宋代の「日本商人」の再検討

抄録

In the present paper, the author examines the actual circumstances surrounding the existence of so-called "Japanese merchants 日本商人", who came to trade in China during the Song Period. The research to date has concluded that these merchants were ethnic Japanese maritime traders and costituted a counter move by Japan against the monopoly enjoyed by Song merchats over Sino-Japanese trade at that time. However, doubts about such anexplanation become evident when we consider that 1) no Japanese names appear in the related documentation from that time, and 2) Japan's trade with China continued to be entrusted as before to Chinese merchants designated as hakata goshu 博多綱首 (captains of Hakata). The way in which trade with Song China was organized in Japan at that time involved there hakata goshu being bound in patron-client relations to shrines, temples or other powers. As the formal consignors of trade ships, they would farm the voyages out to hakata goshu, who would be dealt with by the Song Dynasty as emissaries of the country's of the consignors. In actuality, voyages were financed by the captains themselves and/or other investors, including the official consignors ; and the captains would be paid a fixed fee for their services. In addition, the captains also profited from fares paid by passengers journeying abroad. These kinds of trading arrangements were prevalent all over Eurasia at that time. The practice of the Song Dynasty recognizing traders as emissaries of foreign countries gave rise to the possibility that a certain merchant would be dealt with differently depending on his mission. For example, Song trader Xu Derong 徐徳栄 was called a "captain of the Koryo Dynasty" when he was dispatched from Korea ; but when he returned to China after his duties in Korea were finished, he was considered to be an ordinary subject of the Song Dynasty. From similar examples, the author concludes that such "double identity" was business as usual in the Song China trade. Therefore, captains in the guise of emissaries from foreign lands were called "Japanese" or "Korean"based not on their ethnic origins, but rather on the country from which they had been dispatched. From the above discussion, the author concludes that the socalled "Japanese merchants" involved in the China trade during the Song period were merely traders sailing in ships financed and dispatched from Japan and were none other than hakata goshu of Chinese descent. Therefore, throughout the Song period (and later Yuan period, for that matter) Japan's trade with China was carried out in voyages captained by maritime traders of Chinese descent.