2021/02/28 by Isaac C. K. Tan · 1 citation
Social Sciences · #Global Maritime and Colonial Histories #Japanese History and Culture #Chinese history and philosophy
paper · pdf · doi:10.22372/ijkh.2021.26.1.67
openalex publication_date 2021/02/28 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01
Situated approximately ninety miles from Fukuoka, and just thirty miles from Busan, the island of Tsushima/Taema-do has been at the crossroad of East Asian geopolitics since the time of the Chosŏn court and the Muromachi/Ashikaga bakufu. In differentiating its position be-tween a maritime “frontier” and a “border(is)land,” this article argues how various historical agents from the island mediate the different hege-monic influences from Korea and Japan since the fifteenth century. I begin by examining Tsushima/Taema-do as a “frontier” where different influences overlapped and coexisted simultaneously. Then, I explore how the assertion of its identity as a “border(is)land” detached from the cen-tralized political institutions empowered the island to negotiate its deal-ings with the respective political centers. The last section focuses on non-state actors, specifically the local population and the pirate community, in articulating their agency by forms of negotiation and violence. Hence by reconceptualizing the island as a historical agent in its own right, this arti-cle highlights the need to consider the geographical and ideological space negotiated by the island during several major historical ruptures in the early modern period as Tsushima carved out its distinctive position in East Asian geopolitics.