Chosen shisetsu gyoretsu zukan [Procession of Korean Ambassadors]

This handscroll painting, over 12 metres in length, captures the pageantry surrounding a Korean delegation to Japan in the mid 17th century. Delegations were periodically dispatched from Joseon Korea to Tsushima in southern Japan, and would go with samurai excorts by sea to Osaka and thence along the Tokaido (Eastern Seacoast Highway) to Edo, for an audience with the shogun. The procession typically included three ambassadors with a large entourage of guards, scholars, musicians and entertainers, many on horseback. This work is traditionally attributed to Kano Masunobu (1625-94), who was commissioned to make a folding screen with scenes of the 1655 delegation. It seems more likely, however, that this scroll was created by local artists commissioned by the daimyo (military chieftain) of the Tsushima clan, also probably in connection with the 1655 visit of Korean ambassadors.

Manuscript is fragile. Requests to consult the original manuscript should be emailed to docenquiry@soas.ac.uk and marked for the attention of the Head of Special Collections and Archives

Restrictions Apply

Purchased by SOAS, University of London in 1950.

H.33.3 x L.1246 cm

For permission to publish, please contact Archives & Special Collections, SOAS Library in the first instance