was the most important

Shinto Shinto () is a religion from Japan. Classified as an East Asian religion by scholars of religion, its practitioners often regard it as Japan's indigenous religion and as a nature religion. Scholars sometimes call its practitioners ''Shintois ...

shrine A shrine ( la, scrinium "case or chest for books or papers"; Old French: ''escrin'' "box or case") is a sacred or holy sacred space, space dedicated to a specific deity, ancestor worship, ancestor, hero, martyr, saint, Daemon (mythology), daem ...

during the Japanese colonial period in Korea. It was built in 1925 in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

(then called Keijō) and destroyed soon after the end of colonial rule in 1945. The famous architect and architectural historian

Itō Chūta was a Japanese architect, architectural historian, and critic. He is recognized as the leading architect and architectural theorist of early 20th-century Imperial Japan. Biography Second son of a doctor in Yonezawa, present-day Yamagata Prefectu ...

, also responsible for

Meiji Jingū , is a Shinto shrine in Shibuya, Tokyo, that is dedicated to the deified spirits of Emperor Meiji and his wife, Empress Shōken. The shrine does not contain the emperor's grave, which is located at Fushimi-ku, Kyoto#Sights, Fushimi-momoyama, sout ...

, contributed to its planning. The former site of the shrine is now part of

Namsan Park Officially Namsan Mountain or Mount Namsan, lit. "South Mountain") is a -high peak in Jung-gu, Seoul, South Korea. Although known as Mongmyeoksan, or 목멱산 / in the past, it is now commonly referred to as Mt. Namsan. It offers some hiking ...

Background

After the annexation of Korea in 1910, the Japanese government embarked upon a policy of

Japanization Japanization, Japanisation or Japanification is the process by which Japanese culture dominates, assimilates, or influences other cultures. According to ''The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language'', "To japanize" means "To make ...

. This included worship at Shintō shrines, as much a political expression of patriotism as a religious act. From 1925, school pupils were required to attend

Shinto shrines A is a structure whose main purpose is to house ("enshrine") one or more ''kami'', the deities of the Shinto religion. Overview Structurally, a Shinto shrine typically comprises several buildings. The '' honden''Also called (本殿, meani ...

, and in 1935 it became compulsory for university students and government employees to attend Shinto ceremonies. By 1945, there were a total of 1,140 shrines in Korea associated with

State Shinto was Imperial Japan's ideological use of the Japanese folk religion and traditions of Shinto. The state exercised control of shrine finances and training regimes for priests to strongly encourage Shinto practices that emphasized the Emperor as ...

. was an advocate for attempting to use the concept of to syncretize Japanese and Korean religion. Some people identified Dangun with

Susanoo-no-Mikoto __FORCETOC__ Susanoo (; historical orthography: , ) is a in Japanese mythology. The younger brother of Amaterasu, goddess of the sun and mythical ancestress of the Japanese imperial line, he is a multifaceted deity with contradictory charac ...

, the government not wanting to take a stand on this enshrined the generic Okunitama at Chōsen Jingu so believers could have their own interpretations. was a strong advocate of these positions and his advocacy was associated with the enshrinement of Okunitama at both Chōsen Jingu, and . State authorities at Chōsen Jingu however never even allowed for Okunitama to be called "Chosen Okunitama" and indigenous Dangun traditions were suppressed in favor of worshipping

Amaterasu Amaterasu, also known as Amaterasu Ōmikami () or Ōhirume no Muchi no Kami (), is the goddess of the sun in Japanese mythology. One of the major deities (''kami'') of Shinto, she is also portrayed in Japan's earliest literary texts, the ''Kojik ...

in the shrine.

History

The shrine was constructed in 1925, and an enshrinement ceremony held in October. It was dedicated to

and

Emperor Meiji , also called or , was the 122nd emperor of Japan according to the traditional order of succession. Reigning from 13 February 1867 to his death, he was the first monarch of the Empire of Japan and presided over the Meiji era. He was the figur ...

. It was constructed in the shinmei-zukuri style of Ise Jingū. Worship at the shrine increased in the 1930s after the government began forcing people to attend. This made the shrine and others a target of resentment; within days of Korea's liberation in 1945, many shrines were burnt down. An ethnic Korean group proposed to take over Okunitama worship after the war and convert the shrine to one worshipping Dangun but was denied by the new government. also proposed a system where Japanese people in the colonies were seen as Amatsukami and natives were seen as

Kunitsukami Kunitsukami (国つ神, 国津神) are the kami of the land that live in tsuchi. They were contrasted from the Amatsukami, although modern Shinto no longer makes the distinction between Amatsukami and Kunitsukami. According to Yijiang Zhong the ...

. After the announcement of Japan's surrender on August 15, a ceremony was held that afternoon to remove the enshrined deities. The shrine was considered by the United States Army Military Government in Korea to be "enemy property". Chōsen Jingū was demolished in October 1945. The former site of the shrine is now part of

. In 1970 the "Patriot An Jung-geun Memorial Hall" was constructed on the site of the former shrine, in honour of

An Jung-geun Ahn Jung-geun, sometimes spelled Ahn Joong-keun (; 2 September 1879 – 26 March 1910; baptismal name: Thomas Ahn ), was a Korean-independence activist, nationalist, and pan-Asianist. He is famous for assassination of Itō Hirobumi, the first ...

, the assassin of

Itō Hirobumi was a Japanese politician and statesman who served as the first Prime Minister of Japan. He was also a leading member of the ''genrō'', a group of senior statesmen that dictated Japanese policy during the Meiji era. A London-educated samur ...

, the first Japanese Resident-General. A statue of another independence activist,

Kim Ku Kim Gu (, ; August 29, 1876 – June 26, 1949), also known by his pen name Baekbeom (백범; ), was a Korean statesman. He was the sixth, ninth, and president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea; a leader of the Korean indepen ...

, was also erected on the spot.

Description

The shrine ran along a straight axis of around . The main shrine was at the far end away from the entrance.

Gallery

References

External links