Printed Buddhist Canon in the Context of Japanese-Korean Official Relations during Muromachi Period

Abstract

The article is based on the first Japanese collection of diplomatic documents, Zenrin Kokuhōki (1470), related to official diplomatic correspondence between Japan and Korea for the period from 1392 to 1428, that is to say during the reigns of the 3rd and 4th Ashikaga shoguns. For Koreans the main themes were suppress of piracy (anti-piracy program) and repatriation of Koreans who had been captured by Japanese pirates. Japanese embassies were concerned with Ko­rean version of the Buddhist canon and repeatedly asked for the Koryŏ Tripi­taka and sometimes even for a set of printed blocks for the Korean versions of the Buddhist canon. Almost all documents refer to Japanese requests for Ko­rean printed copies of the Buddhist canon. Buddhist canon continued to be one of the top themes in Japan-Korea relations in the 14th and 15th centuries. It was not until the early 16th century that the number of such requests dropped dramat­ically. A total of eight documents for Japanese-Korean correspondence were in­cluded in Zenrin Kokuhōki for the specified period, while there were thirteen documents for Japanese-Chinese correspondence. The article quotes fragments of diplomatic documents that have not been translated into Russian, most of them have not yet been translated into European languages.