Silk Imports from Korea and Silk Markets in Kyoto during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Abstract

It has often been said that white raw silk and fabrics were imported into Tokugawa Japan only through Nagasaki. However, this opinion overlooks the silk imports that came into Japan, with government authorization, through Tsushima-han. Such silk and silk fabrics were originally made in China but transmitted to Japan by Korean merchants. The quantity of this trade was fairly large by the late seventeenth century, and sometimes it even exceeded that of the Nagasaki silk trade. The price of silk and silk fabrics imported to Japan through Korea was generally lower than similar goods coming in through Nagasaki. The silk and silken fabrics were brought to the central market town, Kyoto, and sold from Tsushima-han to two wholesale merchants, Chosen-donya 朝鮮問屋 and Fukaeya 深江屋 who was financed by the great merchant Mitsui 三井 (Echigoya 越後屋). This marketing occurred completely independently of the Nagasaki route. At the same time it is important to note that the silver ingot called Chogin originated in Kyoto, and also was the main export good from Tsushima-han to Korea. This silver eventually flowed onto China. Thus, an international silk and silver trade between Japan and China via Tsushima and Korea was established in Tokugawa Japan with Kyoto functioning as the entrepot at the Japanese end of this route. Many problems and even facts of the marketing of imported goods in Tokugawa Japan have been ignored for a long time by historians. By studying a major component of this neglected trade, the Korean trade of Chinese silk, the author has tried to clarify the developments and market structure of this trade.