After a lengthy restoration process, Gwanghwamun Gate — the main entrance of Gyeongbokgung Palace and a major downtown landmark — was finally unveiled to the public yesterday, the Liberation Day holiday.
The Cultural Heritage Administration brought in some heavy hitters for the restoration, including calligraphic engraving master Oh Ok-jin (Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 106) to paint the signboard and dancheong master Yang Yong-ho to paint the superstructure. For those of you wondering, dancheong is the colorful painted designs found on many of Korea’s historic wooden public building — not only is it decorative, but it also protected the wood from the elements.
Gwanghwamun Gate has had a tumultuous contemporary history, making it something of a microcosm of Korea’s contemporary history as a whole. The gate was first constructed in 1395, making it — along with the rest of Gyeongbokgung Palace — one of the first buildings constructed in the new royal capital of Seoul. Also like the rest of the palace, it was burnt down during the Japanese invasion of 1592, and left in ruins until Heungseon Daewongun‘s grand restoration of the palace in 1867.
Then things started to get funky. In 1910, Japan annexed Korea. In 1926, the Japanese — great preservationists of Korea’s cultural heritage that they were — had Gwanghwamun Gate torn down and moved to the east side of the palace, all so it wouldn’t restrict the view of the massive Japanese Government-General Building (demolished in 1996), which they had oh-so-sensitively placed right in front of Gyeongbokgung Palace, blocking the view the historic palace from downtown Seoul. The demolition of the gate sparked protests from not only Koreans, but also from Japanese intellectuals, most notably Yanagi Sōetsu, the founder of Japan’s Craft Art movement and an admirer of Korean traditional art. He wrote:
“Unforgettable are the sceneries of the palace with lines of governmental offices of particularly Korean in their style, with the Bukhansan mountains for its background, and the Gwanghwamun for its foreground from which a principal street runs. There is a twofold beauty in its architecture, planned with a careful consideration of the relationship with nature. Nature protects architecture, and architecture ornaments nature. Any people should not destroy the organic relationship between nature and architecture without proper reason. But, now, alas, an unsympathetic power is going to destroy its harmonious relationship between nature and man-made. I’ll be happy, if it is a daydream. But, it isn’t.”
Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule in 1945, but just five years later, the Korean War broke out, and Gwanghwamun Gate was destroyed. In 1963, President Park Chung-hee had the gate rebuilt in almost its original location on the south side of Gyeongbokgung Palace. One problem — he had the gate built parallel to the old Government-General Building, which was six degrees off axis from the rest of Gyeongbokgung Palace. The palace is arranged along a north-south axis with Mt. Bugaksan to the north and Mt. Gwanaksan to the south. The Japanese-build Government-General Building, meanwhile, faced Mt. Namsan, where the Japanese had placed a large Shinto Shrine. The rebuilt gate was also made of concrete and sported a hangeul sign written by Park Chung-hee himself: not necessarily an irritant if you like Park (and a lot of people do), but controversial none-the-less as he was, after all, a dictator whom nobody will ever accuse of being a paragon of respect for human rights.
Anyway, in 2006, the Cultural Heritage Administration decided to rebuild Gwanghwamun properly as part of a larger project to restore downtown Seoul’s Joseon-era heritage. Yesterday, the restoration of the gate finally came to its conclusion, bringing the landmark gate back to the people of the city.
MAP: Gwanghwamun… New & Improved
View Gwanghwamun in a larger map
What’s with the snark? Neither the Daewongun, nor the original builders, were paragons of respect for human rights either; so the use of Park’s calligraphy was perfectly authentic.
Look at those giant traffic lanes filled with cars that surround the tiny little strip of concrete they built for “ice skating” and other “leisure activities”.
If they would just shut down all those car lanes and make that whole area pedestrian-only, it would make it an attraction that would draw countless people.
I often get Hyundai or Kia ads when I view things on your site. But today, maybe because of the content words, I’m getting Mazda.
I didn’t say Park’s calligraphy wasn’t authentic — I simply pointed out that Park was a) a dictator, and b) the signboard was controversial, for that reason… and a host of others, for that matter. Heck, if it was up to me, I would have kept Park’s signboard.
So, the gate is now where it was originallywhich is not in line with the rest of the palace? Do I fail English?
I would have kept President Park’s as well, but I can understand why it was removed.
Well, at least when it comes to trying to remove vestiges of past regimes, no one can say that it’s only focused on the Japanese colonial government.
Mr. Mao — No, the latest restoration moved the gate back in line with the rest of the palace.
Kushibo — I should point out that it seems the main reason stated for going back to a Chinese character signboard was to return the gate to how it was prior to being moved by the Japanese (and destroyed in the Korean War) rather than to remove a vestige of the Park regime. Anyway, the choice has been controversial, with both pro-Park and pro-hangeul groups upset about it.
The overhead picture seems to show the gate not in line with the palace. Is it a pre-restoration shot meant to show the problem that needed to be corrected, not the solution?
Also it looks like the road is also off axis from the palace. Did the Japanese reroute the road too?
Yanagi Sōetsu’s insightful remarks about the interrelation of nature, architecture, and people could be applied equally well to most of Seoul, unfortunately.
A Korean architect friend once remarked that, through his eyes, Seoul was a city designed to increase stress almost to the point of making people insane.
park myong jung – Well, the map does in fact show the problem that needed to be corrected. The problem with Google Maps is that for Seoul at least, the maps are out of date, especially for the Gwanghwamun area. You’ll notice that Gwanghwamun Plaza isn’t there, either.
David – Sadly, that’s pretty true, although it does make the gems really stand out if you find them. Fortunately, some of the newer stuff being built is better… when they’re not flattening whole neighborhoods to put it up.
Much of the reason for the hanja signboard being used against what is probably a majority of public sentiment is the desire to return this palace to as authentic of a late-19th-century condition as possible, so that it might someday qualify as another UNESCO-designated World Heritage Site, like Changdeok Palace already is. Much money and energy is being spent on this effort…
Nice pics
Awesome pictures. Which camera/lens and settings did you take this on?
Well, I use a D300, and in his case, with colors set on vivid (which I no longer do).