painting;
handscroll
- Museum number
- 1973,0723,0.18
- Description
-
Painting, handscroll. The visit of the Korean ambassadors, with list of embassies and details of gifts presented. Ink and colour on paper.
- Production date
- 1748 (probably)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 39.70 centimetres
-
Length: 1467.40 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
See Ikeuchi Satoshi, 'Futatsu no Enkyo gonen (1748) Chosen shinshi gyoretsu zu', Yakkanshi tsushinshi to sono shuhen 4 (Jul. 2021), pp. 61-103.
-
From Dr James B Lewis (University of Oxford), 28th Sep 2009:
I can say with some certainty that this handscroll of 1748 was produced for the Tsushima daimyo. According to the late Shin Gisu, who studied extensively art produced in connection with the Korean embassies, there is only one other handscroll that offers such detailed information, and that was for the 1811 Korean Embassy that went only as far as Tsushima. The detail on names and the records of documents and gifts contained in this handscroll suggests strongly that this was a documentary record produced not just for any daimyo or patron, but most likely for the Tsushima daimyo. Only Tsushima would have required such detailed information, because they conducted daily diplomacy with the Koreans. In fact, it seems that this emaki has far more information than even the 1811 emaki which Shin describes as 'detailed', and may be the most detailed work extant.
See James B. Lewis, A Scroll of the 1748 Embassy to Japan Preserved in the British Museum, Acta Koreana 13:1 (2010), pp. 51-88.
- Location
- Not on display
- Exhibition history
-
Exhibited:
2008 Feb-2013 Jun, London, BM, Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from prehistory to the present' [various sections]
2017 Apr-Dec, London, BM, Japanese Galleries, 'Japan from prehistory to the present' [various sections]
2018 Oct- , BM Mitsubishi Corporation Japanese Galleries [various sections]
- Acquisition date
- 23 Jul 1973 (transfer date)
- Acquisition notes
- The handscroll was purchased from Mr. W. Taylor of Shoeburyness (for £5) by the Department of Oriental Printed Books and Manuscripts in July 1900. In a report by Robert Kenway Douglas, the department's first Keeper, it was described as "An illustrated Korean scroll representing the arrival in Japan of a tribute-bearing mission in the year 1711." Following the establishment of the British Library, in July 1973 the handscroll was transferred to the Department of Oriental Antiquities of the British Museum.
- Department
- Asia
- Registration number
- 1973,0723,0.18
- Additional IDs
-
Asia painting number: Jap.Ptg.Add.526 (Japanese Painting Additional Number)
-
Other BM number: Or.5812 (previous British Library shelfmark)