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Paper short abstract

This paper examines the significance of hunting (especially falconry) by Japanese troops in Korea during the Imjin War (1592-1598). Bushi attempted to assert their authority over captured territory through hunting but ultimately this did not culturally translate well into the Chosŏn Korean context.

Paper long abstract

Hunting featured prominently in Toyotomi Hideyoshi´s preparations for his invasions of Korea. He held a large hunt parade on the eve of his first invasion and took hundreds of falconers with him to his war headquarters in Hizen Nagoya. During the Imjin War (1592-1598) itself, Hideyoshi´s generals in Korea hunted tigers and wildfowl, sending captured prey back to Hideyoshi who remained in Japan. What was the meaning and function of hunting by Japanese troops in Chosŏn? Did Japanese warriors in Korea attempt to assert their authority over captured territory in the same way that they had traditionally done in Japan? What role did hunting play in this process, if any? Is it possible to assess how symbolic statements of authority might have been received and understood by the Korean population at the time? I use Japanese and Korean records to answer these questions.

My research reveals that – in contrast to the Japanese sources – Korean sources during the Imjin War devoted little attention to the hunting activities of the Japanese other than to express occasional disgust – a finding which is consistent with the work of recent researchers, who argue that hunting as an elite activity had lost prestige in Chosŏn Korea by the sixteenth century. Despite their efforts to articulate Japanese authority in Korea, Hideyoshi and his daimyo did not fully appreciate the differences between Korean and Japanese society. Hunting did serve to reinforce the hierarchies of the Japanese military itself, but the semiotic vocabulary of Japanese warrior authority they used to present themselves as rightful and benevolent overlords to the Korean populace did not culturally translate well into the Korean context.