1696년 오키(隱岐)에 도항한 조선인들의 송환과정 검토

Review of the Repatriation Process of the Joseon People Who Sailed to Japan s Oki Islands in 1696

This article examines the case in May 1696 when a ship carrying eleven Joseon people sailed from Ulleungdo to the Oki islands and thereafter repatriated from Tottori Domain in Japan back to Joseon. Far from an ordinary case of drifting ashore, the event is a rare case reflecting Korea-Japan relations in the late Joseon period in that the sailors from the ship went to make a direct appeal to Japanese authorities. In this paper, I argue that the case was deeply related to the so-called Ulleungdo Dispute that began in 1693. The case can be viewed as an extension of the event in which Joseon fishermen working at Ulleungdo were forcibly taken to Japan as well as the ongoing diplomatic dispute at the time between Joseon and Japan s Tsushima Domain over the possession of Ulleungdo. The ship from Joseon sailed to Japan for an unusual purpose before the dispute over Ulleungdo could be officially settled by the governments of Joseon and Japan. The Tsushima Domain responded to the case by maintaining its diplomatic control of having exclusively managed relations between the two countries. As a result, after heavily persuading Japan s Edo government, the Joseon people were returned to their homeland in a form resembling deportation instead of the customary practice of repatriating drifters as was the case in 1693.