Japanese joke pepper terror on Koreans, ancient version of wasabi terror Japanese inflict on tourists?
It seems there are several historical documents in Japan clearly stating that gochu came from Joseon.
That is, the Imjinwaeran invasion was an opportunistic moment for Hideyoshi to acquire gochu pepper from Korea.
The KBS documentary revealed a document stored in Daemado (Tsushima) documenting that one of his Seven Spears general Kato Kiyomasa brought gochu from Joseon. (Perhaps he brought it to help Hideyoshi’s ailing health when Yi Sun Sin’s naval victories crushed the devastated warlord’s ambitions.) Yet, there are more than one instance of records in Japan documenting taking “Goryeo gochu” from Korea back to Japan.
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고추
워키백과
https://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/고추
https://ko.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/%EA%B3% … 4%EB%9E%98
In Japan, there are conflicting records such as “Kaibara Eken” and “Taiwa Boncho” written by Kaibara, such as “ There were no seeds in Japan in the past, and because HideyoshI brought seeds from that country during the Joseon Dynasty, they were commonly called Goryeo Pepper.” This may be because there was no exchange between West Japan and East Japan at the time.
일본에서는 ‘카이바라 에켄’(貝原益軒)이 저술한 《화보》(花譜)나 《대화본초》(大和本草)등에는 “옛날에 일본에는 없었고, 히데요시 공이 조선 정벌 때, 그 나라에서 종자를 가져왔기 때문에 일반적으로 고려 후추(高麗胡椒)라고 말한다” 등과 같이 조선에서 왔다는 서로 상반된 기록이 있다. 이는 당시 서일본과 동일본 사이의 교류가 없었기 때문일 가능성이 있다.
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By Japan’s own accounts, it is the other way around, Japan got pepper from Korea during the Imjinwaeran invasion (including pottery, metal printing type, King Sejong’s rain gauges and sundials, sliced noses and ears as reward points receipts which Hideyoshi buried in a giant mound at Kyoto, and kidnapped Koreans that had practical and scholarly knowledge to upgrade the backwardness of Japan where the others were sold as slaves to the eager Portuguese, and whole Korean pottery villages that jump started Japanese “Chinaware” industry.)
But there is some Korean account that could be taken to mean Koreans got some type of pepper from the Portuguese through the Japanese before the Imjinwaeran invasion. Koreans were too afraid to consume some kind of foreign pepper as poisonous!
There seems to be one ancient Korean record of wae-mustard 왜겨자(Japanese pepper 일본고추) coming from Japan that was believed when mixed in soju would make people die, so stuff that came from Japan was viewed as poisonous, a plot by Japanese to trick and poison Koreans.
Whether it was mustard or pepper that was smuggled by Japanese into Korea is not entirely clear. Yet the reference to a namman/nanban “southern barbarian” is a reference to the Portuguese slave traders entering Japan and under the Columbus theory they brought small ornamental aji pepper which is extremely spicy.
Somehow through twisted interpretation or yangban superstitions or rumors based on horrifying experiences, a confusion arose that turned Japanese mustard into Korean gochu rumored to be poison making foreign pepper type herbs viewed with suspicion.
From Jibongyuseol 《지봉유설》(芝峰類說) 1614:
• 남만초(南蠻椒: 고추)에는 강한 독이 있다. 왜국(倭國: 일본)에서 처음으로 들어왔기 때문에 흔히 왜겨자(일본고추)라고도 불리는데 최근에는 이것을 재배하는 농가를 자주 볼 수 있게 되었다. 주막에서는 소주와 함께 팔았는데 이것을 먹고 목숨을 잃은 자가 적지 않다. Nammancho 남만초(南蠻椒: 고추) has a strong poison. Since it was first introduced from Waeguk (倭國: 일본 Japan), it is also commonly referred to as wae-mustard 왜겨자(일본고추), which has recently become more common to see farms that grow it. A tavern sold it along with soju, and many people lost their lives after consuming it.
What could this dreadful 남만초(南蠻椒) nammancho pepper be? Certainly, it is not gochu pepper.
⁃ 南蠻 Nanman southern barbarians to Chinese:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nanman
⁃ Portuguese southern barbarians which Japanese called ‘nanban’:
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/life/2015/ … barbarian/
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The spicy pepper Columbus collected called ‘aji’ by native “Indians”
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malagueta_pepper
The first Europeans to have contact with this species were the crew members who accompanied Christopher Columbus when they first landed in the Caribbean in 1492. In addition to being a noble delicacy much appreciated by the ancient inhabitants of the Americas, it was also used as a natural dye and, above all, as a medicine.
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This matter gets confusing and seems to be recounted unexamined to shock Koreans to think gochu was once considered poisonous in the past and avoided (sort of like tomatoes in Europe due to belonging to the nightshade family, grown ornamentally but not eaten).
But then questions are raised if this account is loosely taken to mean Japanese brought some type of pepper from the southern barbarian Portuguese to the Koreans:
• Based on that account, ‘Nanban’ Portuguese aji peppers smuggled by Japanese into Korea were far too horridly spicy that they were considered toxic, even deadly, by Koreans.
• If so, does this mean Koreans rejected Portuguese aji pepper snuck in by Japanese as inedible, even poisonous? Then, if suspiciously rejected as poison smuggled from Japan, how would disregarded aji pepper get transformed by Koreans into gochu pepper hundreds of years later?
• If gochu pepper was rumored to be distributed by sneaky trickster Japanese getting foreign herbs planted to poison Koreans before the Imjinwaeran, why did the Japanese bother pilfering supposedly highly poisonous seeds to bring back to Japan from Korea during the invasion?
Something does not add up.
Gochujang is a big pot of poison, an ancient version of wasabi terror joke started by the perverse minded Japanese?
GochuTruth 