Balhae's Pseudo-Mission to Japan and their Intentions

     Balhae’s 11th mission to Japan was a very weird one.  It is not clear if it was really an official mission.  The letter which was brought to Japan by them was evaluated by the inspector dispatched by the central government to be too “rude” to accept.  And the leader, Go Yang-pil (?-?), was regarded as an “embezzling” ambassador.

     Shoku Nihongi, the second of imperially commissioned Japanese history texts, wrote on September 14, 779 (October 31 in 779 by Gregorian Calendar):  “359 people of Balhae and Tiei came to Japan, yearning for the virtuous influence.  They are staying in Dewa Province.  According to precedents, the provincial government should supply them.  However, the envoys are too low-ranking to be provided presents.  After dispatching a messenger and holding a party for them, they should be deported.  If their ships have been damaged, they should be gotten fixed.  The delay of the deportation will not be allowed.”

     Not everything went smoothly.  Shoku Nihongi wrote on November 9 (December 25 by Gregorian Calendar):  “The inspector of the Balhae people should not allow them to come to Kyoto since the letter submitted by Go Yang-pil, an embezzling ambassador, was too rude.  Since they haven’t come via Dazai-fu and have craftily asked for convenience, they should be given an official warning not to repeat that again.”

      Without the Internet, the correspondence between Dewa Province and Kyoto must have taken tens of days, but Shoku Nihongi continued to write on the next day:  “The inspector has brought a message:  Tiei officers argued Seol-chabg into taking a lower seat.  They seem to be insulting him.

     "The Prime Minister decided:  Go Seo-chang, a Balhae translator, has far crossed blue waves and have frequently come to Japan.  What he says and thinks are loyal and diligent, and he has been given the 12th ranking.  He is taking a lower seat to the Tiei officers.  Not out of favoritism, but the difference of rankings should be clarified and order should be maintained.”

     The country Balhae consisted of the remains of Goguryeo and Mohe tribes.  Although Balhae imported a national system from Tang Dynasty, there might have been tribal societies with powerful families ruling them, and Tiei people is presumed to be one of 8 Mohe tribes.  It is not clear whether Go Yang-pil belonged to Balhae people of Tiei people, but i’s no wonder local powerful families were more powerful than central officials such as a translator.

     What were Tiei people like?  We have no idea, but back in 746, more than a generation before the 11th mission’s arrival in Japan, over 1,100 Balhae and Tiei people arrived at Dewa Province, "yearning for the virtuous influence of Japan."  After getting some clothes and food, they were deported.

     Looking at their haughty and arrogant behavior against a weak intelligentsia, Tiei people didn’t seem to be seeking ethical influence.  Then, what were they yearning for?

     By 746, Balhae had sent 2 missions to Japan.  Each time they got plenty of fabric products in exchange for hides.  According to the witness of Silla people, Mohe people were wearing fur clothes.  Fabric clothes must have been precious there.  1,100 was a big migration, not to mention it as a great migration, which failed because of the strong anti-immigration policy of the Japanese central and provincial governments.

     Before 779, however, Japan sent 2 naturalized Japanese officers whose ancestors had been refugees after the collapse of Goguryeo to Balhae.  That might have raised Tiei people’s expectations for their acceptance to Japan.  More aggressively, they might have expected to build a colony city somewhere in Dewa Province or somewhere further north, where the governance of the central government was still fragile.

     The migration from the northern coast of the Sea of Japan was not impossible nor improbable.  Oga City in Akita Prefecture has Akagami Shrine, which has passed down a migration-related legend.  Long, Long ago, Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty brought 5 ogres to the village.  To drive them out, villagers made a promise with the ogres.  If ogres were to build one thousand stone steps to Akagami Shrine within a night, the villagers would marry their daughters to the ogres.  If not, the ogres should leave the village.  When the ogres finished building 999 stone steps, a villager copied crows of a rooster.  The ogres kept their promise and left the village.  If it had really happened when Wu was ruling China, it should have happened in the first century B.C., 4 centuries before the first kingdom of Japan was born.  It is quite improbable that the legend has been handed down since such old days.  At the beginning of the 8th century, Dewa Fortress was built in today’s Yamagata Prefecture.  In 733, it was removed further north to today’s Akita Prefecture to suppress Emishi people living there.  Japanese shrines should have been built after the middle of the 8th century there.  Anyway, I would have accepted the ogres who had been competent enough to build 999 stone steps in such a short time, and who had had such good manners to keep promises.

     A legend at Iwase village in Toyama City, Toyama Prefecture says Balhae people, Jeong Yeong and Seo Beom, sailed from the continent with garlic as food.  Garlic was planted here, and since then it has become the special product.”  The legend tells us nothing about whether Jeong and Seo inhabited in Japan or returned home.

     

     Did all the 1,100 Balhae and Tiei people in 746 really leave Dewa Province?  Did all of them actually returned to their homeland?  Did all the 359 Balhae and Tiei people in 779 really leave Echizen, or Japan?

     There used to be Tosa Port at the northern end of Honshu Island along the Sea of Japan.  In the 12th century, it suddenly flourished, and prospered from 13th to 15th centuries.  During the time, ceramics were imported from China and Korea to the port town.  Its ruler the Ando Family was said to have organized sea forces, or pirates.

     The first step to be pirates in Japan used to be to plunder flotsam and driftage, which used to be regarded totally legal in Ancient Japan.  The second step might have been to force the shipwreck to take place and to plunder flotsam and driftage.  The third step could have been, under the threat of shipwreck, to have sailors offer sacrifices to nearby shrines, praying for safe voyages.  In the middle of the 15th century, however, the Ando Family lost to the Nanbu Family in Mutsu Province, the Andos were said to flee to Ezo-ga-shima Island, today’s Hokkaido.

     Archaeological discoveries tell us as early as 7000 to 5500 years ago, people in the area which became Tosa Port later were already trading jade from today’s Niigata prefecture and volcanic glass from today’s Hokkaido.  More archaeological discoveries and more study on folk legends along the Sea of Japan may reveal interesting borderless human moves across the sea.