[KS] (street) map of Keijo

[Stefan Ewing]

Dear Dr. Cwiertka:

This, fortunately, is an easy question to answer!  The University of Texas's 
Perry-Castaneda Map Collection includes a copy of a highly detailed map of 
Seoul from 1946, published by the U.S. Army Map Service.  Although the 
map--entitled "Kyongsong or Seoul (Keijo)"--was published in the 1940s, much 
of the data used dates back to 1929 and 1937 (detailed information on 
sources is given in the upper left-hand part of the map), and thus should 
give a reasonably reliable snapshot of how the city looked in at least the 
late 1930s.

The map includes the city and the surrounding countryside (now all part of 
the city, of course!), as far north as Hyehwa-dong (along Daehangno), east 
to roughly Wangsimni, south to Noryangjin, and west to Yeoui-do.  Contours, 
vegetation, marshland, built-up areas, villages, names and outlines of major 
buildings (palaces, government offices, hospitals, schools, universities), 
streetcar lines, railway tracks, streets, lanes, alleys, streams, parks, 
city and palace walls and gates, even the Changgyeong zoo--all in glorious 
colour--you name it, it's there.  Please forgive me for the hyperbole, but 
this map provides and unbelievable wealth of historical information.

As an added bonus, virtually all place names are given in both romanized 
Korean (complete with diacritics) _and_ romanized Japanese--thus enabling 
correlation of colonial-era and modern-day place names--with a fair bit of 
English thrown in.  The only drawbacks are the absence of Han'gu^l and 
Hancha (see the end of this message for more), and the omission of street 
names--but a quick check against any modern-day map will fill in the gaps.  
The city had not yet been reorganized into _gu_ and _dong_, but the name of 
many _jeongs_ ("-jo^ng" on the map; Japanese "-machi") are the same as the 
_dongs_ that replaced them.

The map is available online at the University of Texas Perry-Castaneda 
Library Map Collection's website, on its Korea page 
(http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/korea.html), in the last entry of the 
section "Historical Maps."  The entire map may be accessed here:

http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/historical/seoul_city_plans_1946.jpg

but note that at 7.6 MB, it's a very big file and may take a while to finish 
opening.  (An option would be to save a copy of the file to your local 
computer, rather than open it directly in your web browser).  Smaller 
excerpts from the map may be accessed via the first link 
(http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/korea.html).

Finally, for a quick overview of a few contemporary street, neighbourhood, 
and landmark names in Korean script compare the names of streetcar stops in 
these two streetcar line maps: 
http://www.seoul.go.kr/life/life/culture/history_book/picture_seoul2/7/1203339_3020.html 
(first image; Han'gu^l; circa 1939) and 
http://seoul600.visitseoul.net/seoul-history/sidaesa/image/photos/4-12g.jpg 
(Hancha; circa 1946).  (Note that the 1939 map is a computer-drawn replica 
of a map probably originally printed in Hancha, and that a few of the stop 
names are likely anachronistic.)

Yours,
Stefan Ewing

***

>From: "Cwiertka, K.J." <K.J.Cwiertka at let.leidenuniv.nl>
>Reply-To: Korean Studies Discussion List <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <Koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>Subject: [KS] (street) map of Keijo
>Date: Thu, 6 Apr 2006 13:04:39 +0200
>
>Dear Colleagues,
>
>Here comes another practical question from me (I promise to come up with
>something more conceptual once I get all my facts right...).
>
>
>
>Do you know where I can find a detailed map of Keijo in the 1930s?
>
>Any suggestion will be greatly appreciated.
>
>
>
>Katarzyna
>
>
>
>Katarzyna J. Cwiertka, PhD
>Centre for Japanese and Korean Studies
>Leiden University
>P.O. Box 9515
>2300 RA Leiden
>The Netherlands
>Tel.: +31-(0)71-5272599
>Fax: +31-(0)71-5272215
>http://www.koreaans.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?m=13&c=42
><http://www.koreaans.leidenuniv.nl/index.php3?m=13&c=42>
>

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