Commentary on themes by historical period

1. Passage to Utsuryo Island and Takeshima by the OYA family and MURAKAWA family

　In 1617, Jinkichi OYA, a merchant from Yonago who operated a shipping business, was shipwrecked on his way back from Echigo Province and drifted to Utsuryo Island. Upon exploring the island, OYA discovered that it was uninhabited and rich in resources, and decided to conduct business by acquiring the resources on the islandNo.1. Together with Ichibee MURAKAWA, a fellow merchant of Yonago, OYA appealed to the shogunate for permission for that purpose. In 1618, the Edo shogunate notified the OYA and MURAKAWA families, via the lord of the Tottori Domain, that permission was granted for their passage to Utsuryo Island. With this, their business project on Utsuryo Island was launched ^(*1).

　Thereafter, the two families traveled to Utsuryo Island in turns every year, staying there for several months each time and acquiring various products, particularly abalone and sea lionNo.2. On their passage, they used present-day Takeshima as a landmark for their voyage, and as a fishing ground for sea lion and abaloneNo.4.
　The two families agreed on an arrangement of adding up and dividing their revenue and expenditure between them every yearNo.10.

2. The Project was authorized by the shogunate government

　The shogunate granted the OYA and MURAKAWA families an audience with the Shogun ^(*2), so the two families had an audience with the Shogun once every few years. On these occasions, they presented products from Utsuryo Island and Takeshima as gifts to the senior officials of the shogunateNo.5No.6No.7.
　The passage to Utsuryo Island by the OYA family and MURAKAWA family was brought about through a procedure in which Shirogoro ABE ^(*3), a shogunate retainer (known as “hatamoto”), lobbied the shogunate’s council of elders, who then jointly granted permission via the lord of the Tottori Domain. Thereafter, Shirogoro ABE continued to act as a go-between for the OYA and MURAKAWA families and the shogunate, arranging audiences with the Shogun and intermediating the presenting of products as gifts by the families. The lord of the Tottori Domain supported the project by lending funds to the OYA and MURAKAWA families, and offsetting the loan by purchasing products from themNo.3. The project was pursued with official authorization from the shogunate. Although the shogunate issued the Sakoku Edict (National Isolation Edict) in 1633, passage to Utsuryo Island and Takeshima was maintained.

3. Documents conveying the state of affairs at the time

　Documents showing the activities of the OYA and MURAKAWA families remain in the respective families. In particular, many documents and materials related to the OYA family have been saved from being scattered and lost. These form a valuable cluster of documents and materials that depict the business of the two families in those days.

　We conducted research on documents and materials that are related to present-day Takeshima during the Edo era and are kept in the repositories of organizations across Japan, including the Tottori Domain Administration Documents (reposited at Tottori Prefectural Museum). Among these, in the document research conducted in FY2019, we were provided with the image data of a part of the OYA family’s documents that had been donated to Shimane Prefecture (Many documents were donated to Shimane Prefecture in January 2019. Refer to the the photograph at the bottom of this page).

　Furthermore, in the document research conducted in FY2015, we received a document from the Tottori Prefectural Museum (image data), from among the Tottori Domain Administration Documents “Goyonin Nikki (Diary)”, which shows that dried abalone harvested from Takeshima was presented to the Shogun by the Tottori Domain in 1695No.8.

4. Documents drawn up in later years

　Passage to Utsuryo Island by the OYA and MURAKAWA families was prohibited in 1696 as a result of negotiations between Japan and Korea via the Tsushima Domain. However, there are documents drawn up in later years that depict the OYA and MURAKAWA families’ passage to the island.
　One such documents is “Takeshima Study”No.4, which includes the geography, products, and other information pertaining to Utsuryo Island and Takeshima, written in 1828 by a samurai (Masayoshi OKAJIMA) who held a key position in the Tottori Domain.