1920년대 경무국 위생과 조사보고서를 통해 본 의료민속 연구

Abstract

This text is the only bulletin issued directly from the Japanese Government-General of Korea and analyzed, on a medical folklore perspective, the custom inspection report concerning sanitation of the sanitation division of the police department published in the 1920s in the longest Japanese publicity media 『Chosun(朝鮮)』 before the colonization period. Although the colonization authority, with the nationwide resistance of the ‘March First Independence Movement’ induced by the forced domination of the Japanese Empire by means of military police and police forces as the triggering event, presented the principle of assimilation through conversion into the deceptive era of the so-called cultural governance during the 1920’s, it implemented dualistic hygiene and sanitary administration policies and sanitary police policies that are different from those of the mainland Japan. The sanitary police, who kept surveillance and controlled the general rituals and daily life of individuals in the name of cleanliness and hygiene, strengthen the controls and punishment through quarantine activities and cleanliness inspection. In order to establish the colonial sanitary policy and secure the legitimacy of the colonial administration, the folklore medical treatment done in the overall regions of Chosun and the general form of medical customs was inspected on a colonial perspective and contributed to the media. Although the Japanese Empire announced that investigation report was published in the magazine 『Chosun』 in order to educate the people of Korea on their superstitious beliefs related to hygiene, only a very few Koreans were able to understand the article since it was written in Japanese language. 『Chosun』 was the official magazine used by the Japanese Government General to announce the administration policies, and was distributed to each of the authorities that composed the Japanese Government General in Korea and obligatorily supervised by each of the ranks of the administrative staffs. The magazine served the main purpose of introducing the colonized Korean society to the Japanese expatriates residing in Korea, public officials and civilians in the mainland Japan. Conclusively, it was aimed to stipulate and propagandize that the traditional folk medical knowledge of Koreans as ‘unclean’ and ‘barbarous’ rather than for the purposes of ‘enlightenment’ and ‘edification’ of the knowledge of Koreans on hygiene and sanitation. However, as the result of the overall analysis of 『Chosun』 with the traditional oriental medical texts, Danbang medical book, the bestseller at the time, and the practical encyclopedia frequently referenced by the civilian noble households during the Choseon Dynasty, the folk medical practices of Korea in the 1920’s were the self-rescue measures taken by the public within the given limited medical environment at the time. Such measures were composed diversely with orally handed down knowledge and experiences, documented records, oriental medical knowledge and therapies based on popular beliefs. Therefore, it can be seen that newly devised and modified folk medical treatments were executed to treat disease incidental to civilization introduced to Korea through colonization by Japan.