창경원 밤 벚꽃놀이와 夜櫻 (Night Cherry Blossoms Festival and Yojakura(夜櫻) at Changgyeong Garden)

서지정보

· 발행기관 : 한국근현대미술사학회(구 한국근대미술사학회)
· 수록지 정보 : 한국근현대미술사학(구 한국근대미술사학) / 19호 / 139 ~ 162페이지
· 저자명 : 김현숙

초록

During the Japanese colonial rule of Korea, the cherry blossoms of Changgyeong Garden represented spring as the new landscape of the year in Gyeongseong (Seoul) to such an extent that there was an expression, “Spring is Chang- gyeong Garden’s cherry blossoms.” The Garden’s Night Cherry Blossoms Festival, with the arrangement of the museum, zoo, and botanical garden in the ancient palace of the Joseon Dynasty that had been turned into a public amusement park, was a government operated large-scale cultural event that visitors came to see by paying an entrance fee. The Festival, which was carried out annually from 1924 to 1945, displayed hundreds of electric lights and a brilliant spectacle in the form of a 17m neon tower, and at the banquet hall there were various kinds of perform- ances. When the population of Gyeongseong recorded in the annual statistical report of the Japanese colonial government and the size of the Festival visitors are roughly compared, in 1924 when the Festival began the population was around 216,000 and there were about 130,000 visitors, in 1930, about 355,000 people and about 200,000 visitors, in 1934, about 394,000 people and about 300,000 visitors.
The visitors to the Festival represented a multiple assortment of positions, classes, genders, and races within the boundaries of pre-modern and modern people, colonists and the colonized. Because of this, there was a fierce desire for racial, cultural, class, and gender “distinction” among the people within the Festival space. It is also worth noting that, even though enormous crowds gathered to see the Festival every year, people still considered “azalea” or “peach blossom” the flower that represented spring in Joseon. Even though cherry blossoms had been growing in Korea before the Japanese colonial period, there are no Korean poems or folk songs that have cherry blossom as subject, and even during the colonial period, literature or art rarely dealt with cherry blossoms.
If the Japanese view of cherry blossoms focused on the sorrow of life’s transience and on “Japan as the country of sakura (cherry blossoms),” to Koreans cherry blossoms were never far removed from being a seasonal interest, a “brightly blossoming splendid spring flower.” Unlike the Japanese who sat long under the cherry blossom trees and enjoyed singing, dancing, and drinking, Koreans’ view of the flower was generally expressed in way they moved quickly among the flowers, looking for interesting events and people, or enjoying the performances at Yeonmugwan (banquet hall).
Through this process, the common name of cherry blossoms, which is “beotggot” in Korean, became the Japanese “sakura” and the flower was also often called “aeng” according to the sound of its Chinese character “櫻.” The flower, one of many spring flowers that had never received much attention before, began to be called “beotggot/ sakura/aeng” in Korea/Japan, being associated with the respective countries, and the space that provided a carnival-like subversion within which those distinctions disappeared can be noted as an example of how the culture of the colonizing country can become a possession of the colonized people.

영어초록

During the Japanese colonial rule of Korea, the cherry blossoms of Changgyeong Garden represented spring as the new landscape of the year in Gyeongseong (Seoul) to such an extent that there was an expression, “Spring is Chang- gyeong Garden’s cherry blossoms.” The Garden’s Night Cherry Blossoms Festival, with the arrangement of the museum, zoo, and botanical garden in the ancient palace of the Joseon Dynasty that had been turned into a public amusement park, was a government operated large-scale cultural event that visitors came to see by paying an entrance fee. The Festival, which was carried out annually from 1924 to 1945, displayed hundreds of electric lights and a brilliant spectacle in the form of a 17m neon tower, and at the banquet hall there were various kinds of perform- ances. When the population of Gyeongseong recorded in the annual statistical report of the Japanese colonial government and the size of the Festival visitors are roughly compared, in 1924 when the Festival began the population was around 216,000 and there were about 130,000 visitors, in 1930, about 355,000 people and about 200,000 visitors, in 1934, about 394,000 people and about 300,000 visitors.
The visitors to the Festival represented a multiple assortment of positions, classes, genders, and races within the boundaries of pre-modern and modern people, colonists and the colonized. Because of this, there was a fierce desire for racial, cultural, class, and gender “distinction” among the people within the Festival space. It is also worth noting that, even though enormous crowds gathered to see the Festival every year, people still considered “azalea” or “peach blossom” the flower that represented spring in Joseon. Even though cherry blossoms had been growing in Korea before the Japanese colonial period, there are no Korean poems or folk songs that have cherry blossom as subject, and even during the colonial period, literature or art rarely dealt with cherry blossoms.
If the Japanese view of cherry blossoms focused on the sorrow of life’s transience and on “Japan as the country of sakura (cherry blossoms),” to Koreans cherry blossoms were never far removed from being a seasonal interest, a “brightly blossoming splendid spring flower.” Unlike the Japanese who sat long under the cherry blossom trees and enjoyed singing, dancing, and drinking, Koreans’ view of the flower was generally expressed in way they moved quickly among the flowers, looking for interesting events and people, or enjoying the performances at Yeonmugwan (banquet hall).
Through this process, the common name of cherry blossoms, which is “beotggot” in Korean, became the Japanese “sakura” and the flower was also often called “aeng” according to the sound of its Chinese character “櫻.” The flower, one of many spring flowers that had never received much attention before, began to be called “beotggot/ sakura/aeng” in Korea/Japan, being associated with the respective countries, and the space that provided a carnival-like subversion within which those distinctions disappeared can be noted as an example of how the culture of the colonizing country can become a possession of the colonized people.

참고자료

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