朝鮮通信使と加越能地域 = The Korean Embassies to Tokugawa Japan and the Kaetsuno Region

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

本稿では、朝鮮通信使を支える人々に焦点を当て、享保4年(1719)の越中国砺波郡の｢朝鮮人御用｣について取り上げる。周知のように通信使は、日朝両国の交隣関係に基づく対等外交を前提として、朝鮮国王から徳川将軍へ派遣された正式な外交使節である。｢鎖国｣政策下においても、通信使来日は厳粛な外交儀礼であると同時に、新将軍の正当性を内外に示す国家的行事であった。ゆえに江戸を目指す通信使のため、徳川幕府は国家レベルの迎送体制を整えたのである。 一方で、加賀藩前田家の領有する加越能地域(加賀・能登・越中)は、使行ルートから外れており、これまで通信使とは無縁の地と考えられてきた。しかし近年、加賀藩が通信使来訪年に｢乗馬役｣を担い、加越能地域の村々も｢朝鮮人御用｣に動員されたことがわかってきた。今回は｢朝鮮人御用馬留帳｣,󰡔川合文書󰡕に記された、享保4年の事例から、越中国砺波郡戸出村川合又右衞門など、十村衆による駅馬・馬子・馬裁許人の派遣準備について分析した。 国元では御算用場の馬見分を通して、御用にふさわしい駅馬が選定された。具体的には、郡方の中田村・埴生村・佐加野村と、町方の今石動町から15疋の｢御用馬｣が派遣されることになった。見分後も眼病の馬を取り替え、馬裁許人・家来の装束を自己負担したように、現地の十村衆の対応は懇切丁寧であった。舞坂・江戸間において通信使行列に合流する本負担は、わずか9日間に過ぎない。それでも派遣準備に4か月を費やすほど、加賀藩国元では入念に取り組んでいた。 加賀藩主前田綱紀は、通信使の江戸入府に合わせて行列見物をおこない、役目を果たす国元の一行を見守っていた。のちに国元へ帰った馬裁許人は、直に目にした行列の光景を｢朝鮮人乗行烈之覚｣という記録に残す。十村衆も御用に関する情報を｢朝鮮人御用馬留帳｣にまとめ、自分たちの手で後世に引き継いでいった。 加賀藩前田家の乗馬役から派生した、朝鮮人御用(駅馬派遣)を担っていたのは、明らかに加越能地域の村々の馬裁許人・馬子と、現地へ赴くことのない十村衆であった。このように徳川幕府や対馬藩の人物のみならず、遠隔地から通行地へ集められた大勢の日本人が、通信使を支えていたことは、紛れもない事実である。彼らのひたむきな努力が通信使の江戸参向を実現させ、日朝両国の良好な関係を維持させていたことに、今後も光を当てていくべきであろう。

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This article focuses on the people who supported the Korean embassy missions in Tokugawa Japan and examines the Chosenjin Goyo in Tonami, Etchu Province, in Kyōhō 4 (1719). As is well known, the embassies represented formal diplomatic missions dispatched by the king of Choson to the Tokugawa shogun on the premise of promoting diplomacy between equals based on the good-neighborly relations between Japan and Choson. Even under the “seclusion” (sakoku) policy, the arrival of the embassy missions in Japan was not only a solemn diplomatic ritual but also a state ceremony that demonstrated the legitimacy of the new shogun both in Japan and abroad. For this reason, the Tokugawa Bakufu established a state-level system for receiving and escorting the embassies on their journey to Edo.
On the other hand, the Kaetsuno region (Kaga, Noto, and Etchu), held by the Maeda family of the Kaga Domain, lay outside the embassy route and had long been considered an area unrelated to the embassies. Recent research, however, has shown that the Kaga Domain undertook the joma-yaku in years when the embassies came to Japan, and that villages in the Kaetsunō region were mobilized for Chōsenjin Goyo. In this article, focusing on the case of Kyōhō 4 as recorded in the Chosenjin Goyo Uma Tomechō (Register of Horses for Chosenjin Goyo) in the Kawai Documents, preparations made by Tomura officials, including Kawai Mataemon of Toide Village, Tonami, Etchu Province, for the dispatch of post horses, horse drivers, and horse supervisors are analyzed.
In the home territory, post horses suitable for official service were selected through horse inspections conducted by the Osanyoba, the domain accounting office. Specifically, 15 official-service horses were dispatched from Nakada, Hanyu, and Sagano villages under the district administration, and from Imaisurugi-machi under the town administration. Even after the horse inspection, the local Tomura officials made painstaking arrangements: they replaced horses suffering from eye disease and bore the cost of outfitting the horse supervisors and their retainers. The actual service of joining the embassy procession between Maisaka and Edo lasted only nine days. Even so, preparations for dispatch took four months, showing the thoroughness with which the Kaga Domain authorities back in the domain engaged with the task.
Maeda Tsunanori, then lord of Kaga Domain, went to view the procession when the embassy entered Edo, watching over the contingent from Kaga as it carried out its task. Later, after returning to the home territory, the horse supervisors recorded the scenes of the procession that they had witnessed firsthand in a document entitled Chosenjin Nori Gyoretsu No Oboe (Memorandum on the Korean Procession on Horseback). The Tomura officials, too, compiled details of the official service in the Chōsenjin Goyo Uma Tomechō and transmitted it to posterity with their own hands.
The Chosenjin Goyo (dispatch of post horses), which derived from the jōma-yaku of the Maeda family, in the Kaga Domain, was clearly carried out by the horse supervisors and horse drivers of the villages in the Kaetsunō region, as well as by the Tomura officials, who did not themselves travel to the site. Thus, it is an undeniable fact that the embassies were supported in their missions not only by persons connected with the Tokugawa Bakufu and Tsushima Domain, but also by large numbers of Japanese people gathered from distant regions to the route of passage. Further attention should be given to the fact that their earnest efforts made the embassies’ journeys to Edo possible and sustained the good relations between Japan and Choson.