[KS] Is Dokdo not shown on Daedongyeo jido(동여지도,大東輿地圖)?

[Kwang On Yoo]

Next year Korea observes the 150th Anniversary (1861-2011) of Daedongyeo
jido (대동여지도, 大東輿地圖)).

Daedongyeo jido is often a source of grief to contemporary Koreans because
it does not depict Dokdo(*독도*, 獨島) as sovereign territory of Korea.
Thus, oftentimes it gave the Japanese a reason to claim as such, as Kim
Jong-ho*,김정호*,金正浩,1804
<http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/1804%EB%85%84>-1866<http://ko.wikipedia.org/wiki/1866%EB%85%84>)
did not show it on either the 1861 edition or the 1864 edition of the
Daedongyeo jido, the best known Korean map that ever existed.

However, Dr. Lee Sang-tae(이상태) revealed in his 2007 book *Historical Evidence
of Korean Sovereignty over Dodko*, that in 1997, he found it on a 1861
Daedongyeo jido, currently owned by none other than the Library of
the Japanese National Diet (Congress). In the second image shown at the
link, Dokdo is *hand-painted* next to Ullungdo.

http://picasaweb.google.com/i122luvu/DropBox?authkey=Gv1sRgCLS64tHXjJO3Dw&feat=email#5544814270782209778

With Dr. Lee's find, the Japanese lost much ground on their claims that
Dokdo is not Korean territory.

Dr. Lee speculates that Kim, Jong-ho had simply *hand-painted* the image of
Dokdo on this Daedongyeo jido printed with *wood-blocks*. He simply used
the image from his previous,1834 map,  Cheonggudo (청구도,靑邱圖, Map of Blue
Hill), as there was no wood-block of Dokdo for Daedongyeo jido.

Why did Kim intentionally leave Dokdo off the Daedongyeo jido? We can safely
presume that:

Kim did not want the map to be too large to handle. The map measures 685 cm
long and 360 cm wide. If he had added Dokdo he would have needed to
add additional width from the eastern end of Ullungdo to Dokdo (the actual
distance is 80 km). In fact, Kim actually ended up making the map smaller by
depicting Ullundo and Jejudo much closer to the main land.

Kim may not have had enough funds to add the additional wood blocks
for Dokdo.  Matter  of fact, Kim had to use the front and back of the
blocks,126 of them all, to save money.

Kim may have believed that if anybody wanted to see Dokdo, they could always
refer to his 1834 Chunggudo.

The following link shows Kim's 1861 Daedongyeo jido, without Dokdo:

http://collections.lib.uwm.edu/u?/agdm,828


Regards,


Kwang-On Yoo
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