Changes in funerary rites and burial practices in Modern Korea (1876–1945)

Before Korea opened its ports in 1876, funerary customs and burial practices were strongly influenced by Confucianism and geomancy. Wailing was systematized, and the sacred nature of ancestral bones allowed only for earth burial, preferably in spots that were selected for their geomantic energy. Japan, extending its influence in Korea steadily up to full annexation in 1910, intensely challenged Korean burial practices in an attempt to align them with Japanese procedures. In the name of modernization, public cemeteries and cremation were introduced, while private graveyards were forcefully removed. This article attempts to trace these changes and evaluate their impact in Modern Korea. First, the situation at the advent of Modern Korea will be outlined to understand the problems during that period. Next, Japanese changes to funerary practice in Korea will be reviewed, and then reactions to these changes will be analyzed through the diary left by Yun Ch’i-ho (1864–1945), a famous intellectual and controversial figure in Modern Korean history, who, after a life struggling between Confucianism and Christianity, Korean nationalism and Japanese collaboration, left behind 50 years’ worth of diary entries that bear witness of the end of the Korean Empire and the entire colonial period. It serves as source to understand how Japanese colonial policy concerning burial practice influenced the mind-set and actions of the Korean elite.