Nat'l Master Doseon Guksa: His Pungsujiri Legacy

Professor David Mason, of Chung-Ang University, is a long-time researcher (32 years in Korea) on the religious characteristics of the mountains in Korea. In 2011 he was appointed Honorary ambassador of the Baekdu-daegan ranges by the Korea Forest Service. He has authored 10 books on Korean culture and tourism, including the Encyclopedia of Korean Buddhism and Spirit of the Mountains, which is about Korea's traditions of spiritual mountain worship. His has a website on sacred Korean mountains and mountain-spirits.

Back in May 2015, Professor Mason presented at the RAS on Doseon Guksa:

Doseon Guksa [Tao-Abundance National-Master] (826-898) is one of the most important and interesting Buddhist leaders of Korean history, but often remains overlooked, including by the mainstream Jogye Order. He lived during the collapsing end of the Shilla Dynasty, presaging the foundation of the subsequent Goryeo Dynasty. He was both a great Buddhist master of meditation of the Seon [Zen] tradition as well as an enlightened Sutra-Master, an extremely rare combination of achievements. But the main reason for his fame are his masterful creation of Korean pungsujiri (geomancy), the concept of the Baekdu-daegan mountain-spine-of-Korea, and the establishment or improvement of some of our greatest extant temples. Professor Mason will explain Master Doseon’s biography and explain Master Doseon's significance in the shape of Buddhism today.

National Master Doseon Guksa: His Legacy of Pungsujiri & the Great Temples

Brief biography

• Doseon Guksa, literally "Dao-Abundance" (826-898), was uniquely double-enlightened. 
• He presages the unification of Korean Buddhism.
• He was a Buddhist master of geomancy and became the creator of Korean punsujiri-seol.
• He created the concept of the Baekdu-daegan (spine of the Korean mountain).

Birth and early life

• Born in Yeongam-gun [Spirit-rock county] of Jeollanam-do, on the western slopes of Wolchulsan. Popular thought is that he descended from a secondary son of Silla's Great King Taejong Muyeol (r. 664-681).
• His mother had a conception-dream of her swallowing a beautiful pearl, very propitious, so during her pregnancy she chanted Buddhist scriptures and like a good Buddhist abstained from meat, onions and garlic.
• From infancy Doseon was a Buddhist prodigy, learning to chant Buddhist sutras soon after he learned to talk. 
• One local myth has it that he was accidentally abandoned after birth, but was protected by birds at a gigantic boulder called Guksa-am [National Master Rock], located behind Wolchusan's Gukam-sa hermitage.

Becoming a monk at Wolchusan

• Doseon spent the latter part of his childhood at Munsu-am [Boddhisattva of Wisdom Hermitage] on the wester slopes of Wolchulsan.
• At Wonam-sa [Moon-south Temple] on the southeastern side of Wolchulsan his hair was first shorn as he officially became a novice-monk. 
• At the age of 15 he moved to Hwaom-sa in Jirisan, [Exquisite Wisdom Mountains] but locally known as "the mountain of the odd and wise people", where many people devoted efforts to seek truth and happiness. There he was accepted to study Hwaom Buddhism. 

First enlightenment at Hwaom-sa, Jirisan

• Legend has it that he attained "the ineffable wisdom of Munsu-bosal and the mystic gate of Bohyeon-bosal, penetrating the great meaning of the Hwaom-gyeong Sutra" in only three years!
• He was given the name "Yeong-gi", which was a great honor as that was the name of the missionary-founder master-monk who first built Hwaomsa in 544.

Monk at Taean-sa

• By age 20 he was already highly respected as "a very wise adept with unusual spiritual powers of the sort usually attributed to Daoist masters", and he began to study Seon [Zen] under the great master and sect-founder Hyecheol Jeogin-seonsa (d. 861) at Taean-sa monastery.

Second enlightenment as monk at Taean-sa

• He achieved full Seon enlightenment at Taean-sa, receiving the mubeob-beob [the Dharma without Dharma] transmission from Hyecheol, in just 3 years, becoming Hyecheol's leading successor.
• As a result, he was "double-enlightened" in both scholastic Hwaom and Seon schools, the only known case from ancient and medieval times. (300 years later the Unification of Korean Buddhism was accomplished by Ji-nul Bojo Guksa and these two schools were no longer separated in large ideology.)

Studies in China

• Around 850, Doseon Guksa then traveled to China for further advanced studies, which focused on esoteric Daoist and Buddhist astronomical, astrological, mathematical, geomantic (feng shui aka pungsujiri), cosmological and I Ching (Juyeok-gyeong) teachings. [Some modern scholars, perhaps for reasons of national pride, doubt whether he went to China at all.]

Return to Korea: Establishing Dogap-sa

• Legend says that upon Doseon's return from his studies in China, he reconstructed Wolchul-san Munsu-am on the upward parts of a valley and renamed it Dogap-sa. [All that scholars know for sure is that Dogap-sa was large, famous and prosperous during the Goryeo Dynasty, and its official history claims Doseon as its founder. The temple is within the Wolchulsan National Park and is well-known today. It promotes Doseon as the leading factor of its legacy and now has a museum dedicated primarily to him.]

Return to Korea: Observant wanderer

• After establishing Dogap-sa, Doseon trekked widely around the Korean peninsula, observing its geography and searching for the source of its unique energies, refraining from basing himself with any particular temple.

Return to Jirisan

• After his extensive travels, he built a hut to rest, located on Nogo-dan, Jirisan.

Pungsujiri

• In Jirisan at "Sand Chart Village" sanshin appeared to him, offering the deepest of pungsujiri as (another "method by which great Bodhisattvas grant salvation to humankind." [Perhaps a nationalistic claim that his pungsujiri system/wisdom came from an indigenous-Korean source and not from a Chinese feng-shui source.]
• Punsujiri, aka Korean geomancy, is derived from Chinese feng-shui, but is in some ways different. Doseon applied it to Korean geography and outlook. 
• Pungsujiri had been practiced for over 1100 years and by all Korean traditions: shamanists, Buddhists, Neo-Confucianists, Daoists.
• It applies to tombs, buildings, towns, gardens, temples, etc, but Doseon raised its practice to a national scale.
• Doseon's system is often called "bibo-pungsujiri", bibo being the Chinese character for "hidden treasure" or "national property", and this style focuses on "harmony of nature". 

Baekdu-daegan [White-head Great-ridge]

• Doseon conceptualized it as "the spine of Korea".
• Mountain system running down the entire peninsula with a mildly sacred character.
• Baekdu-daegan is comprised of:

• divider of regions

• magnificent scenery

• origin of spring waters

• Buddhist temples

• Neo-Confucian shrines

• shamanic shrines

• historical and folk sites

• passes through 7 National Parks and 4 Local Parks

Two maps of the baekgu-daegan - the right map focuses on the primary mountains of the Koreas, and it was on these primary peaks, which Doseon believed flowed with natural earth energy, and where he built his primary temples most fiercely associated with pungsujiri principles.

Settling at Baegunsan

• Doseon finally settled down to teach disciples in what he called Baeghak-dong [White Crane Village, paralleling Jirisan's Azure Crane Village] on the southern slopes of Baegunsan [White Clouds Mountain] after determining it as an ideal geomantic location and would be safe from troubles. 
• He then founded, constructed and lived at Okryong-sa [Jade-Dragon Temple] in what is now Gwangju city, and subsequently taught there for 35 years with occasional travels around Korea. He assisted hundred of adepts to achieve enlightenment.

portrait of Doseon at Baegun-sa Unam-sa

Great Master of Silla

• He is said to have been a man of few words, teaching the mubeob-beob by museol-seol [the explanation without explaining], and was able to spark realization with only a piercing gaze.
• His reputation for wisdom and insight-powers eventually got him proclaimed as Silla's leading Master Monk by King Heon-gang, and Doseon was invited to lecture at the palace in Gyeongju several times.

Doseon became a builder of temples:

Seoul's Samgak-san Doseon-sa

Seoul's Ansan Bongwon-sa

Seoul's Bulamsan Bulam-sa

Posthumously the advisor to Goryeo Taejo Wang Geon

• Doseon was the most influential advisor to Wang Geon (born 877), destined to become Goryeo's King Taejo (r.918-943) in founding the Goryeo Dynasty ... although they never met.
• The tale often told is that in 875 Doseon passed by a mansion under construction at Songak-san (near today's Gaeseong City) and recognized the grand auspiciousness of the site that would confer a fresh mandate of heaven, and predicted the birth to a son who would grow up to be a great man, to lead a new age for Korea. He gave the man a sealed document and told him to keep it safe and secret, only giving it to the boy when he attained maturity. This was done ...

Architect of Goryeo Dynasty

• The advice and ideas Doseon left behind him, especially in the Doseon-bigi, were important in choosing the site of the capital and other important cities and fortresses, and in constructing many new grand Buddhist temples at geomantically-auspicious sites around the nation. It is recorded that when Taejo Wang Geon had defeated the last of the rivals and re-unified Korea, he first built Gaetae-sa [Exalted Beginning Temple] in a long narrow valley just south of the highly sacred Gyeryongsan, which Doseon had recommended, to express his gratitude towards the Buddhas and mountain-spirits, and to seek their further beneficence.

Improvements to Hwaom-sa

Passing on to Nirvana

• Doseon is recorded to have died in 898 while sitting in the lotus position in front of his many disciples at Baegunsan, Okyong-sa, but no budo was found there.
• The remarkable budo behind Jirisan Yeongok-sa might be his, and its architectural elements support this theory, but its accompanying biseok is missing (probably destroyed) so we can't be sure.
• Some Koreans believe that Doseon actually became a shinseon [Daoist-type "immortal"] upon achieving nirvana, and continued to advise Taejo Wang Geon and than Muhak Wangsa, founder of Seoul, in spiritual form.

Legacy of temples

• Around 70 monasteries, both large and small, are claimed to have been founded either under Doseon's supervision and direction or by the orders of Taejo Wang Geon (following Doseon's recommendations). Most of them still thrive.
• The 22 temples said to have been founded by Taejo Wang Geon under Doseon's influence are all fairly minor today; the most significant among them is probably Gyeryongsan Gaetae-sa.
• Temples that are claimed to have been established either by Doseon or Wang Geon at the places that Doseon decided would be most auspicious are called bibo-sacheol, and pagodas built at such places are bibo-satap.
• There are dozens of pre-existing temples that are thought to have been reconstructed, renovated or added to (usually with a pagoda) due to Doseon's influence. These include some of Korea's greatest, such as Jirisan's Shilsang-sa, Yeongok-sa and Jongyesan Seonam-sa.
• Additionally, a dozen important stone-carved Buddha statues and pagodas are said to have been carved or built by Doseon himself, including the famous gigantic Gwanse-eum-bosal relief at Doseon-sa, not to mention a dozen caves and crags around Korea that claim to be sites where he practiced his mystical arts.

On the Road: Two Migrant Workers in South Korea

On The Road

A Film by Changhee Chun
Fulbright Senior Researcher, Ithaca College

Fulbright Forums Presents: "During the last decade, one of the greatest social changes in South Korea has been the development of a multicultural society with increasing numbers of migrant workers. However, the population of unskilled laborers from South Asia is very much an invisible minority in Korea. The only time this population is mentioned is when a crime is committed by someone in this community, or to say that areas where large numbers of South Asians live are dangerous and should be avoided. Little is known about the “Korean Dream” of better opportunities that these people pursue after leaving their motherland. On the Road follows Moazzem and Maruf, two migrant workers from Bangladesh, who did not have any other alternative than to leave their country in search of better opportunities in Korea. Moazzem and Maruf labor as small factory migrant workers in rural Korea, sacrificing their lives in Bangladesh in hope of helping their families and themselves survive.

On the Road profiles these two as they journey in a foreign-land in quest of their individual “Korean Dream.” The film chronicles their personal journeys of difficulties and witnesses some of the sacrifices they have to make in their daily lives as migrants, such as working and living in undesirable conditions, struggle with language barriers, and separation from their families. The unskilled laborers migrant community in Korea is doing their best to find happiness and success in a society different from their own, away from home, filled with the ups and downs of life. While hope of acceptance, harmony, and co-prosperity persists for Moazzem and Maruf in Korea, one cannot deny that for now their paths toward their dreams are not without turbulence.

The film serves as an ethnographic observation of the daily lives of migrant laborers in Korea—allowing the audience to not only relate to the struggles towards success migrants endure, but also reflect on their own pursuit of success. No different from the audience, migrant laborers too are just ordinary people, traveling down the road toward their dreams. Whether one is a migrant laborer or not, our lives are journeys on an unpaved road filled with obstacles and challenges that we must overcome to reach a destination of success. On the Road gives the audience a view into an alternative road that may not be all too different from their own."

Research:

• Migrant Workers Center in Korea (Pastor Hae-sung Kim)
• Korea Support Center for Foreign Workers
• National Human Rights Commission of Korea (NHRCK)
• Hanyang University
• Sungkyul University

"On the Road" follows the same theme of migrant workers in South Korea as his previous documentary "Lost Baggage" (2009).  "Lost Baggage" deals with the lives and struggles of migrant workers in South Korea, their efforts to create change and the complex legal situations many have faced since the early 1990s, when South Korea saw the first influx of migrant workers to the country. 

Kazakhstan and the Korean Diaspora

A large number of Koreans arrived in Central Asia and Kazakhstan in 1937, but according to the first general census of the Russian Empire in 1897, there were a few dozen Koreans living in the central Asian territory. Koreans were also registered by the First All-Union Census of the population [1926] in three oblasts (prefectures) of what is now Kazakhstan: Akmolinsk, Semipalatinsk and Syr-Darya. 42 in total were registered : 36 in Uzbekistan and 9 in Kirghizstan.

At the end of the 1920s a small group of Koreans found themselves in Kazakhstan. Koreans, known for their superior rice production at the time, demonstrated great skill in rice and land cultivation. Because rice was viewed as a very important crop and so to develop rice production in Kazakhstan "it was planned to invite Koreans to Kazakhstan to assist in the organization of rice cultivation and sharing their experience." The Koreans who moved from the Far East to Kazakhstan formed "Korean agricultural labour artel 'Kazakskiyris'". In total 220 Koreans represented by 117 households immigrated to Kazakhstan at that time, (1929).

A lot of conjecture and legend surrounded the social acceptance of the Koreans who immigrated to Kazakhstan. Many believed that Korean immigrants to Russia were pure and illiterate peasants who lived in Korean villages in the maritime region of the Far East. This is easily debunked. The Koreans held themselves somewhat separated from the Kazakhs; they had a sense of elevated thoughts, the desire to pursue education, and though they were brought in as agricultural workers, the Korean women dressed fashionably for the times, the young boys (and some girls?) got educated.

Then the larger group of Koreans came in to Kazakhstan. Stalin deported a massive Korean population from the Russian Far East in 1937 in an endeavor to exterminate them. Many died, but when survivors arrived in Kazakhstan, they were willing to work and so thrived.

The Koreans valued education and, when compared with the Kazakh households, the Korean households were scholarly. Many old books were arguably brought with the Stalin refugees, and these books are now highly treasured and valued for their scholarship and good condition. 

Kazakhstan holds a significant collection of books in Korean and legends about the origin and value of this collection abound. It is clear that one of the most valuable items in the collection of the Kazakh National Library is a 19th Century edition of the 50-volume encyclopedia Dongguk Munhon Bigo (동국문헌비고 [東國文獻備考]). However, the question of how these books came to be in the Library of Kazakhstan remains uncertain. Little is known about how the collection was assembled in the Far East, how it was brought to Kzyl-Orda, and how it came to be in Almaty. 

No doubt, the books came to be in Kazakhstan in connection with the deportation of Koreans from the Soviet Far East in 1937 and the relocation of the Korean Pedagogical Institute from Vladivostok to Kzyl-Orda. It is likely that the books arrived along with the Institute’s deported students and teachers. In 1938 the Korean Pedagogical Institute in Kzyl-Orda and the Korean Pedagogical College in Kazalinsk (Kzyl-Orda oblast’), which was moved from Nikol’sk-Ussuriisk, began teaching in the Russian language. Korean educational establishments, as well as educational institutions of other national minorities (Germans, Poles, Tatars etc.), were eliminated and the names of those institutions were changed. Thus, there was no longer a need for Korean books in Kzyl-Orda and for a long time they were just silently shelved.  

[RAS lecture by German Kim, PhD and Doctor habilitatus from the Kazakh National University and  Director of the International Center of Korean Studies and Professor of World History in the KazNU. He is a noteworthy scholar on the history of Korean immigration and the Korean diaspora.]

Stalin intended to eliminate Korean language and culture but the Koreans were hardy, and proudly and privately cherished their culture, transporting it with them when they were forced west. To this day, Kazakh-Koreans share their culture with their original motherland, albeit in unique and altered ways.

• Korean traditions mark important life milestones: first birthday (tol), the wedding (kyoron chanchi) and 60th birthday (hwangab).
• National holidays based predominantly on the lunar calendar are mutually observed: spring (hansik) and autumn (chuseok) equinoxes, and on those days all Koreans visit their ancestors' graves. Solnal, the most joyful holiday on the lunar calendar, is the most popular for both Korean culture groups. 

New Challenges and Diasporic Strategies

The collapse of the Soviet Union and the emergence of sovereign Central Asian states opened a new page in the history of the Koryo saram. Opposite to other ethnic minorities, which have chosen to leave the Soviet Central Asian Republics, the Koreans have stayed but they are again being forced to adapt and this time to the nationalizing states.

Collapse of the Union of the Soviet Republics lead to the beginning formation of new communities of the Koryo saram: Kazakhstani/Kazakh, Uzbekistani, Russian and more, who are similar in some ways and different in others as regard to the strategies of choices:

• choice of the place of residence and/or migration
• choice of labor activity and profession
• choice of ways and forms of diasporic associations
• choice of identity and ethnocultural determinants 
• choice of relationship with the historical motherland

Already one-fifth of the Korean-Kazakh diaspora have moved to Seoul, 20,000 of the 100,000 from Kazakhstan have relocate back to the motherland. Interestingly, the Koran-Kazakhs are viewed very favorably and held in high-regard in Kazakhstan. This stems back to the Koreans who held themselves to high educational standards when they immigrated or were forcibly immigrated. They valued and embraced education, dressed well, established a community with laws and community-controlled social controls. Now, in present-day Kazakhstan, many Korean-Kazakhs are judges, university professors, lawyers and are government employed. For having a 0.07% of the population, the Korean-Kazakhs are valued and respected for their high contribution to nation-building/maintaining, a nation that the Korean-Kazakhs identify with in similar ways that they identify with Korea.

Religion of Koreans in Kazakhstan

Originally most Korean immigrants were Buddhist but significant numbers became Orthodox Christian (the Russian law says that to be a citizen a person must be an Orthodox Christian). In result, Korean immigrants, at least publicly, changed religions. This allowed them the right to own fields. Many Korean might still practice Buddhism privately, like ancestor veneration and other family rituals, but this was done away from the public eye. Over time, Buddhist practices declined and, for many who were Orthodox Christians for appearance sake, religious identities faltered and atheism began to dominate. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Korean missionaries ventured to Kazakhstan and others came from the US and Canada, and religions was accepted again.

Korean Language

The official status of Korean language in FSU (?) is as the "native language" of the Koreans. Korean spoken by the Koryo saram exists basically in the oral form. As to dialect, ancestors of the Korean immigrants hailed from the Hamkyongnam province [present-day North Korea] but who migrated from the south of the peninsula during the 15th-16th century. Long isolation from Korea, absorption of elements from southern dialects, and finally Russian-language influences led to the linguistic phenomenon now referred to as "Koryo mal". 

• The prevailing number of Korean-Kazakhs do not know Korean at all.
• Those from 40-60 years of age typically have a passive mastery of the language.
• The senior age group, from 60-80 years old, could possess fluency. 

Conclusions

Unlike many immigrant ethnic groups that are uncertain whether they will adapt themselves in the host country, the Diaspora is aware that its future is related to the new homeland.

• The term Diaspora will remain until the group refers to itself as "we" instead of incorporating the pointed polarizing pronouns of "we" and "they".
• Koryo saram are neither Hanguk saram nor Choseon saram.
• Koryo saram are not less Koreans than Koreans of the Korean peninsula or other countries. They are Koreans; they are just different. Different experiences creates different identities; shared experiences homogenize. Time and experiences have altered the sociocultural homogeneousness but the core of their cultures is still the shared nucleus, the center where the vitality of both of their beings coexist. 

"Before we were homogeneously the same, now we are different. We have made choices and now we are valuing our differences," concludes German Kim.

Comfort Women Controversy between S. Korea and Japan Ended?

Today the Korean web began posting on the resolution for the many-decades long controversy between Korea and Japan on the topic of the Korean comfort women. There are many issues and strong points of controversy between South Korea and Japan and I'm wondering how "resolving" this issue will help resolve, or even antagonize, other issues between the two countries. Following is the first article I saw posted related to the resolution; it's also the article I see most re-posted so why not repost it yet again:

Japan and South Korea agree to settle wartime sex slaves row

Shinzo Abe offers sincere apology for use of ‘comfort women’ by Japanese soldiers, removing major barrier to better relations.

South Koreans who lost family members during the second world war demand full compensation and an apology from Japan in Seoul. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP

Japan and South Korea have removed the biggest obstacle to better bilateral ties after agreeing to “finally and irreversibly” resolve Tokyo’s use of tens of thousands of Korean women as wartime sex slaves.

ANALYSIS: Korean comfort women agreement is a triumph for US and Japan

In a breakthrough that barely seemed possible a few months ago, Japan’s prime minister, Shinzo Abe, offered his “most sincere apologies” to the women in a statement issued in Seoul by his foreign minister, Fumio Kishida .

It was not immediately clear if Abe would send a letter of apology to each surviving “comfort woman”.

Later Monday, Abe called the South Korean president, Park Geun-hye , who has described the sex slave row as “the biggest obstacle” to improved ties with Tokyo, and reiterated his apology. He told reporters that the agreement was based on his commitment to stop future generations from having to repeatedly apologise. “Japan and South Korea are now entering a new era. We should not drag this problem into the next generation.”

Park issued a separate statement saying the deal was the result of her government’s best efforts to resolve the sex slave issue. “I hope the mental pains of the elderly comfort women will be eased,” she said.

Japan also offered to set up a new 1bn yen (£5.6m) fund, with the money, paid directly by the government, divided among the 46 former comfort women still alive, most of whom are in their late 80s and early 90s.

COMMENT: Japanese PM Shinzo Abe stops short of a new apology 

in war anniversary speech

Speaking after make-or-break talks with his South Korean counterpart, Yun Byung-se, Kishida heralded a new era of better relations between the two countries, whose strong trade ties and military alliances with the US have been overshadowed by the controversy.

“This marks the beginning of a new era of Japan-South Korea ties,” he told reporters. “I think the agreement we reached is historic and is a groundbreaking achievement.

“[Abe] expresses anew his most sincere apologies and remorse to all the women who underwent immeasurable and painful experiences and suffered incurable physical and psychological wounds as comfort women.”

The Japanese government also conceded that its military authorities played a role in the sexual enslavement of the women. While avoiding any admission of legal responsibility, Kishida’s statement said: “The issue of comfort women, with an involvement of the Japanese military authorities at that time, was a grave affront to the honour and dignity of large numbers of women, and the government of Japan is painfully aware of responsibilities from this perspective.”

Abe and other conservative politicians in Japan had previously questioned whether the Japanese government and military played any role in coercing the women, arguing that they had been procured by private brokers.

Both countries said the agreement would resolve the issue “finally and irreversibly”, adding that they would refrain from making critical remarks on the subject at the United Nations and in other international forums.

Yun said Seoul would cooperate, as long as Japan followed through on its promises. He also suggested that South Korea was willing to negotiate the removal of a statue of a girl symbolising the comfort women that stands outside the Japanese embassy in Seoul. Although the statue belongs to privately run campaign groups, Yun said the South Korean government would “strive to solve this issue in an appropriate manner through taking measures such as consulting with related organisations”.

There is disagreement on the exact number of women forced into prostitution by Japan during its 1910-1945 colonial rule of the Korean peninsula. Campaigners say as many as 200,000 women – mostly Koreans, but also Chinese, south-east Asians and a small number of Japanese and Europeans – were forced or tricked into working in military brothels between 1932 and Japan’s defeat in 1945.

Most women took their secret to the grave. South Korean Kim Hak-soon became the first to testify about her experiences in public in 1991. “We must record these sins that were forced upon us,” she said.

South Korea has long called on Japan to issue an official apology, pay compensation to the surviving women and recognise its legal responsibility. Japan stopped short of admitting legal responsibility and stressed that the new fund was a humanitarian gesture.

The Japanese government initially denied the existence of wartime brothels. But in 1993, the then chief cabinet secretary, Yohei Kono, acknowledged and apologised for the first time for Japan’s use of sex slaves.

Over the years, Japan has refused to directly compensate the women, saying all claims were settled in a 1965 treaty that restored diplomatic ties and included more than $800m in grants and loans to South Korea.

In 1995, it set up the privately run Asian women’s fund, which drew on private donations. But many women refused money unless it came directly from the Japanese state. Only about 260 former sex slaves received cash – worth about 2m yen each – and the fund was disbanded in 2007.

The agreement reached on Monday will be welcomed by the US, which has urged its two east Asian allies to settle their differences over second world war history and show a united front in the face of an increasingly assertive China and a nuclear-armed North Korea.

In Beijing, the foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said: “We hope to see an improvement of the bilateral relationship between the Japanese and South Korean side.”

Hiroka Shoji , an east Asia researcher at Amnesty International, said: “Today’s agreement must not mark the end of the road in securing justice for the hundreds of thousands [of] women who suffered due to Japan’s military sexual slavery system.

“The women were missing from the negotiation table and they must not be sold short in a deal that is more about political expediency than justice. Until the women get the full and unreserved apology from the Japanese government for the crimes committed against them, the fight for justice goes on.”

The spread of frontline brothels coincided with Japan’s military campaigns in large parts of China and south-east Asia. As colonial ruler of the Korean peninsula, Japan was able to target poor and uneducated victims, typically aged between 13 and 19.

Speculation that a comfort women agreement was in the offing had risen following a bilateral meeting between Abe and Park in early November, their first for three-and-a-half years, and the decision by a South Korean court to acquit a Japanese journalist accused of defaming Park.

The South Korean president had voiced hope that a deal would be reached by the end of this year, 50 years after the establishment of diplomatic relations between Seoul and Tokyo.

The Korean web is alive with comments and Facebook is filled with postings of the controversy finally being resolved, but there are questions about just what are the ethics employed in "resolving" this? What politics are driving sudden humanitarian apologies? Here's one of the earliest responses, published today also no less!

Apology Isn't Justice for Korea's 'Comfort Women'

By Noah Feldman

At long last, Korea's “comfort women” are getting a real apology from Japan's government for being forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese army during World War II. But the moment is bittersweet, and not just because it’s taken 70 years. The apology comes not out of a change in Japanese sentiment, but from a change in geopolitics -- namely, the rise of China and the increasing need for Japan and South Korea to cooperate on mutual defense. And it comes at the price of a promise by the South Korean government not to criticize Japan over the issue again -- a trade of moral claims for compensation and finality.

The saga of the Japanese non-apology has had many twists and turns, demonstrating that in the contemporary political cultures of both Japan and Korea, apologies aren’t mere formalities but are laden with symbolic significance. A muted 1993 apology was accompanied by compensation from private donors and marked a refusal by Japan’s government to acknowledge its role in the sexual enslavement. Koreans got the point, and some women refused to take money from the fund.

The question of state responsibility has remained a sore point. A South Korean historian who has written about the role of private entrepreneurs in enslaving women during the war has been condemned by survivors who say she is minimizing the Japanese government’s guilt.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, a strong nationalist, isn’t naturally inclined to apologize for Japan’s wartime atrocities. In the past, he’s angered Chinese and Koreans by visiting the controversial Yasukuni shrine, which honors Japan's war dead, including convicted war criminals.

What motivates Abe is the quest to improve Japan’s national security. China’s military expansionism is the main cause. Almost equally important is an accompanying perception that the U.S. may not be the strong protector it has traditionally been. Would the U.S. go to war to defend Taiwan from China? If the answer is no, then why would the U.S. go to war to protect Japan or South Korea? If there’s doubt about the U.S. commitment, Japan and Korea need each other.

The Pacific security arrangement is often described as a “hub and spokes” model, with the U.S. at the center. Abe is setting out to strengthen the ties between the spokes -- because he recognizes that the hub is not as willing a gravitational force as it once was.

In this increasingly uncertain Cool War environment, the perception of Japanese-Korean solidarity is an important aspect of Abe’s program. It’s why he was willing to pay the political price at home of an apology to the comfort women that accompanies an $8.3 million fund -- this time paid by his government. And as a nationalist, he can afford to draw on his store of right-wing credibility to buy political advantage.

But the apology and the money came with a price attached: South Korea’s promise that the issue of the comfort women would be settled once and for all, and that its government wouldn’t complain about it further. And Abe can tell his constituents that he has bought the Koreans’ silence, removing an argument that always came up when Japan was accused of being aggressive or nationalist.

That’s almost always how reparations, whether legally formal or (as in this case) informal, work in the real world: The wronged party gets compensation and an apology; the party that did the wrong gets a de facto promise that it won’t have to be reminded of what it did. Without this trade, countries wouldn’t voluntarily pay up, so it may seem naive to criticize the exchange, provided you think compensation is a good thing.

All tort settlements, even those between private parties, have something of this character. Compensation functions as corrective justice, and the injured party is expected to be satisfied by the deal.

But morally speaking, crimes against humanity aren’t the same as car accidents. Those who enslaved women during World War II weren’t being negligent; they raped and dehumanized these women in particular, and the status and fundamental rights of women everywhere.

Promising a form of silence about such crimes in exchange for an apology and compensation seems inadequate to the scope and meaning of the wrongdoing. During negotiations, Japan also sought the removal of a memorial statue in front of its embassy in Seoul. South Korea’s government promised to take up the issue with the survivors – implying a good-faith effort to make the memorial disappear.

Crimes against humanity are the world’s business. They shouldn’t be forgotten, and discussing as well as memorializing them shouldn’t be suppressed or discouraged.

The interest in keeping the memory of such crimes alive also extends to the victims themselves. Of course they’re entitled to compensation. But it feels wrong if they can only get it because their government has agreed to drop their case and, to a degree, is encouraging them to drop their efforts to shame the perpetrators.

The realities of international practice are inevitable and harsh. Individuals need states to prosecute claims against other states on their behalf. And once states are in the game, they’ll behave as states usually do: trading values and ideals and honor for advancement of their interests. But that doesn’t mean we always have to like it. The memory of terrible wrongs should be preserved, as a goad to stop them from happening again.

Our horror about the treatment of the comfort women should steel us to act on behalf of women kidnapped into sexual slavery by Islamic State and Boko Haram. No amount of reconciliation with the past should make us reconcile with those crimes of the present.

A History of Korean Housing

The Korea Foundation offered a series of lectures on Korean architecture, and I jumped at the opportunity to take be a participant in the five lectures. Tonight the speaker was Professor Jeong BongHee, Phd in Architecture working at Seoul National University. I've heard many western presenters on the topic of the hanok, but here was a chance to hear an entire lecture series on Korean architecture, and this lecture targeted the development of the hanok. Of particular interest on Professor Jeong's professional career printout, I was particularly fascinated to see his recent research interests on Korean architecture:

• The Usage of Traditional Roof Frame and Fire Prevention Design in the Deajojeon Complex Reconstruction in Changdeokgung during the 1917 to 1921 period (2004)
• The Time of the Effect of Neighborhood Unit Principle to the Planning of Residential Areas in Seoul in the Japanese Colonial Times (2011)
• A Study on the Transformation of the Old Palatial Buildings into Hospitals (2012)
• characteristics of Communalization of Government Managing Apartment Houses Built in Korean from the 1960's to the Early 1970's (2012)
• A Parametric Modeling Methodology Optimized for Korean Traditional House (2012)

He also listed five books as being authored by himself, and the content of this lecture on the history of the hanok comes from his 2012 book, Hanok and the History of Korean House.

Definition of the hanok

Against the expectations, the term hanok was not coined so long ago. With the opening of ports to outside influences, the term was coined to separate Korean traditional housing structures from foreign modern architecture. Similarly, hanbok and hansik were coined to specify the difference between the indigenous and that of the outside. The terms hanok and yangok -- western-style house -- were first shown together in "Papers about Houses" written in 1908.

So, what is the most distinctive difference between hanok and yangok? Hanok adopts Chinese wooden architecture, which separates it from western and other architectural styles that tend to incorporate bricks, masonry, logs and styles employing iron elements. In Chinese wooden architecture which was used in Korea, China and Japan, wooden brackets and beams were fitted together only through the use of 90-degree angles in order to support the weight of a roof. These structures were supported by wooden columns and regimented distances denoting the khan, a measurement used in sizing buildings and ultimately gathering rooms.

Hanok architecture in a government office or a house are shoe-less gathering places, that is, they must be maintained as clean spaces separate from the outdoors and places of comfort and relaxation. Hanok use both ondol and maru to acclimate to summer and winter. The evolution of the hanok to incorporate the economical heating system has taken hundreds, if not, thousands of years.

Development of hanok in prehistoric and ancient excavation sites

The first ancient homes in Korea are presumed to be those of partially dugout spaces covered by grass roofs. In ancient times, semi-permanent houses were constructed with columns and walls built on the hard-packed earth and having thick, hard tiled roofs.

The early ondol were seen in Manchuria and the Maritime Province of Siberia, and covered only a portion of the ground, much like the heating in today's Kang of Northeast China. It is assumed that by the middle of the Goryeo dynasty, ondol encompassed the entire floor of the typical dwelling. An example of this has been excavated at the Hoeamsa Temple constructed during the Goryeo dynasty.

Maru has two origin stories. The first is, the maru has its roots in a raised cottage which can be built on slanted ground or over a body of water. Such examples of maru appear in Southeastern China, Japan, and South-east Asia. The raised floors were essential for keeping pests and vermin out while provided some circulation of air to ease the effects of humidity. In the second story, the maru is a cognate of marae, maru, mari and meori, which have meanings as being high and noble. In this sense, the maru is assumed to originate from a sanctum, the venue where people pray and perform ancestral rites.

Development of hanok in medieval times

Ondol, maru and 'kitchen' have different forms of floor. Ondol have hard, warm, clean and smooth floors using plaster over flat stones laid on gas ducts. Maru have rough and dry wooden floors, and 'kitchen' have unclean earthen floor on which a furnace is built and water and possibly waste flow. Therefore, combining all three floor structures in the larger building structure took development.

Putting the ondol and maru together was the conventional tradition. The Maeng clan house following the house styles of Goryeo dynasty and that of the royal bedchamber show a good example of this combination.

In houses for commoners, however, combining ondol and 'kitchen' -- that is, living and cooking -- became the established trend. 'A three-room house with a straw-thatched roof' was the representative house style in Joseon dynasty; it had the lower-floored kitchen and the uniquely efficient wood-burning stove, the buttumak, which was used for both cooking and heating of rooms. The buttumak was instrumental in heating the ondol floor in the two rooms of the typical peasant house. Peasant houses did not have maru as a house needed at least four bays (?) in order to have such a construction.

By the middle of the Joseon dynasty, the hanok with the minimum of four bays had become the established norm. The typical layout of the minimal four-bay hanok was 'kitchen-room-maru-room', but this arrangement differed by region as the hanok were built to best suit the climate and topographical differences in the various Korean regions.

click to enlarge

Development of social features affecting architectural styles

In the latter part of the Joseon dynasty harsh policies and clannishness brought about distinctive changes in the hanok architectural structure. Hanok structures were affected by clan communities where people having the same surname and place of family origin lived together and established clan tell-tale architecture markings. Tile roofs, symbols of elevated society, were replacing straw roofs, but the additional weight meant roof extensions had to be shortened. Lengthier roofs protected walls from the ravaging effects of rain and space outside of rooms with heated ondol floors, particularly in summer, were desired, so the toenmaru, the attached floor or rather the space around the house, was added and overhead the roof was extended to protect this outside living space.

The toenmaru extended the hanok and strengthened its function as living space. Thus, the toenmaru allowed the family to move its work space, shrine and communal facilities outside of the house. Clan villages shared its communal functions also, and a shrine for the same ancestor, a school, monuments, a well, a washing place and a square were constructed in a village having the head family house at the nucleus. Of course the head family had a higher floor and/or larger structure than other hanok to give physical credence to the elevated status of the clan head.

Urban hanok, modern times

With port openings, even in the early days, foreigners -- diplomats, missionaries, soldiers -- engaged in commerce or light industry, and to meet their needs they created and introduced a new style of architecture, which gradually transformed the traditional cityscape.

Since Seoul was over-populated even before the opening of the port, and urban dwellers didn't farm, they didn't have spacious yards. To best fit in the confined city spaces, the hanok were built with ㄱ ㄷ shaped structures and rarely had fences. Most Seoul hanok in those modern times consisted of the centralized main building and to the side the servants' quarter, which was built against the wall surrounding the main building and the garden.

With the industrialization and urbanization in the mid 1920's, the population of Seoul grew substantially, causing a housing shortage. In effect, houses were built by the dozens and were started to be traded as a ready-made commodity.

The ready-made urban hanok had several particular features. First, the standard living-plan type of house was created by forecasting prospective buyers, and accordingly, living styles of urban residents became stereotyped. The second, framework in mass production became standardized, not to mention extravagant architectural decorations and materials -- e.g. foreign materials like glass and zinc -- were frequently used. These houses had ㄷ-shape with several such housing constructions stood side by side.

Western style houses, the yangok

After the Korean War the mass construction of western-style houses began. Typically Western-style houses were built with concrete blocks and bricks. As yet, Korean people preferred the hanok, and the construction of hanok continued till the 1960s in provincial cities.

With the enactment of the Act on Comprehensive Plan of National Land Construction in the early 1960s, the construction of wooden buildings was restricted, yet the balance between supply and demand for timber became increasingly disrupted. In result, construction of the hanok was halted in Seoul and other regions and the yangok -- built primarily with bricks and concrete with only small pieces of wood used in the framing of windows -- became the housing construction of choice.

By this time, indoor revisions were altering the traditional structure inside the house -- indoor flush toilets and shared living room-dining room-kitchen (LDK, combination of kitchen and living room) appeared. With the indoor kitchen, gas or oil, separated from fuel for heating, was used for cooking. The new style of house had a centralized layout with the living room at the center of the other rooms. This layout was adopted by apartment constructions which became widely popularized after the mid-1970's. In the centralized layout, the living room formed the central space and inherited the role and status of the rural hanok courtyard.

The apartment continued to change the inner living space. Since the mid-1990's, a unique wooden floor called ondol-maru has been used for bedrooms, the living room and the kitchen. Ondol-maru is a new floor type having the same surface as the maru while having the same heating system as the ondol in hanok. Therefore, the apartment of today inherits space organization of the traditional hanok and integrates the three types of floor by constructing a living room at the center (a replacement for the courtyard), and the ondol-maru as the single-leveled floor space which includes the kitchen.

New trend of hanok

In the end of the 1990's, the number of apartment units started to exceed that of detached houses. In 2007, the apartment became the largest housing unit, accounting for more than half of the total number of housing units, especially as high-rise apartments efficiently use small earth spaces. Despite the need for earth space to create hanok, their eco-friendly structure with elements of green spaces around are now desirable, and therefore, projects are set in motion to recreate hanok in commercial and public spaces along with the movement to preserve or construct hanok villages, like that of Bukchon Hanok Village.

Such new created hanok can be classified as follows:

"Authentic hanok" which recreates the appearance and configuration of traditional hanok while adopting aspects of modern facilities and materials. "Authentic hanok" are constructed by carpenters who carry on the legacy of artisans from traditional times.

"Modern hanok" are designed by architects. "Modern hanok" combine traditional forms of hanok with the modern architect's interpretation. The function of the "modern hanok" is not limited to a residence but accommodates diverse usage.

"Korean traditional room" in a modern building, that is, for example, an ondol room that a hotel might offer to extend the usage beyond sleeping facility to a floor or space with multi-purposes.

Mermaid on Haeundae Beach

The Legend of Princess Hwangok

The placard that gives a synopsis about the mermaid is a cultural comparison to another famous mermaid statue. 

I’m always perplexed why a culture would want to compare their own culture to another to the extent that Korea does; it’s almost like Koreans want to be seen as famous, as credible and as historically great as other cultures, but in their comparisons, they come across as having an inferiority complex. And by comparing themselves to something so famous, they put themselves into second-class citizen situations. Korea is unique with a rich history all its own, so the cultural marketing should be to reflect the peculiar differences in Korea to make people want to see and experience something original, exotic, and other-worldly, not something that’s an imitation of something Western of all things. Korea is an Eastern society (which I find very fascinating in its rich Eastern-Western differences), and therefore, with its distinct characteristics, it can market those singular attributes and be very viable in doing so!

Anyway, the mermaid statue is a representation of Sea Princess Hwangok (Topaz), who gazes into the open sea from the point of Dongbaekseom Island off to the west of Haeundae Beach. The sea princess came from the land of Naranda, a mythical sea kingdom of mermaids and tritons, to marry King Eunhye of Mugung, another legendary kingdom. However, estranged from her beloved Naranda where mermaids danced in the waves and dove deep below for pearls and shells, Sea Princess Hwangok missed her home-sea and so the waxing of every moon when her heart was at its heart-breaking fullest, the princess would sit on a rock and mourn the loss of her homeland while clutching a topaz bead given to her by her mother-in-law.

Right after I came to Korea (April 1991) a bunch of friends
and I visited the mourning Sea Princess Hwangok.

14 years after sitting on the shoulders of Sea Princess Hwangok I return to see her. She still eternally mourns the loss of her sea kingdom, but now she is sadder than ever as even visitors are not allowed to go near her mourning presence.

In reference to the legend, the mermaid princess was installed on the rocky shore of Dongbaek Island in 1974. However, after a particularly powerful typhoon in 1987, the statue was destroyed although the upper body was recovered and now is kept in the Busan Museum. Then in 1989 the 2.5m bronze replacement weighing 4 tons was installed on the escarpment, where she still sits in mournful silence clutching her topaz bead.

Blood, Looks, Language: Moderating Ethnicity

The Fulbright presentation on “Blood,” Looks, Language: The Moderating Effects of Race and Ethnicity on Identity was given by Dorry Guerra, a recent graduate of University of Pennsylvania where she majored in Visual Studies. As a Fulbright researcher in Seoul, South Korea, she is conducting research through the Social and Cultural Psychology Lab at Yonsei University. Her PhD interests are perceptions and conceptualizations of race and racial categories; their psychological implications; and multiculturalism, particularly in the context of a demographically changing Korea.

Image source: Sey, Adwoa Nana, Breaking Bad "FeLiNa" Poster, 2013 (adapted). Original artwork

Abstract:

Through a series of social psychology experiments, this project attempts to ascertain the ways in which “native” Koreans (those who are both racially and ethnically Korean) perceive the identity of multiracial and multicultural Koreans. Under the umbrella of “identity,” “race” and “ethnicity” are the variables studied; more specifically, the interaction between “blood” (one’s heritage or ancestry), phenotype (how one looks)—considered in this context as “racial” features—and language— considered in this context as an “ethic” feature—is examined. The purpose of the studies is to understand which of these three variables is privileged when determining the identity of “ambiguous” others, and to understand which “others” are considered most “Korean.”

This project has a cross-cultural component in that a parallel study is to be run in the United States, in order to understand notions of “American-ness” as compared to those of “Korean-ness.” Following previous work (Steffans & Mummendey, 2010) that shows that Europeans rely more on accent information (than on appearance information) when determining what country a person is from, the hypothesis is that American participants will similarly rely more on “language” information (than on “looks” or “blood” information) when determining who is most “American.” On the other hand, the prediction is that Korean participants will rely more on “blood” information (than on “looks” or “language” information) when determining who is most “Korean.”

This research has implications for the psychological and social well-being and acceptance of not only those who are traditionally considered “other” in Korea, but of all Koreans.

Some points of particular interest in the presentation are:

• In 2010, one in three babies born in South Korea were born into multiracial families, that is, one of the parents is Korean and the other is a non-Korean, most typically from China and SE Asia.
• In 2050, 20% of the population in South Korea will be multicultural.
• South Korea is the world's leader in international marriages!

Hypothesis: "blood," looks and language

This focus on blood is grounded on the notion of the 1920s that "blood" is most important. This notion was used to promote solidarity in a time of colonialism ... but this was also a time when Korea was very homogeneous so concepts of blood were very relevant. However, with such a large number of multicultural families being created, the resulting concept of homogeneity of "being Korean" is being challenged, especially as the use or non-use of Korean has become a factor along with non-stereotypical looks of mixed heritage Koreans. 

Earlier studies related to Dorry Guerra's research were conducted by Lee Jae Kab in the early 1990s. Lee Jae Kab did studies on Amerasians; his studies were on the children who were given their Asian blood connections via their mothers.  

Two key phrases that Dorry is exploring are sociability desirability bias (internal and external factors that determine a person's level of acceptance or non-acceptance in a group) and racial essentialism (a sociological factor that results in racial stereotyping and discrimination).

The concepts of "blood" were wooly in the presentation, but then they are wooly in society as everyone seems to have an opinion on what blood is but then in practical terms of interaction, those opinions might not be realized in actual practice ... and this seemed to the case in the presentation too.