Shinto Shrines and Urban Reconstruction of Seoul Focusing on Chosen Jingu Project

This paper has made clear a contrast between the initial and the second survey on the site for Chosen Jingu. The former was characterized by its contextualism to assimilate the shrine to the geography and the history of Japanese society constituted in Seoul over the decades. This resulted in the selection at Wajodai, the northern slope of Namsan. This tunnel-visioned way of thinking was criticized by Chuta Ito who undertook the second survey. Ito reaffirmed the principle that Chosen Jingu would be the general shrine of whole Chosen. He selected Hanyang Park, the western ridge of the Namsan. When the shrine was to built there, it could project its aspect forward from the hill and realize a visual correspondence with the city including Ryuzan. It also could have physical connection to the General Government Office (built in front of the Gyeonbokgung in 1926) through the north-south urban axis created by the urban renewal projects and decorated by the public edifices built between 1925 and 1926. On the other hand, as early as 1911 after Annexation, the existing state rituals performed by the Chosen Dynasty were deprived of public status or room for survival because of their similar characteristics to the State Shinto. Keijo Jinja (originally built in the 1890s as a shrine for Japanese residents), replacing these royal rituals, began to welcome visits of not only commoners, but also Japanese rulers and even the royal family of Chosen. In 1925， Chosen Jingu finally obtained the role of state shrine and the purpose of Keijo Jinja was restricted as a role of the local shrine of Keijo. It involved Korean citizens in ujiko organization in 1926 and the reconstruction project was decided in the same year (completed in 1929). Through this process, Chosen Jingu and Keijo Jinja was structurally incorporated in the city, occupying the right place according to their respective definitions in the system of State Shinto, and thus the physical configuration of politico-religious order was established at the same time. In this sense, the project" to rebuild Seoul into a colonial capital city was completed by the late 1920s. From around 1935， however, the situation changed again. The Japanese government began to expect every shrine to serve to mobilize people into war. keijo Jinja was upgraded to the state shrine (ranked as the Kokuhei-shosha 國幣小社 the Small National Shrine) and the project was decided in around 1935 to expand the scope of its precinct from 23，500m2(data from 1932) to 156,600m2. Furthermore, another shrine called Keijo Gokoku Jinja was founded in 1943 on southwest slope of Namsan facing the extensive Imperial Army Base of Ryuzan district. Three shrines in Keijo were now all under the direct state management. Chuta Ito was already absent from the center state of state shrine projects and the strengthened power of government engineers was thrown into these projects. Namsan and city of Keijo were certainly changing again. The process in wartime is, however, not the subject of the paper.