Joseon Tongsinsa

Joseon Tongsinsa
Japanese name
Kanji	朝鮮通信使
Transcriptions Romanization Chōsen tsūshinshi
Korean name
Hangul	조선통신사
Hanja
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Joseon tongsinsa McCune–Reischauer Chosŏn t'onsinsa

Transcriptions
Romanization	Chōsen tsūshinshi

Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	Joseon tongsinsa
McCune–Reischauer	Chosŏn t'onsinsa

The Joseon Tongsinsa were goodwill missions sent intermittently, at the request of the resident Japanese authority, by Joseon Dynasty Korea to Japan. The Korean noun identifies a specific type of diplomatic delegation and its chief envoys. From the Joseon diplomatic perspective, the formal description of a mission as a tongsinsa signified that relations were largely "normalized," as opposed to missions that were not called tongsinsa.

Diplomatic envoys were sent to the Muromachi shogunate and to Toyotomi Hideyoshi between 1392 and 1590. Similar missions were dispatched to the Tokugawa shogunate in Japan between 1607 and 1811. After the 1811 mission, another mission was prepared, but it was delayed four times and ultimately cancelled due to domestic turmoil in Japan that resulted in the establishment of the Meiji Restoration in Japan, after which Japanese relations with Korea took a markedly different tone.

Starting in 1392, many diplomatic missions were sent from the Joseon court to Japan. Not less than 70 envoys were dispatched to Kyoto and Osaka before the beginning of Japan's Edo period. The formal arrival of serial missions from Korea to Japan were considered important affairs; and these events were widely noted and recorded.

Only the largest formal diplomatic missions sent by the Joseon court to Japan were called tongsinsa in Korean. The term tongsinsa may be misused to refer to the practice of unilateral relations, not the international relations of mutual Joseon-Japanese contacts and communication. Up through the end of the 16th century, four embassies to Japan were called "communication envoys" or tongsinsa – in 1428, 1439, 1443 and 1590. After 1607, nine tonsingsa missions were sent to Japan up through 1811.

The unique pattern of these diplomatic exchanges evolved from models established by the Chinese, but without denoting any predetermined relationship to China or to the Chinese world order.

In the Edo period of Japanese history, these diplomatic missions were construed as benefiting the Japanese as legitimizing propaganda for the bakufu (Tokugawa shogunate) and as a key element in an emerging manifestation of Japan's ideal vision of the structure of an international order with Edo as its center.

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Wikipedia