Mujaku Dochu (1653-1744) and 17th-Century ... - East Asian History

MUJAKU DOCHU
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Figure 4
Gitai's Zensekishi, imprint of 1 716, Kyoto
The other important route from Korea was through Iteian .t:J j1!jJJ1ilj;, a
monastic hermitage on Tsushima J1 m which, on orders from the bakufu
in 1635, was operated by the Kyoto Zen Gozan monasteries to supervise
the diplomatic correspondence with Chos6n. The monks sent there took
the opportunity to study and obtain Korean Buddhist and other books. 5 0
The daimyo of Tsushima, the So *, who were the main traders and intermediaries
with Korea, had a rich collection of Korean printed books,
probably given as gifts, which were recorded in the 1683 So family catalogue.
51 Similarly, the library of Kenninji contains materials related to the
trade and diplomatic missions from Chos6n Korea. 5 2
One result of the importation of this new knowledge was a turning
away from classical Sinology towards an interest in Ming and contemporary
Ch'ing popular fiction-the availability of both secular literature
and Buddhist materials in the early Tokugawa resulted in the classics and
50 Jorgensen, "Zen Scholarship," p.38.
51 Peter Kornicki, The Book in Japan: A
Cultural History fr om the Beginnings to the
Nineteenth Century (Brill: Leiden 1998),
p.434.
5 2 Kenninji Ryosoku 'in zosho mokuroku
[Catalogue of the Library of Ryosoku Cloister,
Kenninjil MSS (not by Mujaku), section 157,
"Chosen koku San-shi shishu," and section
181, letters exchanged with Korea.