Thanks to a recent listing of online maps from the University of Chicago that one can enlarge and move through a bit like mapquest, here is one link to a map (~1920) of Keijyo (Seoul) during the prolonged Japanese visit. Needless to say, they stayed too long.
Here is the main portal for the map page too. Enjoy.
Sphere: Related Content
16 Comments
Fun. So is there any way to download the full map? That interface on the web site is a pain in the butt.
Thanks Robert, This one made my day! I’ll point out to those who didn’t notice this map was made by either a Japanese person, or a foreigner who learned the place names from a Japanese person, for example “nanzan” (Japanese have trouble distinguishing M from N and the S went to a Z)
Amazing to see the places whose names have been changed, more amazing to see Yongsan Garrison there too. When I served there were so many rumors (this building used to be the prison, this used to be a hospital etc…) This pretty much shows those to be false, at least for the year 1920….
And it also shows the place we called “MP Hill” to be a mountain. I’ve long suspected this hill was the “Dragon Mountain” Yong-San is named for.
OOPS, credit where credit is due,
Robert-> R. Elign … don’t I feel like a stupid monkey…Nice map.
Kind of weird that its in the possession of the Americans.
1905-1945 was a bit of a stint, but statements such as “stayed too long” or “prolonged Japanese visit” from an apparent American strike me as lacking in historical perspective, much less in objectivity, especially considering the continued situation on the peninsula.
Nice map though.
Thanks for finding this. A 1946 US military map can be found here. I also took screenshots and used panorama software to make a composite image of the map that is the subject of this post. It’s here (it’s not perfect - some of the smaller words are hard to read - but it’s not bad).
great map. I might be wrong, but I think the map obviously shows that all the important stuff were north of the Han River.
I might be wrong, but I think (not sure) that Kang Nam was once not worth that much as land. Until South Korea started becoming richer in the 60s, 70s, and Kang Nam beind declared some sort of govt aided development area, making many, many people rich over night. One of them being a relative of mine. Hail Lt. Okamoto.
yup gi juk in Noh Moo Hyun was supposed to do something similar for Choong Chung Do, but all he did was secure Choong Chung votes in 2002, and that was pretty much it. Capital of ROK is still Seoul, not some city in Choong Chung Do.
I wonder what those people who bought those lands are doing now. My relative cashed in big time by buying Kang Nam land roughly 40 years ago. And it was a woman. The husband threatened to divorce her for buying worthless land. Until, um, yeah.
Many years ago Edward B. Adams wrote a beautiful book on the history of Seoul, Through the Gates of Seoul. It is out of print now; I got my copy from a used bookseller. Among the photographs in the book are pictures of the banks of the Han River in Kangnam - grassy and marshy, nary a high rise in sight. As late as the 70s, ferries still transported people across the river.
Your relatives’ wealth through Kangnam land ownership is not unusual. Practically every ethnic Korean I know has a relative who got rich that way. Nor does it surprise me that your investor relative was a woman. Korean women are savvy about finances. I’m sure you’re familiar with Korean savings cooperatives (계).
WJK: Yes, Gangnam was just farmland until the 1970s. The only built-up area was along the railway line from Noryangjin (across the river from Yongsan) west to Yeongdeungpo (where the line turns south).
Captbbq (#2): The place names were all officially in Japanese, because the country was a Japanese colony at the time. Presumably, Koreans would have continued to refer to place names by their Korean names, but in official documents and spoken Japanese and foreign-language sources from the time, the Japanese names were used. As it happens, since virtually all Korean place names are composed of Chinese characters, it was easy for the Japanese authorities to work out their own pronunciations, hiragana spellings, and Hepburn (Japanese) romanizations of the place names based on the underlying characters.
…And thanks, R. Elgin for the link.
It is interesting to see the boundaries of the wall around the city. Also, it is interesting to note the sizes of the British, American, and Russian Consulate-General compounds in relation to the “Keiun Palace” (Doksu Palace) area size. By the way, where is the “North Mausoleum” today?
Gbevers: It looks like “North Mausoleum” would be 북묘 (北廟) in Myeongnyun-dong 1-ga. The Jongno-gu website has an article on the neighbourhood’s history here; see the 4th paragraph. It looks like the tomb was located somewhat west of where Seoul Science High School (서울과학고등학교) stands today (which is located in Hyehwa-dong). The area is north of Daehangno and Line 4.
Gangnam was not the only farmland at the time. Take a look at the south side of Namsan, where Itaewon and Hannam-dong are today. Most of the upper part of Itaewon (around the Hyatt Hotel today) was open and undeveloped back then. I recently found some Korean War veteran had photos of that area from the 1950s on his blog.
Also, the map is far from complete. I do believe lower Hannam-dong, close to the Han River, has long had settlements and a market. No signs of those things on that map, though.
I’m glad everyone has enjoyed finding this map as I did.
I did delete all the postings that failed to understand humor since there are few things worse than an ass without a sense of humor.
In addition to Sewing’s comment about the Japanese renderings of Korean place names during the colonial era, the practice was to use Japanese-style place names in locations with mainly Japanese residents, and have Korean names for Korean neighborhoods. So the street “Shoro” visible in the capture above is the Japanese pronunciation of Jongno (鐘路), but if you go to the map site and move southwards over Cheonggyecheon, there are streets like Kogane-machi (now Eulji-ro) and Hon-machi (本町), now Myeongdong-gil. Korean neighborhoods retained the Korean term 洞 (dong), and its Japanese equivalent 町 (machi, chô) was used in Japanese areas.
If you like Korean-Japanese history, especially from the colonial era, I gathered maps from Japan’s historical archives.
These maps detail the Imperial Navy’s annexation of Korean and Chinese territory in 1904-1905. They are labelled in English with an explanation.
http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com.....tions.html
http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com.....ions2.html
http://www.dokdo-takeshima.com.....ions3.html
The best online Asian map site is by far David Rumseys collection at Berkeley, California