The Red Building, Gateway to Asia

Kōrokan

(Fukuoka City, Fukuoka Prefecture)

Fukuoka, a city in northern Kyushu, has a long history of being a gateway between Japan and other Asian countries. Due to its geographical proximity to Korea and China, Fukuoka has been a major port for trade and cultural exchange since ancient times. 

About 1,300 years ago, political envoys to Korea or China boarded ships at present-day Osaka Prefecture. The fleet consisted of two or four wooden sailing ships, with 100 to 150 people on board each ship. 

 The convoy stopped by the Kōrokan in present-day Fukuoka City. It was the last stop before leaving Japan and setting sail on the ocean voyage that took years to return to Japan. They might have had a last banquet there. The Kōrokan functioned as a lodging place for Japan’s diplomatic missions, as well as a guesthouse for envoys from Asian countries.

In 738, one of the Japanese convoys arrived at the Kōrokan and composed poems to express their longing for their distant homeland and their beloved families. These poems were included in the oldest collection of Japanese poems, “Manyoshu”. 

Across the Kashii lagoon, Cranes cry and fly, At Shika bay, White waves seem to have risen

At Shika bay, Fishermen on the sea, Wives long for them, Fish all night till the break of day

The Shika bay in the poems lay in front of the Kōrokan. They might have composed the poems looking at the scenery from the Kōrokan. The present location of the Kōrokan does not face the sea, but this place was a high place overlooking the sea at that time.

Some of them must have been anxious about the perilous journey and some of them must have been filled with anticipation for their study abroad. 

The convoy sometimes needed to wait there for good winds for sailing. The journey was dangerous. The mariner’s compass to navigate the direction on the middle of the ocean had not been invented at that time. Each ship of the fleet sometimes arrived at different locations of the Chinese coast or even Vietnam. Some of the ships were lost in the vast and rough ocean and the people on the wrecked ship never returned.

After years of mission and returning from the laborious journey, they must have been relieved when they saw the red building of Kōrokan again. The voyages had a great impact on Japan’s history, bringing cultures, technologies, and people who left their mark on Japanese history.

Multi cultural artifacts have been excavated from the ruins of Kourokan, an ancient trading base. Pottery and porcelain produced in China, as well as pottery from the Korean Peninsula, and Islamic pottery and Persian glassware from West Asia, were unearthed.