/ARTS WEEKLY/JAPAN: Korean Cultural Loot Still Remains Buried

By Suvendrini Kakuchi Reprint | | Print |

Suvendrini Kakuchi

TOKYO, Dec 27 2004 (IPS) - The issue of missing cultural property is an emotive thorn in the tortured relationship between Japan and the two Koreas. The Japanese looted thousands of cultural artifacts from Korea, during Japan’s occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945. But repatriation still remains controversial and complex.

According to available records, from the late 19th century until Japan’s defeat in World War II, Japanese colonial officials and private collectors amassed at least 100,000 artifacts and cultural treasures from all corners of the Korean peninsula.

Japanese looters and government-sponsored archaeologists violated the tombs of Korea’s kings and queens, plundering finely worked gold jewelry, jade pendants and delicate celadon bowls.

Russia, China and Japan all jostled for control of the Korean peninsula at the end of the 19th century. After beating both countries on the battlefield, Japan made Korea a protectorate in 1905 before annexing it in 1910.

But there is evidence, according to South Korean professor Kwon Chee-yun, an art historian at Seoul University, that art items were also stolen or bought by Japanese invaders much earlier.

‘’The best known is Toyotomi Hideyoshi, a revered shogun in Japan who attacked and ransacked the peninsula during the 16th century,” she told IPS.

‘’The matter of getting Japanese owners to return Korean cultural properties, remains a burning issue with local researchers and art lovers in Korea,” explains Kwon.

While Tokyo arranged for the repatriation of many Korean art properties after diplomatic ties were resumed with South Korea in 1965, researchers have discovered many important national treasures still being hidden in Japan.

These include the 15th century ‘Mongyu Towondo’ (Dream of Playing in a Peach Orchard), a painting as valuable as Italy’s Mona Lisa, Buddha statues made during the Sukhrum dynasty in the 12th century and woodblock prints in the 11th century.

The huge perception gap on the issue between Japan and both Koreas was also highlighted at a seminar in early December, organised by the Japan offices of the Asia Foundation and German-based Friedrich Ebert Stiftung foundation.

Japanese art historian Yoko Hayashi at Shobi University told the audience how shocked she was to learn that Japan possessed so many Korean art objects, a subject, according to her, that has never been made fully public in the country.

‘’I was completely taken by surprise and quite shocked to find out from a Korean expert on the issue a couple of years ago. I had not heard of it being discussed in Japan,” she told the seminar.

On the other hand, Korean professors pointed out how difficult it is for them to study their national cultural heritage without the return of the treasures, and called for more public awareness of the problem in Japan as a means of facilitating their return.

Research conducted by the Korean Foundation between 1989 and 1996 indicate that many Korean art objects are held in private collections such as temples and museums.

Surveys also show that while many of the items were looted, there were others that were also bought by Japanese through proper commercial transactions or excavated during colonisation, which makes it legally difficult to demand their return.

Hayashi, one of the few academics in Japan to delve into the issue, said some Japanese have cooperated in the return of the stolen artifacts.

In 1987, she said, a Japanese businessman gave one-half of his collection of 1,082 Korean roof tiles to the Korean National Museum in Seoul. The museum in appreciation has included a letter of thanks in its display of the tiles.

But equally rapacious were businessmen like Takenosuke Ogura, who moved to Korea in 1903 as head of a Japanese electric power company. Much of his collection – some 1,100 pieces – today sits in the Tokyo National Museum, including blue celadon vases, bronze Buddhas and a priceless, unique gold crown taken from the late 5th or early 6th century grave of a king from the Kaya dynasty.

Fusatoshi Fujisawa, an arts professor at Tokyo’s Keizai University, explained that a major setback to returning the art objects was Japan’s reluctance to delve deeper into its responsibility for the annexation of the Korean peninsula.

The Japanese point out that other colonial powers such as the French and British filled their museums with booty collected from their sprawling empires. Japanese officials and scholars contend they rediscovered and helped to preserve the glories of ancient Korea, which the Koreans had long forgotten.

‘’The Koreans keep accusing Japan of stealing but the Japanese think they did something good. They think they should be thanked,” said Fujisawa.

While conspiracy theories of hidden troves of gold looted by the Japanese during World War II abound, there has been little serious research into the issue of stolen art and artifacts.

‘’It’s a wide open area,” wrote John Dower, the author of ‘Embracing Defeat: Japan in the Wake of World War II’. ‘’This one got truly buried.”