Page:Brinkley - Japan - Volume 6.djvu/200

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

JAPAN

shima. The Koreans insisted that the Japanese settlers should confine themselves strictly to the limits of the concession, never passing out of the four gates and never holding free intercourse with the people of the country. Subsequently, the settlement having been removed to a more convenient site in the neighbourhood, the Japanese sought permission to visit their cemetery in the old settlement, but the Korean authorities decided that this should be allowed only twice annually, that all Koreans dwelling along the route taken by the Japanese should close their doors for the day, and that the settlers should be escorted to and fro by constables and soldiers. These irksome restrictions did not find the Japanese as patient as the Dutch always showed themselves at Deshima: Fusan became the scene of several disturbances. Towards the close of the seventeenth century the Tokugawa policy of international isolation reached the trade with Korea, limiting the total value of the transactions to seven hundred thousand pounds sterling, and imposing specific import duties of ten per cent, approximately. Nevertheless Japan's diplomatic attitude toward Korea remained conspicuously cordial. A custom had been established that the Korean Government should send a special envoy to Japan on the occasion of a Shōgun's accession. To this envoy a profusely hospitable reception was accorded. The third Tokugawa Shōgun, Iyemitsu, ordered that the fifteen prov-

174