Korea - The Lost Empire

[Danjel]

Originally Posted by BeatrixFan

I found this young pic of Empress Yi at Corbis. She was about 60 when this was taken.

This is not Empress Yi Haewon, but it's Yi Panja (aka Banja), Crown Princess of Korea, born Masako, Princess Nashimoto. She was married to the last Crown-Prince of Korea and lived from 1900-1989

[mandyy]

From Reuters via Yahoo! News
1: South Koreans perform Ilmu, the royal ritual dance, during the Grand Ancestral Rite in the Jongmyo, the main ancestral shrine of the Chosun Dynasty in Seoul in this May 7, 2006 file photo. The Grand Ancestral Rite is held once a year, on the first Sunday of May, with Jeryeak, the royal ritual music and Ilmu, the royal ritual dance. Prince Yi Seok, former crooner turned teacher and tourist
2 & 3: Yi Seok, prince of former Chosun dynasty, speaks to reporters in Chonju, about 250 km (155 miles) south of Seoul, in this October 20, 2006 file photo. The prince says he is now in line to succeed as head of the Yi family, who ruled all Korea during the 500 years of the Chosun dynasty when the country was known to the outside world as the Hermit Kingdom.

[AdmiralSteven]

Does anyone have any public opinion polls, regarding a restoration of the Empire in Korea?

As much as I would love to see a restoration, I don't think it'll happen if the different groups don't come together to work something out.

[BeatrixFan]

There is one lurking that gives a figure of 56% in favour of a restoration but I'm not sure exactly how true that would be. I'll find the link.

[BeatrixFan]

Does anyone have an address for Empress Yi Haewon?

[Vanesa]

Originally Posted by BeatrixFan

There is one lurking that gives a figure of 56% in favour of a restoration but I'm not sure exactly how true that would be. I'll find the link.

I hope that this would be true. 56% of people in favor of restoration seems more than a good per cent in those days! However, we must wait a little, for almost 70% of Korea's population must be in favour of Monarchy Restauration to not risk a civil war if a new Emperor is crowned.

Vanesa.

[RubyPrincess168]

Wow! I didn't know Korea had a monarchy, but I'm not suprised either. Too bad we don't hear more about them.

[us13doolittle]

Hi All!

Can anyone help me identify these royals? Their pictures are on a pre-WWII postcard that I purchased on Ebay for several dollars. All three photos have captions under their faces. I wish I read Japanese! Can anyone help identify them?

Sincerely,

Doolittle

[mandyy]

The photos on the postcard are photos of the last crown prince of Korea and his Japanese aristicratic wife Masako (princess Masako Nashimoto, 1901-1989) and their son

[us13doolittle]

Dear Mandyy,

Thank You! That is very interesting! WoW! What can you tell me about the crown prince and his wife? What was his name and when did he die? Would you guess at how old this picture is? I would assume that it would have been taken around the same time as the age of the prince and his family? Does the postcard have any value? Please enlighten me, for I know nothing about the royal house of Korea!

Thanks,

Doolittle

[BeatrixFan]

If anyone can read Korean then the Imperial Family have a website at;

»ç´Ü¹ýÀΠȲ½Ç¹®È*Àç´Ü

And if anyone can read it, would they contact me please? Thanks!

[izumi]

This real drama is as fascinating to me as the Korean TV drama Dae Jang Geum. I wish that the Koreans will restore the imperial family someday if royality enjoys popularity there, but it is a bit sad that they have two claimants to the throne at loggerheads, for it makes me think of their country divided into two by the 38th parallel. Which candidate has more support by the imperial members and Korean monarchists, Emperor Won or Empress Haewon?

[serenissima]

Who is the current pretender to the throne of Korea ?

[Next Star]

Originally Posted by serenissima

Who is the current pretender to the throne of Korea ?

From what I read there are two people who have claims to the the Korean throne and they are: HIH Princess Lee Hae-Won and HIH Prince Yi Won.

[Bones]

The Yi Dynasty of the former kingdom and later Empire of Korea was descended from King Taejo of Chosen who was later raised to imperial status by his descendant Gojong in 1899. Korea had long been a battlefield between the powers of Japan and China but on several occasions the Koreans displayed great ingenuity and distinguished themselves with stunning victories. One example is the many victories won by the famous Admiral Yi Sun-shin against the invading Japanese; the last man to defeat the Imperial Japanese Navy until the battle of Midway in World War II. The Admiral is still venerated by Koreans and in his own time was recognized as a venerable figure by the Ming Emperor of China.

The Korean Empire was known for its great system of education and veneration of learning. Korea, for some time, had one of the most highly and widely educated populations in the world. Korea was also known for its strict adherence to the moral code of Confucius and was often seen as the most staunchly Confucian country in the entire Far East. Over time the Koreans developed more and more but remained isolated as a defense measure against more powerful foreign elements.

After the First Sino-Japanese War Korea became fully independent of the Qing Empire of China but was more vulnerable to Japan. In a show of defiance and an assertion of Korean independence, in 1894 King Gojong declared Korea, which had been a Chinese vassal kingdom, the Korean Empire and took the title of Emperor of Korea. However, the country continued to be plagued by interference from Russia and Japan. Finally, in 1910 the Japanese annexed Korea and the Yi Dynasty royals were absorbed into the Japanese peerage as minor nobility. Emperor Gojong was forced to abdicate and was kept under house arrest by the Japanese for the rest of his life.

Emperor Sunjong succeeded Gojong and was the second and last Korean Emperor, reigning from 1907 until the Japanese takeover in 1910. Crown Prince Yi Un was taken to Japan to be educated and married a Japanese lady. He later became a general in the Imperial Japanese Air Force and was on the Supreme War Council during World War II. After the conflict he tried to return to South Korea but President Syngman Rhee refused for fear that he might attract monarchist support. Eventually though he was able to return to the former Yi Palace where he died in 1970.

In the years since the government of South Korea has warmed up to the Yi royals somewhat, allowing them to preside at national ceremonies which were traditionally the domain of the emperors. In 2006 a poll was even taken in South Korea which found that slightly more than half the population said they would favor a restoration of the monarchy. There are, however, no plans to do so as none of the major political forces support such a move and the leadership of the Yi Dynasty is currently in dispute.

Am I alone in thinking that restoring the monarchy would help heal the North - South divide in Korea? Would not that be a legitimate way for both sides to come together without one side or the other winning or losing?

[Marsel]

That was a very informative and interesting post, Bones.

I think if there were a candidate, who was equally accepted and respected by people of both North and South Koreas, then the restoration of the monarchy would indeed be a great factor in unification of the country or perhaps better relationship between the two parts.
However, if the candidate is not acceptable for people of either North or South Korea, then the restoration of the monarchy would hardly serve that particular purpose. And from what I know of South Korea, I sincerely doubt they would ever support restoration of the monarchy under practically any Monarch.

[HMTLove23]

KOREA

some info here including pics...

[Bones]

Originally Posted by Marsel77

That was a very informative and interesting post, Bones.

I think if there were a candidate, who was equally accepted and respected by people of both North and South Koreas, then the restoration of the monarchy would indeed be a great factor in unification of the country or perhaps better relationship between the two parts.
However, if the candidate is not acceptable for people of either North or South Korea, then the restoration of the monarchy would hardly serve that particular purpose. And from what I know of South Korea, I sincerely doubt they would ever support restoration of the monarchy under practically any Monarch.

I was just thinking in terms of a new regime to govern the whole Korea rather than saying the south won and the north lost. The north can't survive for much longer; it's just not a viable state, but both claim to be the legitimate government and both regard the other as their traditional enemy. It seems to me that it might make unification smoother to say, we're doing away with both the ROK and the DPRK and restoring the last regime to govern a united Korea which was the Yi Empire, though it would of course have to be a constitutional, symbolic sort of monarchy.

[Shaiya]

I am of partial Korean ancestry and I definitely think that a Korean monarchy would be an exciting prospect.

Unfortunately, due to the current climate in both South and North Korea, I don't see that ever happening. The South now a high-paced capitalistic country that has adopted republicanism wholly and the North is well....it has Kim Jong Il for one.

When I was watching the South Korean drama 'Goong' I actually saw a viable modern monarchy, but then again, it was just a show.

[Marsel]

Assassinated Korean Empress documentary airs

A programme about the assassination of Korea's Empress Myeongseong has aired. The 14-minute show was based on a 2005 documentary about the assassination, which claimed the empress - known as Queen Min - was killed after a group of Japanese officials got 48 assassins to lead an assault on the Gyeongbok Palace on October 8, 1895.
Chung Soo-woong, who produced the 2005 piece, said: "The motivation behind the showing of the program was to let people know the buried history between Korea and Japan at a time when Japanese interest in Korea is high due to the influence of the Korean Wave."
The new programme included apologies from relatives of those involved in the plot, and follows them as they travel to Korea to pay their respects.

Presumed Portrait of Korea's Last Empress Discovered

Over the last 22 years, Terry Bennett (56) has been collecting photographs from 19th century Korea, Japan and China. On Monday, he published a photo album of some of the 2,600 pieces of Korea-related materials in his collection, taken by a German photographer who traveled by way of China to the Korean Peninsula, where he took 33 pictures between 1894 and 1895, immediately preceding the incursion of Japanese assassins to Gyeongbok Palace to murder the empress. One of the pictures in this portfolio is thought to show Myeongseong.

The portrait (presumably) of Myeongseong