조선통신사와 고구마의 전래

Abstract

Sweet potato originated from Central and South America. It was brought to Europe by C. Columbus, and then to the Philippines and Malaysia Islands by Spanish and Portuguese people. And it was spread across Fuzhou Province of China to Okinawa, across Tanegasima to Gagosima, and finally across Daemado to Korea. In the last route, Mr. Saburo Harada in Tsusima and Mr. Eom Jo made a great contribution to the process. Some advocated once that sweet potato had been already introduced from China. So-called ‘Theory of Introduction from the North’ is not true. Although the information source regarding sweet potato is not Japan but China, its introduction source is not China but Japan. Sweet potato was, for a while, imported to Korea by Mr. Jisu Seo, who was requested from Mr. Gwangryeo Lee, but withered due to carelessness and ended in failure. Eventually Mr. Eom Jo obtained the sweet potato from Daemado and began to cultivate in Korea. From the period of introduction, sweet potato was called ‘Gamja’ or ‘Goguma’. While ‘Gamja’ was restricted to the regions of Jeju, Jeolla and Chungnam, ‘Goguma’ was widely used among other various areas. As ‘Gamja’, a potato, was introduced from China and people got aware of the differences between sweet potato and potato, sweet potato should be called just ‘Goguma’, and the name ‘Goguma’ is popular across the country recently. Just as Japanese people called the origin of sweet potato, which was introduced from the native land of Central and South America through the Philippines and China, Kara(唐), Ryukyu(琉球) or Satsuma(薩摩), so Korean people named its origin by using the Daemado-originated word to distinguish ‘Goguma’ from ‘Gamja’.