Balhae, Who Opened the Second International Door of Japan in Tsuruga, Echizen Province

     The Ancient Korea Peninsula was divided into three kingdoms; Baekje, Silla and Goguryeo.  Goguryeo was destroyed by the alliance of Silla and the Tang-Dynasty China.  Dae Jo-yeong (?-719), a former general of Goguryeo, turned away the Tang armies in Tianmenling, and later founded Balhae. Balhae looked to Japan, the enemy of their enemies, and sent missions through the Sea of Japan.  The central government of Japan built Matsubara Guesthouse in Tsuruga, Echizen Province.  The guesthouse is presumed to have been somewhere around today's Kehi-no-Matsubara in Tsuruga City, Fukui Prefecture, but its remains yet to be found.

     The missions sailed south to Japan on the northernly wind in winter, and went back to Bale on the southernly wind in summer.  They brought marten, which made a boom among noble people in Kyoto.  And ginseng brought by them was precious medicine.  Balhae was destroyed by Kihtan in 926, but Sung-Dynasty Chinese merchants kept visiting Tsuruga even Tadamori’s days.  It might be doubtful that they were all really the Sung-Dynasty citizens, but it is certain that they were from the continent.