식민지시기 보천교의 ‘공개’와 공개 배경

Abstract

Poch'ǒn'gyo clandestinely prepared Gochonje Ritual in 1921. There was a rumor that this ritual was intended to crown a new emperor. Such rumor made the public collaborative and the Japanese imperialism paid attention to such tendency. However, it was not a determinative factor to make the Japanese imperialism be in tension. The Japanese imperialism came to be nervous by the organizational movement of the public that spread the rumor widely. This was especially true as the memory of the uprising in Jeju in 1918 did not appear. One activity of Poch'ǒn'gyo which made the Japanese imperialism nervous was religious money. ‘Chongsong Event’ or ‘Kim Hong-gyu Event’ was an investigation of the possibility that the religious money of Poch'ǒn'gyo would be given to nationalists. However, ‘Kim Hong-gyu Event’ was not simple in its background. It was derived from a conspiracy to dominate the religious power by Kim Young-du,a local leader. The leader who was pushed into a corner because he usurped the religious money informed the police on the Gochonje as an enthronement ceremony. It was coincidently surfaced, but the Japanese imperialism worried that Poch'ǒn'gyo which was able to collect a large sum of money was an underground organization and the money would go into nationalists nationally and internationally. The Japanese imperialism intended to stop Gochonje using ‘Chongsong Event’ and ‘Kim Hong-gyu Event’. In addition, it tried to reveal the secret religious organization to the world. As the organization was so secret, the physical oppression of the Japanese imperialism did not work. The deceptive system of ‘religious leadership’ would work only when the religious organization was revealed. Poch'ǒn'gyo did not give up the Gochonje as the center of the movement. The Japanese imperialism was prepared to permit Gochonje if the religious organization was opened. Therefore, Poch'ǒn'gyo was forced to select both Gochonje and opening of the religious organization. The opening of Poch'ǒn'gyo means it was unprepared against the deceptive plan as well as formal permission of the religious organization. Meanwhile, part of the religious money was given to nationalists,which was not a goal of the Poch'ǒn'gyo movement. Even so, the Japanese imperialism could not help paying attention to it as a national organization which was able to collect a large sum of money. Nationalists as well as the Japanese imperialism paid attention to Poch'ǒn'gyo. It was a pre-modern and abstract desire of the nationalists without modern consciousness. The nationalists expected possibility of the national organization and funds while the Japanese imperialism planned to open the organization in order to weaken Poch'ǒn'gyo.