日本の琉球侵略後の明の對日警戒

Abstract

After the Imjin war, Japan tried to engage in peace negotiation with Ming and Joseon. It succeeded in making peace with Joseon but not with Ming. In order to examine why peace negotiations with the Ming were not successful, I considered the Ming dynasty’s wariness of Japan after the invasion of Ryukyu in 1609. After invading Ryukyu, Japan made Ryukyu send an irregular envoy to the Ming court to convey a request for the start of legal trade between Japan and Ming. But Ming was wary of Ryukyu and Japan behind it and ordered Ryukyu to send a tributary envoy ten years later, in other words, it ordered that an envoy not be sent for ten years. The invasion of Ryukyu made Ming suspicious of Joseon which had restarted trade with Japan in Busan. When Joseon learned that a memorial expressing suspicion of Joseon’s relations with Japan had been issued, Joseon immediately sent an envoy to clarify its position. On the other hand, wariness of Japan’s invasion of Keelung and Tamsui on Taiwan made Ming officials of coastal regions actively discuss coastal defenses. Such wariness increased not only in Fujian and Zhejiang, provinces from which many people conducted illegal trade with Japan, but also Guangdong, which controlled Macao where many Japanese lived. Guangdong provincial officials who were wary of an invasion of Macao by Japan and of Japan using Macao as a foothold for an invasion of the Ming, took forceful measures, expelling Japanese and prohibiting the maintenance of Japanese in Macao. When a part of Murai Tōan’s expeditionary force to Taiwan attacked Fujian and Zhejiang, Guangdong provincial again strictly prohibited the maintenance of Japanese in Macao. In Zhejiang province, the rumor that Japan would immediately invade Zhejiang province after conquering Keelung and Tamsui had circulated, unsettling the populace. The grand coordinator of Zhejiang published the information received from Joseon that both Tokugawa Ieyasu and Toyotomi Hideyori had died, which calmed popular sentiment. Thereafter despite the fact that Ming officials send letters, Japan did not actively negotiate with Ming. Because the trade conducted by many Ming traders who came to Japan illegally had already become active, peace negotiations were not necessary for Japan.