[KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 91, Issue 28

don kirk kirkdon at yahoo.com
Sun Jan 30 18:36:58 EST 2011


Re that "classical stone museum" you mention, are you referring to the huge 
edifice, deigned by a German architect, that was built for the Japanese 
governor-general? Rhee and successors, notably Park and Chun, all used it as 
their capitol bldg. The bldg was not turned into the national museum until the 
Kim Young Sam presidency, I believe, and then torn down to provide a clear sight 
line from Chong Wa Dae to the Kyongbuk Palace to Nam Dae Mun. Koreans say the 
Japanese deliberately placed this monstrosity to obscure the palace. (The 
National Museum was moved to temporary quarters nearby until the opening of a 
brilliant museum building near Ichon Station on, I think, land that had been 
part of the U.S. military base at Yongsan.)
That is, if that's the building you're referring to.
Don Kirk





________________________________
From: "Clark, Donald" <dclark at trinity.edu>
To: koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws
Sent: Sun, January 30, 2011 5:13:27 PM
Subject: Re: [KS] Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 91, Issue 28


In the fifties and sixties, the Gyeongcheonsa (Kyongch'onsa) pagoda stood just 
inside the then-entrance to the Kyongbok Palace, the east gate, or 
Konch'un-mun. It stood in a little grassy circle that formed a kind of driveway 
to the classical-style stone museum building built by the Japanese I think as a 
museum of the palace, or maybe of the Yi royal dynasty, and later used under the 
Rhee regime as the office of the Bureau of Cultural Properties. .  There's 
a photo of the pagoda with the Konch'un-mun beyond it, facing page 83 of Seoul 
Past and Present, by Allen and Donald Clark  (RAS 1969).    I don't recall the 
pagoda's travels over time, though I think I could find out where my father got 
his information when he wrote about it in SP&P.  There's a little elaboration in 
a discussion of both the Kyongch'on-sa and Won'gaksa pagodas on ppl 143 and 144 
of the same book, again, written by Allen Clark. 

Best regards,
Don Clark


On Sun, Jan 30, 2011 at 11:00 AM, <koreanstudies-request at koreaweb.ws> wrote:

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><<------------ KoreanStudies mailing list DIGEST ------------>>
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>Today's Topics:
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>  1. The Gyeongcheonsa Pagoda (Brother Anthony)
>
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>----------------------------------------------------------------------
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>Message: 1
>Date: Sun, 30 Jan 2011 22:33:58 +0900 (KST)
>From: Brother Anthony <ansonjae at sogang.ac.kr>
>To: Korean Studies Discussion List <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
>Subject: [KS] The Gyeongcheonsa Pagoda
>Message-ID: <26257837.1296394438812.JavaMail.root at mail.sogang.ac.kr>
>Content-Type: text/plain; charset=EUC-KR
>
>I am wondering if anybody can tell me why Japan returned the Gyeongcheonsa 
>Pagoda to Korea in 1918? The explanation supplied in various places by the 
>National Museum of Korea is that it was "returned by the efforts of British and 
>American journalists, E.Bethell and H.Hulbert," but Bethell's articles in the 
>Korea Daily News and Hulbert's article in the Japan Chronicle (that was 
>reproduced in other countries) date from 1907, soon after the theft. Bethell 
>died in 1909, at least partly as a result of his time in prison in Shanghai (a 
>quite scandalous enough story in itself). Hulbert also left Korea at that time 
>and I do not know if he wrote again about the Pagoda? Was there any further 
>campaign? Also, I wonder where it was located prior to the 1976 move to the 
>garden of the National Museum? I am struck that James Gale, writing in 1915 
>about its younger sister that still stands in Seoul's Tapgol Park, mentions the 
>relocation of the Gyeongcheonsa Pagoda without any sign of indignation and with 
>no hint that it might ever be returned.
>
>Brother Anthony
>President, RASKB etc
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>End of Koreanstudies Digest, Vol 91, Issue 28
>*********************************************
>


-- 

Donald N. Clark, Ph.D.
Professor of History
     & Co-director of East Asian Studies at Trinity (EAST)
Trinity University, One Trinity Place,  San Antonio, TX 78212 USA
+1 (210) 999-7629;  Fax +1 (210) 999-8334
http://www.trinity.edu/departments/history/html/faculty/donald_clark.htm 
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