DIY Korean Cultural Repatriation

[Mulboyne]

Kakurin-ji Hondo
S Koreans arrested for stealing from Japanese temples
Prosecutors said 55-year-old fortuneteller Kim Chung Shik and his 53-year-old neighbor are suspected of stealing eight artifacts worth 1.75 billion won ($1.5 million) from the Kakurin-ji temple in Kakogawa, Hyogo Prefecture, in July 2002. Kim claimed his motivation was to recover Korean cultural assets stolen by Japan during its invasion of Korea in 1592 and its colonial occupation from 1910 to 1945. (Kyodo News)

One of the posters at Japan Today gives an interesting link to an article from Time Magazine in 2002.
Time: A Legacy Lost
To understand the depth of Korean anger, take a stroll through the peaceful, leafy grounds of Yasukuni Shrine in Tokyo, where Japanese soldiers who died in battle are honored. With a number of war criminals enshrined there as well, it is the most infamous symbol of Japanese militarism. Koreans were outraged when Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi paid his respects at the shrine last August, but this place is a raw wound for Koreans for another reason, too. Tucked away in a remote corner of the grounds, behind a heavy, locked iron gate, is a simple tombstone-shaped tablet, just over 2 m high. Crafted in October 1709, it commemorates Korea's victory over invading Japanese troops in the late 16th century. How did the memorial make its way from what is now North Korea to this controversial shrine? After the Russo-Japanese War, an army major general presented it to the Emperor as a token of Japan's victory. "It is a shocking thing that this memorial is at Yasukuni, of all places," says Masahiro Saotome, a professor of Korean history at the University of Tokyo. "Understandably, it is very annoying to Koreans."

[Taro Toporific]

....bad reporting again.
DID THE KAKURIN-JI TEMPLE HAVE KOREAN ITEMS OR NOT?
What is meant by "Kim claimed his motivation was to recover Korean cultural assets stolen by Japan"

Stolen art found in temple
Joongang Daily.
November 01, 2004 --- A Buddhist painting that had been missing for two years after being smuggled out of Japan in 2002 has turned up at a small temple in Daegu, prosecutors said yesterday.
Prosecutors said a 53-year-old Korean shaman stole the painting from a temple in Hyogo Prefecture, Japan, claiming that he was "bringing back a painting looted during the Japan's invasion of Korea in 1592.".....
....If the judge rules that the painting was donated under the law as a "bona fide acquisition," it stays in Daegu. The Japanese temple would have to file a civil suit to get it back.
Korean scholars say the painting originates from Korea's Goryeo Dynasty; the Japanese temple claims that the artifact is from China's Ming Dynasty.

[Mulboyne]

Japan Today: Japanese man sentenced to life in China for smuggling antiques
SHANGHAI — A 62-year-old Japanese man has been sentenced to life in prison in China for trying to smuggle antiques into Japan, a local newspaper reported Friday. The man tried to smuggle fragments of precious china and other antiques from Dalian to Japan, the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post said.

The man purchased about 190 antique items, including some banned from being taken out of China, for about 100-390 yen each, the paper said. In December 2001, a Chinese local court sentenced him to life in prison, judging the man sought to profit from smuggling the antiques. (Kyodo News)

[Taro Toporific]

More on the "Korean Cultural Repatriation" problem...

Stolen treasure returned home
insight.blogzine, koreaherald.co.kr / November 08, 2004
For centuries, a Korean Buddhist painting from the Goryeo Dynasty was kept in Kakurinji Temple in central Japan, wrongly labeled as Chinese art.
Today, the forgotten 13th century artwork, the Amitabha Triad, which two Koreans allegedly stole from the temple in 2000, is believed to be in a Buddhist temple near Daegu, 300 kilometers south of Seoul, according to Korean prosecutors.
The authorities tracked down each person who had custody of the painting, "and we finally secured a statement from the last person that he donated it to a temple in Daegu," prosecutors said.
Temple officials admit that they received the painting, but they have refused to hand it over to the authorities for further investigation," the prosecutors said. ...
"artists, art buffs, historians -- grad students --", you might want to attend any of these sessions said the email. So I am sounding the bugle. Please register if you have the time and interest. You can contact any of the organizations below directly. The symposium is not up yet on the HP, but it should be up anytime soon, give or take a week...

[Taro Toporific]

stumbled across advance notice of a Tokyo conference dealing with this "Korean Cultural Repatriation" problem...

Via the insight.blogzine, Sunday, November 07, 2004

insight.blogzine wrote:

Tainted Treasures: November 27-29, 2004

"artists, art buffs, historians -- grad students --", you might want to attend any of these sessions said the email. So I am sounding the bugle. Please register if you have the time and interest. You can contact any of the organizations below directly. The symposium is not up yet on the HP, but it should be up anytime soon, give or take a week...

Tainted Treasures – in search of solutions Korean cultural objects in Japan and art-related disputes in postwar Europe

A workshop organized jointly by :
The Asia Foundation, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung and Tokyo Keizai University
November 27-29, 2004

Unknown to the general public, thousands of Korean art and cultural treasures, many brought to Japan when the Korean peninsula was a Japanese colony, are gathering dust in museums, universities and private collections in Japan. In spite of the recent rise in positive feelings toward South Korea in Japan, resentment among Koreans about the removal of Korean art objects – celadon china, rare books, Buddhist paintings, stone statuary, as well as the entire contents of royal tombs – remains an issue blocking regional reconciliation about the past.

[Mulboyne]

Asahi: Who is the rightful owner of works looted centuries ago?
Divergent views have emerged on both sides of the Korean Strait over three South Koreans accused of stealing valuable artworks from three temples in Japan. Temple officials say the three are simply greedy thieves with a galling lack of respect for institutions set up to spread goodwill. But in South Korea, the three are widely seen as patriots who have corrected a centuries-old wrong committed by Japanese invaders. One suspect says he simply wanted to return stolen artworks to their homeland.
...In April 2003, Hyogo prefectural police arrested the younger brother and recovered seven pieces taken from Kakurinji-but not the Amida triad scroll. The seven items were returned to the temple. On a request for cooperation from Hyogo prefectural police, Seoul prosecutors arrested the other two in October. The older brother told investigators in South Korea that all he wanted to do was take back cultural artifacts belonging to his country that had been looted by Japan. He said he read that many Buddhist paintings from the Koryo Period were taken to Japan.
But the brother did gain a profit from his patriotic efforts, investigators said. He brought the Amida triad scroll back to South Korea and sold it to an art dealer for 110 million won (10.5 million yen). Investigators later found the scroll was resold to a South Korean entrepreneur for 400 million won. The artwork passed through another man's hands before being donated to a priest at a small temple in Taegu.
On Nov. 2, prosecutors searched the temple, but found nothing. Temple officials said the scroll had been stolen, but sources said prosecutors suspect temple officials are hiding the scroll. Yet, they have no evidence to back up the allegation...Legally, South Koreans who buy works without knowing they are stolen can claim ownership.
Temple officials visited Seoul in November and asked prosecutors for help in the return of the scroll. "While public sentiment in South Korea is understandable considering the history of colonial domination of the peninsula, the arguments of the thieves who sold the art for money make no sense," Miki said

Stolen Amida triad scroll