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Mural Paintings on Public Buildings from the Japanese Colonial Period

from National Museum of Korea: Quarterly Magazine, vol.52

by National Museum of Korea

from National Museum of Korea: Quarterly Magazine, vol.52, page 26

Article from: National Museum of Korea: Quarterly Magazine, vol.52

Rising of the Roots

ESSAY

By Jung Miyeon Associate Curator of the World Arts Division, National Museum of Korea

Murals have a long history. Charcoal drawings and polychrome paintings have been discovered on the walls of caves at Altamira in Spain that date as early as 36,000 years ago. They serve as a medium that shows how the contemporary people lived and indicates their desires for artistic expression. The ancients also used murals to express religious iconography. The images dating from the fifth century on at Mogao Cave in Dunhuang, China as well as the painting on the Goguryeo tomb murals express Buddhist and Taoist views of the afterlife.

The Japanese have also produced murals starting from ancient times. Takamatsuzuka Tumulus has wall paintings (late seventh century–early eighth century) inspired by Goguryeo tomb murals, while the renowned wall paintings (seventh century) inside the main hall at Horyuji Temple were influenced by Buddhist art in India, Central Asia, and Tang Dynasty in China. At the same time, the contents of the murals have a close correlation with the status and usage of the structure in which they are painted.

The construction of Western-style buildings in Gyeongseong (present-day Seoul) began during the Japanese colonial period. For its Western-style buildings, the Japanese Empire adopted the European tradition of decorating the interior with murals. Murals were installed in the Western-style buildings that were built from the Meiji period 1868–1912 on.

The Japanese Government-General of Korea Building Fig.2, completed in 1926, was among the most prominent of the Western-style structures constructed in Gyeongseong during the colonial era.

**Fig.2 Japanese Government- General of Korea Building demolished in 1995**

It was built on the Gyeongbokgung Palace grounds, occupying the space where Heungnyemun, the south gate to the main throne hall (Geunjeongjeon) courtyard, and Gwanghwamun, the main gate on the southern wall of the palace complex, had stood. Inside, arranged in semicircles on the north and south walls of the central hall, were murals that depicted scenes from the fable of A Fairy and a Woodsman Figs.5 and 7. At first glance, the murals give the impression of people following Indian customs. However, how many of the viewers could have pointed out that Wada Sanzō 1883–1967 , a renowned modern artist in Japan who specialized in Western-style painting, was commissioned to produce this major work?

Let’s go back further in time and examine a different set of murals. During the Japanese colonial period, most of the structures on the Gyeongbokgung Palace were demolished, and the Korean government’s project to reconstruct the palace buildings has been in high gear since the 1990s. Originally, the Crown Prince’s residential compound was located to the east of the main throne hall. The Japanese authorities had that compound removed, and built a renaissance-style twostory stone building Fig.3 on the site to serve as a museum for the Exposition of Joseon Products in Commemoration of the Fifth Year of Japan’s Rule of Joseon in 1915.

**Fig.3 Museum of the Japanese Government- General of Korea**

The stone edifice continued to stand for half a century after Liberation, but few people today can recall that the ceiling had been adorned with a mural painted on canvas. The composition consisted of a rectangle in the center with slightly narrower semicircles attached above and below. The scene was of the Flying Apsaras Fig.1 with a light emerald green sky and pink clouds in the background. She was depicted playing a flute and her robes seemed to flutter in the air. Despite its having been around there for so long, the very existence of the mural has vanished from popular memory.

In December 2018, the NMK’s World Arts Division published Mural Paintings on Public Buildings from the Japanese Colonial Period in the National Museum of Korea as one of its numerous research reports on that historical era. This is the first comprehensive study of artifacts owned by the NMK on murals that occupied the public space in a forgotten former time. It includes seven high-definition photographs (six that cover each part of the two wall murals and one of the ceiling mural), along with commentaries as well as scientific analysis. This is the first opportunity ever for the public to see the quality photo of the Flying Apsaras ceiling mural as well as to learn about the artists Andō Tōichirō 1882–1967 and Tanaka Ryō 1884–1974 , who painted it.

The murals that decorated the interiors of public buildings during the Japanese colonial period visually expressed implicit political messages befitting the function of the building in question. The mural called A Fairy and a Woodsman on the walls of the central hall in the Japanese Government-General of Korea Building embodied Japan’s colonial ideal of naisen yūgō (pursuit of unity between Korea and Japan) Figs.6 and 8. The colonial government hoisted the banner of naisen yūgō and promoted a policy of assimilation, insisting that the Korean and Japanese peoples had sprung from the same roots. In the wake of Korea’s March 1, 1919 Independence Movement, the Japanese Government-General of Korea felt the need to stabilize its colonial governance. The emphasis on harsh military domination shifted to a more liberal culturist rule. Wada Sanzō’s mural was not intended to merely decorate the walls. The paintings were placed on the walls of the central hall in the main building for the colonial government, and they targeted the attention of the Korean people, subjects of the Japanese Empire. The work visually represented the direction of the colonial government’s contemporary ideological ideals.

**Fig.6 North wall of the central hall in the Japanese Government- General of Korea Building; House Journal for the Japanese Government-General of Korea Building; page 19; 1929**

**Fig.8 South wall of the central hall in the Japanese Government- General of Korea Building; House Journal for the Japanese Government-General of Korea Building; page 20; 1929**

The official report on the Exposition of Joseon Products in Commemoration of the Fifth Year of Japan’s Rule of Joseon explains that the Flying Apsaras was modeled after the celestial maiden image on the wall of the Large Tomb of Gangseo, from the Goguryeo Kingdom Fig.4. The government staged the Exposition of Joseon Products in Commemoration of the Fifth Year of Japan’s Rule of Joseon to show people inside and outside the country how much progress had been made since the Japanese had annexed Korea as a colony five years earlier. The museum was meant to display the Japanese Empire’s preservation and promotion of local Joseon products. The building was constructed to tout the accomplishments of the project, Research Project on Cultural Heritage of the Korean Peninsula under the Japanese Colonial Rule, begun in 1909.

**Fig.4 Flying Apsaras from the Large Tomb of Gangseo (reproduction)**

Once the exposition was over, the building was immediately converted into the Museum of the Japanese Government- General of Korea, which was clearly intended to continue showing off the results of the effort for the Research Project on Cultural Heritage of the Korean Peninsula under the Japanese Colonial Rule. The Goguryeo tombs were historical remains benefitting from the state-sponsored project, and the Flying Apsaras was an image taken from one of those old tombs. The designs of the imperial government were unmistakable. The murals installed in public places served as highly effective tools for delivering a powerful political message.

The murals in public buildings from the Japanese colonial period were products of Korea’s unfortunate history as a colony of Japan. These paintings lost their original purpose as a political statement once they were separated from the buildings in which they were displayed. Today, such products from the past demand that Koreans reflect constantly upon their present and future. The Korean-Japanese relationship continues to be marked by confrontation, and now, more than ever, people need to have an accurate grasp of what happened in times past. Mural Paintings on Public Buildings from the Japanese Colonial Period in the National Museum of Korea is recommended reading for those who wish to better understand the complex political, social, and cultural landscapes of this time period in Korea’s history.

This article is from:

National Museum of Korea: Quarterly Magazine, vol.52

by National Museum of Korea