounts of abalone and seafood. They offered abalone to key figures of the Edo government, and took the seafood and abalone to Nagasaki and exchanged them with silk, tiger pelts, and sugar cane to sell across the country. When diplomatic disputes with Joseon concerning sovereignty over Ulleungdo arose in the late seventeenth century, the Edo government ordered the daimyo of Tottori Domain to ban travel to Ulleungdo in 1696. The families lost their rights to travel to Ulleungdo, which they had enjoyed for about seventy years, during the generation of ya Katsufusa (大谷勝房) and Murakawa Masakatsu (村川正勝). In consideration of the two families’ economic loss due to the ban on travel to the island, Tottori Domain granted the ya and the Murakawa with rights to receive fees from fishery wholesalers and salt wholesalers, respectively, in Yonago. Nonetheless, both families continued their efforts to resume travel to Ulleungdo for many years. Around 1740, the ya even petitioned the Edo government to be allowed to participate in the shipping business of Osaka and the Nagasaki trade in order to expand their family business. However, such efforts were in vain. The ya faced the Meiji Restoration after repeated ups and downs in its economic status.