쓰시마(對馬島) 조선어통사의 성립과정과 역할

Abstract

This article reviews the history, status, and roles of Korean interpreters in Korea-Japan relationships. Since Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592, diplomacy and trade business operation between Korea and Japan had centered on Japanese Settlements. It was Korean interpreters understanding and speaking Korean who was at the forefront of communication with and information collection from Korea of which language and culture were different from Japanese’s. These interpreters were from the sixty person merchant who had been engaged in privileged trade business with Korea and stationed permanently at Japanese Settlements since 1693. They were selected to carry out the given task as Korean interpreter if needed. Tsushima had trained Korean interpreters with systematic educational training program since 1727, of which reason was that learning Korean language through contacting Koreans had become hard due to the heightened control of Japanese after the transference of Japanese Settlements in 1678. In addition, as the number of Japanese to go over to Korea for trade business decreased due to the decrease of trade amount, and also Japanese’s will to learn Korean was depressed down, Korean language level declined accordingly. At that time, Tsushima consolidated the records such as ‘Bunruikizitaikou’ and ‘Cyousentsuukoutaiki’ for the purpose of clarifying past Korean-Japanese trade patterns in order to overcome the long-lasting economic difficulty in Tsushima according to the advices from the Confucian scholars such as Amenomori hosyu. They intended to overcome the economic difficulty by making it foundation for diplomacy and trade business with Korea and also leading the negotiations smoothly. Thus, at this period of Korea-related information building, the needs for Korean interpreters at the frontline of information collection would have increased more. Therefore, the effort to train Korean interpreters with systematic educational training program in Tsushima is thought to be administered parallel with the Tsushima’s policy of Korean-related information building at that time. On the other hand, the primary duty of Korean interpreters was translation, but they performed the role of mediating the ideas of Korea and Japan in diplomacy and trade business meetings between the two countries and also occasionally played the initiative role in the negotiations. In addition, since not only the official message that the person on duty sent to Korean interpreters but also the one that Dongnae-Bu sent to Japanese Settlements via the person on duty were written in nbun, Korean interpreters also performed the duties to translate and write the documents in Korean-style Chinese. Above all, however, they most importantly played the role to collect and provide information required for Tsushima itself or by the Shogunate. It is understood that the information that they collected would have influenced later on the policy-making toward Korea of the Shogunate.