During a photography journey across Setouchi in 2024, the author discovered that NHK Osaka and local left-wing groups have been promoting a major historical falsehood related to the Joseon Tongsinsa, using tax funds to preserve fabricated narratives while hiding genuine history. The island of Shimokamagari displays misleading exhibits glorifying Korea’s diplomatic missions, ignoring the real legacy of a great local figure and his historic villa. The second half of the chapter introduces Masayuki Takayama’s devastating essay “A Country That Only Leeches Off Others,” revealing the true reasons behind the Japan–Korea co-hosted World Cup, the realities of the Tongsinsa, and the long record of exploitation by Joseon Korea. This powerful analysis exposes how NHK and the Asahi Shimbun have distorted history and manipulated public perception. A must-read for international audiences.

October 30, 2024.
This year, I finally carried out the photography trip that I had long wished to take.
Because I chose only days of clear weather, almost all of my shooting took place in midsummer under severe heat.

The first time I noticed the important issue pointed out in this chapter was when I visited Fukuyama and Tomonoura—places I had long wanted to photograph ever since seeing the episode of Tsuribaka Nisshi set in Tomonoura.
After that, I continued photographing the eastern side of Setonaikai National Park—Kojima in Kurashiki, Onomichi, Washuzan in Mihara, and the beautiful archipelago scenery.

At the end, I photographed the western side of Setonaikai National Park.
I chose to board the luxury cruise ship used during the G7 Summit, departing from Hiroshima and arriving in Mihara.
On the way, the ship landed on two islands for about thirty minutes of sightseeing.

One of them, Shimokamagari Town, was where the distortion of this issue reached its peak.
I could easily guess the reason.
As I wrote long ago, NHK Osaka—indeed NHK itself—has taken the lead in spreading this serious lie.

At the same time, left-wing groups in Hiroshima Prefecture are exploiting this lie, using it as justification to secure considerable tax funds for preservation work at related sites.
To speak plainly, they are leeching off the nation—off public funds.
They charge 800 yen admission to hide the truth while solemnly displaying falsehoods as if they were authentic history.
I was so appalled by the idiocy and deception that I left after only a few minutes, not caring about the wasted admission fee.

Instead of openly exhibiting such lies, Shimokamagari Town should guide tourists to the truly historic site—a magnificent villa built by a great man born on the island, located well before the pier.
The villa is not only architecturally impressive but also offers splendid views of the Seto Inland Sea.

The surrounding area and the views from the second floor are exceptional.
Having grown up in Yuriage on the Pacific coast, I found this place especially wonderful.
While Yuriage faces the open Pacific, Setonaikai is a calm inland sea—its serene beauty is entirely different.

The reason this great man built his villa here was immediately clear to me without explanation.

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A Country That Only Leeches Off Others — Scholar Amenomori Hōshū Could Be Called “The Wakamiya Yoshibumi of the Genroku Era”
September 12, 2019.

The following is from the essay “A Country That Only Leeches Off Others,” published in yesterday’s issue of Shukan Shincho.
Everyone who reads it will agree completely with my long-held evaluation that Masayuki Takayama is the one and only journalist in the postwar world.
This essay also reveals, for the first time to Japanese and international readers alike, the true reason why the World Cup suddenly became a Japan–Korea co-hosted event.
The same applies to the truth about the Joseon Tongsinsa.
In particular, those controlling NHK Osaka’s news division must read this with their eyes wide open, because they have repeatedly broadcast claims that the Tongsinsa “brought culture to Japan”—claims unthinkable for a genuine Japanese person.

When the Abe Cabinet reshuffle was announced, NHK had the audacity to interview a man on the street saying, “There are good people in Korea, so Japan should strive for friendship.”
Such grotesque manipulation, under the guise of public opinion, made all discerning viewers realize that those controlling NHK’s news division are not truly Japanese.

A Country That Only Leeches Off Others
To describe the scholar Amenomori Hōshū in one phrase, he could be called “the Wakamiya Yoshibumi of the Genroku era.”
Wakamiya was the former Asahi Shimbun editor-in-chief.
He is remembered for his mysterious death in a Beijing hotel and for writing, “We should simply give Takeshima to Korea and make it an island of friendship.”
He loved that country to an abnormal degree.

His obsession began when he met the real Kim Il-sung.
He immediately returned to the Asahi headquarters, requested a reassignment, and went to Seoul to study the language.
After that, he wrote nothing but pro-Korean articles.

In 1995, although Japan had already been selected as the host of the World Cup, Wakamiya wrote an editorial saying, “It should be co-hosted with Korea.”
Miyazawa Kiichi, who blindly followed the Asahi, nodded in agreement, and the impossible co-hosting was decided.

However, Korea lacked the capacity to host the World Cup.
Soon after the decision, the Asian Financial Crisis struck and the country itself went into default.
Wakamiya made a fuss, Chung Mong-joon of FIFA ran around, and ultimately Japan provided financial support.

That was not all.
Just before the opening, the 9/11 attacks caused an economic slump, and Korea lost the funds to build stadiums.
Again Wakamiya agitated, and the former Japan Export-Import Bank was forced to provide a $200 million loan.

Although the World Cup was eventually held, Korean rough play and referee bribery left only the disgrace of “the dirtiest World Cup in history.”

Wakamiya also indulged excessively in women.
After leaving the Asahi with scandals as his parting gift, he achieved his dream of becoming a university professor in Korea.
Until his death under mysterious circumstances, it was, for him, a good life.

Except for his homosexuality, Amenomori Hōshū appears almost a spiritual ancestor of Wakamiya—their life patterns are astonishingly similar.
He was employed by the Tsushima domain in his twenties and, at age thirty-three, dispatched to the Waegwan in Busan to see real Korea.
Like Wakamiya’s encounter with Kim Il-sung, that experience led him to fall deeply in love with the country.

At the time, Joseon Korea was in extreme poverty.
Thus, whenever a Tokugawa shogun changed, a 400-member Tongsinsa delegation would descend on Japan to “offer congratulations.”
They would stay for a full year, indulging in entertainment, and because they were poor, they stole tableware, bedding, and even scrolls from the places where they lodged.

Arai Hakuseki, then of senior councillor rank, dealt strictly with these leeching delegations.
He ordered that hospitality expenses and travel itineraries be cut in half.
He also demanded that the Koreans address the shogun as “King of Japan,” treating them like sycophants.

Amenomori, who longed to have been born Korean—just like Wakamiya—was furious at Hakuseki’s measures.
Their dispute was intense, but anyone could see that Hakuseki was entirely correct.

Eventually the shogunate informed the Korean side they no longer needed to come to Edo and would be received in Tsushima instead.
This is the so-called iji heirei (change-of-venue diplomacy).
The Tongsinsa, who had leeched off Japan from the second shogun Hidetada to the tenth shogun Ieharu, never came again after their modest reception in Tsushima in 1811.

Recently, Tensei Jingo, the Asahi’s signature column, wrote about Amenomori Hōshū.
Based on present-day Japan–Korea disputes, the column began by saying that Hōshū “was caught between the pride and face-saving obsessions of both nations and grew half-white from the strain.”
But Japan did not care about face.
Japan simply wanted the Koreans to stop arriving in huge numbers and leeching off us at a cost of 100,000 ryō for hospitality.

The column also touched on the “King of Japan” issue, saying Japan was obsessed with raising its national prestige.
This shows an inability to understand even a joke.
The Asahi was trying to criticize the Abe administration’s removal of Korea from the export white list.

Despite leeching off Japan, the Tongsinsa left writings such as Kim In-geom’s Nitto Sōyūka, which said, “It is lamentable and hateful that the filthy, bestial Japanese prosper.”
There was no gratitude—just as when Japan rescued Korea from default.
Anyone would praise Hakuseki’s handling of the matter.

The column ended with Hōshū’s words: “Do not deceive or quarrel; interact with sincerity.”
But those words should be addressed to the kind of country that tramples the comfort women agreement—something Japan accepted after giving up countless concessions—and simply pockets the money.
Publishing such a sentiment in a newspaper for Japanese readers is an insult.