일본 구마모토의 신이 된 조선인 김환

Abstract

This article is about the Korean Kim Hwan, who is enshrined as a God in the Kumamoto Kato Shrine in Japan. Although his records does not appear on the Korean documents, we can trace some of his records from the Japanese documents, such as ‘Zokusenkiyomasaki(續撰淸正記)’, ‘Shinsenkiyomasaichidaiki(眞撰淸正一代記)’, ‘Kiyomasakunsekiko(淸正勳積考)’, ‘Ihokujinkyoushi(葦北人境誌)’, ‘Kakansyousetsu (可觀小說)’. From these documents, He was the servant of the Sunwhagun and Imhaegun, but during the Imjin War period, he was captured and forcibly taken to the Kumamoto by the Katokiyomasa’s army and lived as a servant of Kiyomasa. The reason that he got famous from the Kumamoto’s people was unique way of ending his life. When the Kiyomasa died, he said ‘Without Kiyomasa I cannot live anymore’ and committed a suicide with cutting his own stomach cross. With his way of death, when the Kiyomasa’s shrine were built during the Meiji period, He was worshiped by the Kumamoto’s people as an assistant God of Kiyomasa. Some researchers find the reason from the Japanese unique way of concept ‘Onshinbyoudousisou(怨親平等思想)’, but considering his hierarchy position as an assistant God of Kiyomasa, unequal power relationships consists after the death. In other words, the reason that enshrined as a God is effective advertisement for the honoring the Kiyomasa rather than Japanese concept of the ‘Onshinbyoudousisou’.