Korea, Japan seek to add Korean Mission to Japan on UNESCO heritage

Korea, Japan seek to add Korean Mission to Japan on UNESCO heritage. November. 09, 2015 08:46. peacechaos@donga.com.

Korean and Japanese experts have selected around 300 items related to the Joseon mission to Japan such as documents containing conversations by writing and folding screens to add them to the UNESCO World Heritage. If the items are officially applied to the UNESCO next March, the result will be released in July or August in 2017.

According to the Kyodo news and the Tokyo Shimbun newspaper, Korean and Japanese experts have agreed to apply for around 300 items related to the Joseon mission to Japan at the meeting held in Osaka, Japan, on Saturday. The Korean team selected records of conversations by writing in different regions in Japan from the Joseon mission to Japan and paintings donated by the shogunate government. The Japanese team selected official letters from Joseon to the shogunate government and folding screens depicting the mission by a Japanese painter.

The experts selected around 90 items in May but increased the scope this time. "We have discussed how both countries can become friendly again with the past history of the Joseon mission to Japan. I hope the application can be a good opportunity to further improve exchanges between the two countries,” Hiroshi Nakao, the head of the academic committee from Japan and a visiting professor of Kyoto University Arts and Design, told an interview with the Kyodo news.

The experts of both countries will hold a meeting involving local governments and civic groups in the Japanese city of Tsushima in Nagasaki prefecture in January next year, and will officially decide the application of the recorded legacy. The application has been sought by the Busan Cultural Foundation from the Korean side and a group of local governments related to the mission called the “Council for the Joseon Mission to Japan” from the Japanese side.