식민지기 일본인 연구자들의 고대 한일관계사 연구 경향: 이마니시 류(今西龍)와 스에마쓰 야스카즈(末松保和)의 논의를 중심으로

Abstract

To rationalize the colonial rule insisting that Japan dominated southern part of the peninsula, or to explain the Japanese origin through modern historical methodologies, many Japanese historian have studied the relationship between Korea and Japan in ancient. In the early 20th century, Imanishi Ryu(今西龍), the top authority in the Korean ancient history study, opposed the controversy over the national homogeneity of Korea and Japan, and defined the relationship between Japan and Korea as ‘conquering-being conquered’. He claimed that it was natural that Korea, which was culturally inferior, was conquered and that had no historical material about Ilbonbu, also. He insisted that Ilbonbu was not a permanent government but a government official who collects tributes. It was the way to explain Japanese ruling of the southern part of the Korean Peninsula in ancient, which cannot be confirmed by historical materials and relics. On the other hand, Imanishi believed that the ruling of a peninsula such as Ilbonbu had been carried out after the conquer of Empress Jinggu’s Shilla and was carried out until 562. These overseas operations were possible when the Yamato court’s central power was established, meaning that Japan’s national system has been organized since the 3rd century. Suematsu Yasukazu(末松保和)’s vision of ancient Korea-Japan relation was wider than Imanishi’s, in time and space. First of all, Suematsu took “Han(韓)” as a geographical concept, and explained the peninsula(Nakrang(樂浪)․Daebang(帶方), Goguryeo(高句麗)) and Japanese traffic within the context of the Korea-Japan relationship. However, the most important characteristic of Suematsu's vision on ancient Korea-Japan relations was to interpret it in China-Japan relations. In other words, Japan’s foreign policy was always aimed at the continent (China), so Korea-Japan relations should also be looked at in this context. According to Suematsu, the fact that Japan had traveled directly to China in ancient meant that there was a Japanese sphere of influence in south of Korean peninsula which mediated Japan and China. This meant that if the Sino-Japanese traffic was confirmed, Japan had great influence on the Korean peninsula. It was Suematsu’s idea that Japan had great influence on the Korean Peninsula from the around A.D. to the end of the 9th century when traffic between China and Japan was confirmed. This was also the way to explain the existence of the Ilbonbu, which was difficult to prove as a historical materials through records about China-Japan traffic. In addition the fact which Japan ruled other countries from around A.D. meant that a political system with a certain level of power has already been established in Japan. This was not only to claim that Japan’s influence has long been maintained on the Korean Peninsula, but also to confirm the historical position of Japan, which has led the history of Northeast Asia along with China since ancient times.