‘이베리아 임팩트’와 임진전쟁

‘Iberia Impact’ and Imjin War

This thesis focuses on the critical review of the “Imjin War=Iberia Impact” which was presented by Hukaya Katsumi(深谷克己) in 2012. Here, “Iberia Impact” refers to the impact and social wave on the Japanese Islands caused by the Iberian powers such as Spain, Portugal and Jesuits(耶穌会) since the late 16th century. Hukaya regarded the ‘Iberian Impact’ as the cause of the Imjin War. However, Hukaya s research starts from Hirakawa Arata(平川新)’s paper written in 2010, which positively associated Toyotomi Hideyoshi(豊臣秀吉)’s cause of war to Japan and East Asia conquest plans of Iberian countries and Jesuits. In addition, Hirakawa’s thesis is based on the claim of Takase Kõichirõ(高瀬弘一郎), as written in his book in 1977, that the “essence” of the Jesuit missionary work was the armed conquest based on the national interests of the both Iberian countries. In this paper, Takase and Hirakawa’s viewpoints are included, but mainly reviews ‘Imjin War=Iberia Impact’ raised as a main topic for discussion by Hukaya, and studied the problems about this argument. In order for Hukaya s claim to be established as a doctrine, the following aspects should be proven true: the Japanese and East Asian invasion plans of the Iberian forces truly existed and the military power to support these plans could be formed locally in East Asia; the intention and “power” of the Iberian forces were a real threat to Toyotomi; and Toyotomi regime chose to invade the continent as a countermeasure against these threats because of Japan’s desire to be the ‘Emperor of Zhōnghuá(中華皇帝)’. But I believe none of these aspects were satisfactorily proven to be true.