일본열도의 ‘다케시마(竹島), 마쓰시마(松島)’ 이름의 섬들

Abstract

In the 16th and 17th centuries, Japan referred to Ulleungdo as Takeshima(竹 島), and Dokdo as Matsushima(松島). The general understanding is that Ulleungdo was called Takeshima as the island was quite abundant in bamboo. Dokdo, on the other hand, was called Matsushima, despite the island’s lack of pine trees, while the Chinese characters ‘松’ and ‘竹’ are deemed auspicious when paired together. However, it has recently been argued that the Chinese characters used in the islands’ names, “竹島( Jukdo)” and “松島(Songdo),” were read as Daeseom and Solseom, which translate to “big island” and “small island” in old Korean. These were the most common island names in Korea. For any reason, if the Japanese also referred to big islands as Takeshima and small islands as Matsushima, or if there was any case where an island named Matsushima existed around Takeshima in the Japanese Archipelago, the argument that it was Koreans who named the islands “Jukdo” and “Songdo” is weak. The Japanese Archipelago has 18 islands named Takeshima(竹島) and 70 islands named Matsushima(松島), but they do not show any tendency of Takeshima being bigger islands with Matsushima being smaller islands. In addition, there are only four Matsushima islands within a radius of 20 km around 18 Takeshima islands, and they cannot be considered as pairs of Takeshima and Matsushima. Therefore, Takeshima or Matsushima in the Japanese Archipelago, is thought to have been named in connection with bamboo and pine trees as per their meanings in Chinese characters. If so, it is not reasonable to argue that the names, “竹島” and “松島”, were given by the Japanese.