19세기 후반 식민지기 관우 숭배의 확산과 쇠퇴

Abstract

This study is to examine the change and its meaning of the worship of GwanWoo, focusing to the decline during the colonial period. Since the worship of GwanWoo was introduced when Japanese invasions of Korea broke out, it had been widely spread and reached its height during the reign of King Gojong. Although the ritual of the worship of GwanWoo tended to governed as state ritual, it disappeared rapidly after it was considered as folk religion for a while. This was related to the fact many organizations dedicated exclusively to GwanWoo, which were only sponsoring bodies, took the lead at the ceremony, forming the religious organization, Gwan-sung Taoism, because of the absence of the formal protection of Joseon dynasty during the colonial period. Meanwhile, china's power to influence other nations in east asia became slight as historical and cultural symbols through the Sino-Japanese War and the Russo-Japanese War. Indigenous religions based on nationalism began to be diffused instead. Whereupon the worship of GwanWoo already lost its place to support elite groups around the end of dynasty in spite of its diffusion and decisive roles in public rituals. The worship of GwanWoo couldn't maintain the bedrock of its support against the new religions from western nations such as Christianity after failing to keep its sponsors satisfied. Moreover, modern perspectives on the worship of GwanWoo was directly concerned in a direction of colonial Korea. Mass media, especially news media strongly criticized the worship of GwanWoo regarding the belief as a superstition. Many intellectuals of Japanese colonial period also considered the worship as superstitious religion and by-product of toadyism because it integrated into folk religion relating to the policy of disruption of superstition occurred in Japan in the 1930's. Christians believed that because the belief of GwanWoo was a superstitious thing, it must be disrupted and firmly excluded for modern society. Therefore the disruption of superstition conducted by Christianity was important as not only the matter of religion but also the way for modernization. This change in the social environment made the belief of GwanWoo unsustainable much longer. And these perceptions contributed to the decline of the belief of GwanWoo as a background.