1920∼30년대 日本人 官學者의 朝鮮 鄕約 연구에 대한 검토

Abstract

Hyang-yak was the representative autonomous norms that were administered by provincial noble family of Joseon era. When Japan colonized Joseon, it focused on Hyang-yak for the ease of controlling regions and Japanese governmental scholars assisted it and conducted studies on Hyang-yak. This paper reviewed Hyang-yak studies of three Japanese governmental scholars in the 1920s∼1930s. Their studies are historically meaningful in the sense that they dealt with Hyang-yak in a modern way but attention should be paid to the research period that reflects colonial historical awareness. An example of such was Dominaga Bunichi, an official of the Japanese Government-General of Korea and local governmental official of colonized Joseon, thought that Hyang-yak could be used for improving folkways and social relief. So while he was a governor of North Hamkyung Province, he enacted Hyang-yak himself. Matsuda Ko studied Hyang-yak along with the revision of local autonomy system in 1930. He viewed that the contemporary local autonomy system came from Hyang-yak translated in a modern way and emphasized the cooperation of local people. Takahashi Doru’s study on Hyang-yak is related to the policy of the Japanese Government-General of Korea to train leading youth and important personnel. They were educated to cooperate with the colonial policy of Japan and among them, Takahashi referred to Yulgok Yi as the most ideal leading youth of past Joseon and introduced his activities and Hyang-yak. Like this, Japanese governmental scholars focused on Hyang-yak as an ideal reform policy from premodern days and searched for ways to use it in a modern way. But the modern studies were to assist Japanese colonial rule.