NORTHEAST ASIAN HISTORY FOUNDATION 07/2022
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Park Han-Min, Researcher, Dokdo Research Institute
Korean Name Found in the Alumni Records of a School in Kyoto
There is a place called Nijo Castle in Kyoto, Japan. Take the subway from there and go one more stop to the west on the Tozai Line. You will arrive at Kyoto Municipal Saikyo Junior High School. The predecessor of this school was the Kyoto School of Commerce, established in 1886. The “Fiftieth Anniversary Book,” published in 1936, includes an article called “The Brief History of the Fifty Years of the First School of Commerce in Kyoto,” which summarizes the school’s history during the Meiji period by period. The name “Yasujiro Ueda” appears at the beginning of this article as the editor-in-chief and a graduate of Kyoto School of Commerce. The article on the history of commercial schools in the Kyoto area containing a Japanese name written in Korean naturally raises the question, “Why is it written in Hangul, the Korean alphabet?” since, unless the author has a particular story or memory, there is no reason to write his name in Korean at the beginning of the article.
There are hints throughout the book that can help you guess why something written in Korean could be included in the book, dealing with the 50-year history of the Kyoto School of Commerce. If you go through the list of teachers who served at the Kyoto School of Commerce since 1886, you will find ‘Ahn Yeong-jung,’ who was employed as a teacher in April 1895. He retired on September 21, 1898. The name appears once again on the list of names. This time, it was written that he served from January 18, 1900, to March 11, 1903. It can be challenging to determine your nationality solely based on Chinese characters in a name. Yasujiro Ueda, the author of the aforementioned article, “The Brief History of the Fifty Years of the First School of Commerce in Kyoto,” introduced an anecdote, saying that he learned the Korean language by “studying under the late Korean teacher Ahn Yeong-jung.” The anecdote also includes people related to Ahn Yeong-jung, such as Park Yeong-hyo, Woo Beom-seon, Hwang-cheol, and others who were exiled to Japan during the Korean Empire. It introduced Ahn Yeong-jung as ‘Park Yeong-hyo’s secretary’ who graduated from a Japanese school and lived in Kyoto as a language teacher. I tried to deal with who this little-known person was in the modern relationship between Korea and Japan.
Graduating from Japanese School and Going Over to Japan
The resume written and sealed by Ahn Yeong-jung remains in Japan. The documents he submitted to the school when he was employed as a Korean language teacher at Kyoto School of Commerce are kept in an institution called Kyoto Institute, Library, and Archives. According to his resume, Ahn Yeong-jung was born on July 23, 1868, in Suha-dong, in the southern part of Gyeongseong (currently Suha-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul). As a child, he studied Chinese classics for nine years. In August 1891, he entered a Japanese language school and began to learn Japanese, graduating after completing a four-year course. There are some errors in the part of the resume on the official work experience. According to the records of the Joseon Dynasty, it was August 8, 1894, when Ahn Yeong-jung was appointed as an administrator of the Ministry of Home Affairs. Shortly afterward, he was transferred to the Ministry of Education. At this time, the Sino-Japanese War broke out, and the Joseon government began to promote the Gabo Reform of 1894 when he entered government service. The following year, he was appointed an assistant translator at the Korean Legation in Japan. Records indicate that he was issued a ‘jipjo,’ a type of travel document, from the Joseon government to visit Kyoto. These two are not included in the handwritten resume. Looking at his future career, he submitted his resignation letter without proceeding to this post at the Korean Legation in Japan.
Commercial schools that opened all across Japan during this period needed teachers who could teach foreign languages as they included Korean and Chinese in the curriculum. In February 1895, the Kyoto School of Commerce sent a proposal to Kyoto to revise the curriculum to enable students to learn Chinese and Korean, centering on conversation and writing. The Kyoto Government put this revision bill up for approval by the Ministry of Education and obtained permission. The revision was finally put into effect on April 1. Accordingly, commercial school students could choose Chinese or Korean according to their preference and study for three hours in each grade. Ahn Yeong-jung submitted his resume on April 14, two weeks after the revision was enacted. This was a case where a foreign language teacher was invited immediately following the reorganization of the school system.
Exchange while Working at Kyoto School of Commerce and Park Yeong-hyo
While teaching at Kyoto School of Commerce, Ahn Yeong-jung stayed at the same place as his co-worker Ite Rikinosuke (an educator from Kyoto). He also welcomed and guided people from Joseon. In October 1895, when Ambassador Extraordinary Lee Jae-sun visited the Kansai region, Ahn Yeong-jung traveled from Kyoto to Kobe to guide him through the region and provide interpretation. He even traveled to Shimonoseki to meet students who had come to Japan to learn sericulture and textiles. He taught Japanese to those who came to Kyoto at the recommendation of his older brother Ahn Gi-jung. He helped many Koreans who came to him, but he never neglected his teaching career at the Kyoto School of Commerce. He was so sincere that he was evaluated as "In charge of teaching a language at the school of commerce in our prefecture, he is fully engaged in his duties."
While Ahn Yeong-jung was in Kyoto, Kyoto Printing Co., Ltd. published the world travel book 『Hwangu Eumcho』, written by Kim Deuk-ryeon, an attendant of the envoy Min Young-hwan, who returned from the coronation ceremony of the Russian emperor. The diplomatic trip was from April to October 1896, and the book was published in August of the following year. The editor and publisher of the book were Ite Rikinosuke. Considering that Ahn Yeong-jung and Ite Rikinosuke were co-workers and lived in the same boarding house, Ahn Yeong-jung could have been a reason why Kim Deuk-ryun's work was published in Kyoto.
Ahn Yeong-jung helped Park Yeong-hyo considerably while traveling with him. Park was in exile in Japan at the time. As Park Yeong-hyo decided to return to Korea, on September 6, 1898, Ahn Yeong-jung resigned from the school, saying that he had to return to Korea for personal reasons. Colleagues at Kyoto School of Commerce held a farewell party for Ahn Yeong-jung. They said they were "unfortunate" to send Ahn Yeong-jung, who decided to return home with Park Yeong-hyo. They added, “We cannot really hold back the feeling of parting as the teachers of the school.’e Another teacher said that Ahn Yeong-jung was “employed by the school, trained a number of students well, and gave a lot of help to Kyoto directly and indirectly that I thank him deeply on behalf of the citizens of Kyoto.” Ahn Yeong-jung said, "It is a pity that I cannot express even one-tenth of my impression because I am not speaking in my native language I learned naturally," appreciating those who prepared the farewell party. It is a part where you can realize how he interacted with Japanese teachers while serving as a Korean language teacher at Kyoto School of Commerce. This article was published in the alumni association magazine published by Kyoto School of Commerce.
Ahn Yeong-jung left Kobe with Park Yeong-hyo on October 3 and moved to Shimonoseki. There, he frequently contacted other Korean exiles to understand the political trends inside the Korean Empire, where the independence association's political movement was in full swing. The Japanese officials, who were constantly spying on the moves of Korean refugees, made notes about Ahn Yeong-jung, “He knows very well about Japan’s situation. There were times when we had problems with Park Yeong-hyo without him.” This suggests that Park Yeong-hyo relied heavily on Ahn Yeong-jung, who knew very well about local circumstances and the language. The Japanese government, keenly aware of the situation in Korea and the moves of refugees, ordered Park Yeong-hyo and other refugees to move to places other than Kyushu on the pretext of protection. Unlike other refugees, Ahn Yeong-jung could return home because he had never been directly involved in political conspiracy cases.
Publication of Korean Language Textbook, Essence of Language Teaching Experience
Unlike in Japan, Ahn Yeong-jung, who returned to Korea, worked as a Japanese language teacher at a private school called Nakyeong School in Korea. In the early 1900s, Ahn Yeong-jung moved back to Japan. After entering Kyoto via Kobe, Ahn Yeong-jung met with Kyoto School of Commerce officials and asked them to hire him again as a Korean language teacher. On January 18, 1900, Ahn Yeong-jung was hired again as a Kyoto School of Commerce teacher. From then on, he stayed in Kyoto for about three years until March 11, 1903. Like when he was hired for the first time, Ahn Yeong-jung took care of Park Yeong-hyo, who was staying in Kobe, by traveling from Kyoto. In addition, Korean refugees and international students who came to Kyoto for various purposes continued to visit Ahn Yeong-jung. Some people came and asked him to introduce them to the Kyoto Textile Dyeing Association to learn the work.
Park Yeong-hyo founded Joilsinsuk while in exile. To collect funds to operate this place, he traveled around Japan, meeting influential locals and selling writings to them. Ahn Yeong-jung accompanied him as far as Matsue in Shimane Prefecture. Perhaps because of this, Ahn Yeong-jung moved to Matsue School of Commerce and worked as a Korean language teacher for two years, from 1903 to 1905, after retiring from Kyoto School of Commerce. After his contract expired, he moved to Nagasaki, where he taught Korean as a temporary teacher at the Higher School of Commerce (predecessor to present Nagasaki University) from September 1905 to February 1907. While staying in this region, Ahn Yeong-jung compiled the know-how he developed while teaching Korean to students in Kyoto, Matsue, and Nagasaki into a single language textbook. The book was published in 1906 in 『Korean Language』.
Ahn Yeong-jung returned to Korea in 1907. He died in Busan on November 20, 1910, while continuing to accompany Park Yeong-hyo, who returned to Korea with him. Coincidentally, the Kyoto School of Commerce abolished the Korean language course shortly after his retirement. During the modern period, Ahn Yeong-jung moved to Japan and left his mark by teaching Korean to Japanese people and writing a textbook while working as a Korean language teacher at a commercial school. However, as he died young, at the age of 42, his services as a bridge for Korean and Japanese exchange in Kyoto became forgotten.
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