Keijo in Pictures

by Robert Koehler on October 29, 2007

Granted, we’ve seen many of these photos before, but here’s a really nice collection of photos of colonial-era Seoul.

{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }

1 pawikirogi October 30, 2007 at 4:01 am: keijo? who but the japanese and their apologists would ever refer to seoul as ‘keijo’?
2 bulgasari October 30, 2007 at 7:07 am: A bit like those pro-Europeans who refer to Istanbul in the past as “Constantinople”? Having tried to map out where the events in Yom Sang-seop’s “Three Generations” occurred, I’m very thankful for Korean bloggers and websites who referred to old Seoul neighbourhoods using the old Japanese names – it made my work much easier.

Nice photos by the way, there were a couple I hadn’t seen before. The fouth last photo shows the old Seoul city hall; it’s interesting that the fourth photo (from the top) shows that spot with no building at all – it’s obviously after 1916 (the post office is there) but before the new city hall was built… I’m curious if you know anything about that building, Robert.

Speaking of the old post office, there are some 1952 photos of it here.
3 Breaktrack October 30, 2007 at 7:08 am: They were pretty cool.
4 tocchin October 30, 2007 at 8:37 am: #1 More appropriate to call the modern city Keijo compared with
pre-colonial Seoul which looks like the Darfur refugee camps.
5 Robert Koehler October 30, 2007 at 8:56 am: keijo? who but the japanese and their apologists would ever refer to seoul as ‘keijo’?

Uh, Koreans? Unless, of course, you’re somehow working under the impression that the Korean pronunciation of Keijo, “Gyeongseong,” is somehow less pregnant with colonial connotations.

More appropriate to call the modern city Keijo compared with pre-colonial Seoul which looks like the Darfur refugee camps

Well, yes, Seoul certainly had large swaths of urban squalor, as did most pre-modern cities. Or even “modern cities,” as Manhattan’s Five Points or London’s East End in the 19th century would attest.
6 wjk October 30, 2007 at 11:31 am: i actually like pictures like this. It’s part of what makes the world interesting.

thanks for the link.

How do you find these, Mr. Koehler, by the way?

to me, Gyeongseong is somehow less pregnan with colonial connotations. It’s stupid to say so, but that’s nothing new from me to the world.

manhatten island is segregated. Thus, the resemblence to a really poor country, north of the ritzy stuff. It’s really a wonder how come public housing districts are avoided, considered run down, everything from 96th street above is considered dangerous.

People are too full of shit. America is still clearly racist and there is no harmony in sight.

If Seoul City had public housing apartments, no one would consider that a slum and you know it.