Forms of preserving the traditional musical art of Korea during the period of Japanese occupation

The article is devoted to the topic of the traditional layer of culture, which is usually subjected to destruction by the occupiers, introducing their religion and philosophy, wishing to subordinate all spheres of life to their orders. This leads to tragic losses of many pieces of art evidence of any kind. The colonial conquest of Korea by the Japanese Empire led to several problems with the preservation of musical art, due to the huge amount of imported Japanese and European music, the solution of which led to special forms of preservation of information, namely, the transfer of national musical art into the hands of kisaeng.

Keywords: preservation of art, musical art, colonial Korea, kisaeng, Japanese occupation.

The period of Japanese occupation is characterized by a tough policy, on the one hand, the imposition of Shintoism, the Japanese language, their culture at the state level, and, on the other hand, European influence on public life — all this led to a trend of rapid loss of traditional Korean art. Works of ritual music were destroyed, traditional musical instruments playing stopped, folk theatrical forms gradually disappeared, traditional theatrical art was forgotten, which led to an awareness of the problem of preserving traditional art and unexpected forms of solving the problem.

Due to European influence, music began to be divided into two areas: gugak (국악, national music) and yangak (양악, European music). «The policy of forced assimilation and strangulation of the original Korean culture led to the fact that by 1917 in the country, which by the end of the previous century had about 750 musicians performing national music, there were no more than 50 of them left»[1] [3, p. 117].

Concerned about the sharp decline in the number of specialists, the loss of ritual songs, and the rapid replacement of national knowledge with European musical culture, the musicians created courses that graduated about 130 professional musicians from 1919 to 1945 and also reformed Changakwon (장악원, feudal music chamber), which was on the verge of decline in the 1890s, responsible for all matters related to music and dance (such as proofreading the order of notes) performed at the royal court during the Joseon Dynasty. Previously, he performed ritual and ceremonial music, but in 1897, having fallen into decline, he was assigned to a funeral home in the palace, where he became obsolete. In 1911 he started working again in full force, teaching students on the materials of traditional national music that they had saved. Also in 1911, the Joseon Chongak (조선정악) Training Center was organized to distinguish between imported European works and train Western and Korean music performers.

However, the most unusual and special form of preserving traditional music turned out to be the transfer into the hands of kisaeng (기생).

Kisaeng or kinyo were courtesans seriously trained in dancing, singing, music and poetry. They could provide sexual services for money, but this was not their main goal. Their duties included keeping up the conversation on any topic, pouring wine and entertaining guests. Kisaengs were also required to accompany the ambassadors of China and Japan on trips around the country, so they always knew perfectly well everything that was happening in Korea, both political and economic.

This type of activity originated in the period of the state of Goryeo (918–1392) and later, after the period of Japanese occupation, it ceased to exist in the form in which it was created. Kisaengs in Goryeo was court artists, sewing clothes and providing medical care, but with the advent of the Joseon Dynasty (1392–1910), their status changed dramatically, turned into the status of a slave. Depending on the status, some kisaeng’s houses became government slaves.

In 1894, the Gabo reform recognized Korea as completely independent (from formal dependence on the Chinese Qin dynasty), the absolute power of the king was established, slavery and the division of society into classes were abolished, the Korean language was officially used in the documents, but kisaengs continued to work as before. In 1908, when the conquests of the Japanese Empire were carried out throughout the Korean Peninsula, the attitude of the authorities towards this stratum of society changed with the issuance of decrees "기생단속령" (Order for the supervision of kisaengs) and "창기단속령" (Order for the supervision of prostitutes), who separated the concepts of «kisaeng» and «prostitution» at the state level. «The status of kisaengs descended to that of a common prostitute, and the Japanese forced them to undergo mandatory health screenings to check for sexually transmitted diseases. Not only was this representative of the control that the Japanese exerted over Korean citizens, but it is indicative of the initial Japanese viewpoint that they were not talented performers, but unclean prostitutes». [7, c. 9]

This entailed many problems, one of which was the loss of the status of the guardians of the national culture. To work kisaengs, one had to register with the National Police Agency, which led to the formation of trade unions, which later formed kwonbong (권번, kisaeng’s brokers) throughout the country.

However, they not only preserved the traditional national musical art but also contributed to its spread throughout the country, not letting them forget about the vast cultural layer. In addition to the kisaengs cards that the Japanese loved, which were sold in large quantities, their photographs appeared in local newspapers.

Musical art during the period of Japanese occupation becomes a whole commercial industry, which perfectly understood what the public needed and promoted what was needed. Thus, the musical performances of kisaengs with national songs such as "꽃갓흔 순정" (Sincere Love of a Fluttering Flower), "기생 수첩" (Kisaeng’s Notebook) and "눈물의 시집" (Collection of Tears Poems) became popular and became famous and popular thanks to Kisaeng Lee Ok Ran. So, her recordings of songs have survived to this day, for example, «Kisaeng’s Notebook» of 1938.

This is an unusual combination of European trends in the melody performed on traditional instruments, with national motives and the extraordinary, traditional singing of Lee Ok Ran. The words in the song «Kisaeng’s Notebook» personify everything that happened to them at that time:

허크러져 상한 가슴 술로써

(The soul disintegrates like a drink)

겨우 웃는 밤 이 한밤이 아아아~

(The night barely smiles, deep night ah-ah-ah~)

어찌 이리도 길단 말이냐

(Why are you so long?)

칠보단장(七寶丹粧) 어데 가고

노류장화(路柳墻花) 가엾

(The pathetic easiest woman)

내 신세가 아아아~

(This is my circumstance ah-ah-ah~)

어찌 이리도 안타까우냐

(Why so unhappy?)

밤거리에 흩어지는

(Diverging in different directions along the dark street)

길을 잃은 꽃봉(송)이

(The bud has lost its way)

(Winding path ah-ah-ah~)

어찌 이리도 험상궂으냐

(Why so nasty?)

Kisaengs looked to record companies and radio, where he supported songs strongly and highly, held under the same record companies, and attracted newspaper competitions such as the Joseon Song and Dance Competition, the Eight Provinces Singing Master Competition, etc., attracting everyone more and more attention is paid to the discovery of the arts, which during the period of Japanese occupation ceased to be indebted to vehicles under the onslaught of Japanese and European research that came.

Conclusion

The problem of preserving a vast national layer of culture and art leads to various solutions to this issue. A special form of preservation of Korean musical art was the transfer to educational and scientific centers and, in particular, kisaengs of storing knowledge, teaching and distributing it throughout the country. Throughout Japanese occupation, kisaengs were scrupulously taught to play the national instruments, traditional dances such as the sword dance, singing, based on the songs of which new directions began to appear. They performed in public, recorded in record companies, appeared on the radio, which not only found wide distribution during this historical period but also helped to keep records to this day.

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[1] «Политика насильственной ассимиляции и удушения самобытной корейской культуры привела к тому, что к 1917 г. в стране, насчитывавшей к концу предыдущего века около 750 музыкантов – исполнителей национальной музыки, их осталось не более 50» [3, с. 117].