조선후기 도요토미 히데요시(豊臣秀吉)에 대한 지식의 축적

Abstract

This paper is a study on the process of awareness formation and knowledge accumulation about Toyotomi Hideyoshi in the records of literary scholars who had been to Japan as Korean emissaries. Within Choson, there was a very weak understanding about who was Hideyoshi. On the other hand, the Choson literary scholars who had been to Japan as emissaries and those literary writers who were living in Japan as prisoners very well knew about who was Hideyoshi and how did the Japanese perceive him. This paper diachronically investigated as to how the understanding about Hideyoshi was formed by examining ‘Sahangrok’ (diaries written by Korean emissaries to Japan) in time-line sequence. Firstly, this paper looked into the formation process of positive awareness about Hideyoshi. Above all, they recorded that there were Japanese who applauded the political contribution of Hideyoshi as he had united Japan and had a strict governance over it. It was discovered that after Hideyoshi died, the Japanese built a shrine for him and apotheosized him as a god. Also, the emissaries held in high esteem the political contribution of Hideyoshi and compared him with Xian YU; the first Qin Emperor. Secondly, this paper examined the negative understanding about Hideyoshi. The emissaries who experienced Japan during the reign of Toyotomi described that he was significantly a tyrant and that Japanese too hated him. They recorded that even during the Edo period, Japanese were still having resentment against the harsh political regime of Hideyoshi and Japanese themselves thought that Choson invasion by Hideyoshi was wrong because the Japanese subjects had also suffered pain due to it. Thirdly, this paper checked the knowledge accumulation process about Daibutsu temple that was built by Hideyoshi for setting up a huge Buddha statue. There is Mimi-zuka (The Ear Mound; a burial site of the nose and ears of Choson people cut during Choson invasion by Japan) just in front of this temple and in the year 1719, the emissaries rejected the Japanese proposal of holding a party at Daibutsu temple. After this incident, the emissaries minutely researched about what kind of place was Daibutsu temple. Won-Jung geo sharply pointed out the religious practice of Japan in which Shinto religious worship was carried at Daibutsu temple. There could be a considerable knowledge accumulation about Hideyoshi through the experiences of emissaries in Japan and accordingly, the perception about Japan also changed. Initially, the emissaries were seeing Hideyoshi as ‘An enemy with whom one cannot live under one sky’ but gradually as the knowledge about Hideyoshi increased, he was perceived with a comparatively colder approach.