【Date】 July 18 (Thu), 16:30-17:30

【Venue】 Main conference room, 3rd floor, Tobunken

【Speaker】 J. Marshall Craig　(Research Fellow, Tobunken)

【Title】 Chinese, Korean, and Japanese Identity in 16th Century:a Korean diarist\’s view of Hideyoshi\’s invasion

【Abstract】
A poor member of the privileged Yangban class in Chosŏn Korea at the end of the sixteenth century, Oh Hŭimun had left his family to travel south when suddenly rumours arrived of a Japanese invasion. As panic swept the country, Oh struggles to find safety and to reconnect with his loved ones. A casual travel diary became a daily record of nine years as a refugee, as Japanese and then Chinese armies, local bandits, plagues, and starvation ravaged the country.
This paper looks at how this man understood what is now called the Imjin War: the first great international war in East Asia. Through his account of his daily life, we see, for example, how his social connections gave him access to information, how he reacted to the arrival of foreigners, and how he viewed the interactions of the court, officials, and commoners.
The minutia of his everyday life come together to help us rebuild his experience of the Imjin War and what the actions of individual, group, and state actors meant to him. His diary also becomes a lens through which we see a whole society, as his diary reveals glimpses of the countless lives lived around him. As well as his individual view, the diary\’s rare insight into Chosŏn society at the time helps us understand how the war was experienced by the wider Chosŏn population.