[KS] Korean Art market during the colonial period?

Reinschmidt, Michael MReinschmidt at csuchico.edu
Mon Sep 24 01:16:38 EDT 2007


On that note,
the number of private colonial era Japanese collections of Korean art being returned or donated to Korean museums has slightly increased during recent years (e.g. see Nat'l Museum of Korea). Archival documentation accompanying these returns should yield pertinent information to this search. The return of these collections (often displayed - if at all - with only skimpy label info) into the public sphere warrants more research indeed.
M.R.

________________________________

From: koreanstudies-bounces at koreaweb.ws on behalf of Hyung Il Pai
Sent: Sun 9/23/2007 6:18 PM
To: Korean Studies Discussion List
Subject: Re: [KS] Korean Art market during the colonial period?




  Dear Frank,
I do not know any article perse but there are lots of indirect 
materials written by famous collectors during the colonial period who 
travelled widely in Korea in the 1920s and 1930s buying and selling.
The include Asakawa Hakkyo, Asakawa Takume, Yanagi Soetsu etc. They 
were part of an organization called the "Chosen Kogei Kenkyukai" ,In  
the 1930s , this society attracted enough members and fans to put on  
exhibitions at departments stores like Takashimaya in Tokyo. They 
published a series of thick catalogues for sale.
  Their sponsors were also rich collectors and antiquity dealers who 
had branches in Seoul and Tokyo. Their exhibition catalogues include 
not only Nangnang antiquities but the whole range of Korean pottery 
from Paekche to Punch'ong. The biggest  zaibatsu Suntory and Ogura 
Pre-war collections are now part of the collections exhibited at the 
Osaka Museum of Oriental Ceramics
It seems there was a vibrant market and this is also confirmed by the 
number of local preservation societies at historical capitals like 
Kyungju, Puyo, Kaesong, Pusan etc.

Song Sok-ha's biographies also contain many references to how he had 
to compete with these Japanese collectors to get the best deals at 
their favorite shops. The information also travelled fast when a "good 
piece"-obviously looted from a grave site, appeared on the market. It 
was definitely a supply and demand market place at that time and quite 
international at that.


They also wrote articles introducing the history of Korea art and 
especially ceramics as well as colonial ceramic industries in official 
colonial government journals such as "Chosen" and "Chosen Iho ."
Hope this helps. If you type in the names of these colonial collectors 
in Chinese characters in Japanese google or wikipedia-books on these 
collectors published both in  Korea and Japan also show up.
As for modern art, recent issues of Misulsa Nondan I believe have 
articles on modern art exhibitions in Taiwan and Chosen and how they 
fared, but I do not think they dealt with the market.
Thank you bringing up an important topic.

Hyung Il Pai
--
Hyung Il Pai (April 07-March 08)
Visiting Research Professor
International Research Center for Japanese Studies
Nishikyo-ku, Goryo, Oeyama cho 3-2, Kyoto 613-1192
Japan
Office) 81-75-335-2155
Fax) 81-75-335-2043
MESSAGES-81-75-335-2041








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