Comparison with korean Delegation
Actual Korean delegation visited Japan 12 times during Edo era, and until 11th visit, more than 100 people
from Yi dinasty paraded with several hundred Japanese assistants until Edo.
In comparison with Toujin Dance procession, its formation is as follows;
3 delegates(main, sub, assistant)
Interpretor 3
Guide 3
Writer 1
High class officer doctor etc.
Middle high class officer: horse rider etc.
Middle class officer: ship command
etc.
Flut player, flag holder
Low class officer: shippers
When compaired to current Toujins, we can easily find that main delegate of actual Korean delegation equals to
"8th high class Toujin" of Edo era's procession, and the General, 14th of current Toujins.
And Trumpet, Flut, Gong, and Drums are shown in a picture drawn in 1711,
and Seidou and Rei flag are located in the top of the procession.
But setting aside of scale difference, Toujins seem not to have imitated Korean delegation perfectly,
but picked up just what they felt interesting in exotic procession.
Namely, they are not interested in its political characters, and they just wanted to have their own
Toujin. So that's the reason why there are big diffrence in procession style between of the beginning and the last of Edo era.
Picture roll of Hachiman shrine
Recently, in public library of New York, old picture roll of Hachiman shrine was found out,
released on booklet of "cultural treasure of Tsu" in 1989 by color print, and the situation of
Toujin at the beginning stage became visiblly clear, casted the question against theory that
Korean delegation is Toujin's origin.
There, Toujins are in black costume, which are similar to Chinese or European, rather than Korean.
The first ceremony of Tsu Hachiman shrine was in 1635,
so, there are possibilty that Toudou local government, who took part in trading
with South Eastern Asia, had other sources of Toujin fashion except Korean delegation.
