1910년 용인군수 尹弼求의 일본 농사 시찰

Abstract

Yun Pil-gu was a public official who served in various roles—including teacher, police officer, and county magistrate—from the late Korean Empire through the Japanese colonial period. While serving as magistrate of Yongin County in April 1910, he was selected by the Oriental Development Company(東洋拓殖株式會社) to join the First Agricultural Inspection Tour of Japan, which aimed to observe Japan’s advanced agricultural regions. Following the First Sino-Japanese War, Japan intensified its political and economic control over Korea and sought to resolve its domestic food shortages by massively exporting Korean rice. To achieve this, the Japanese established the Agricultural Promotion Model Station(權業模範場) in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, in 1906, and in 1908, founded the Oriental Development Company to advance agricultural immigration policies. The company believed that for Japanese-style agriculture to be effectively transplanted to Korea, Korean farmers needed firsthand exposure to Japanese rural practices. As a result, it selected 24 individuals—including village leaders and eight government-recommended county magistrates—from areas where the company held land, organizing the First Agricultural Inspection Tour. The tour began on April 30, 1910, departing from Busan and visiting eight administrative regions across Japan—Fukuoka, Okayama, Hyōgo, Osaka, Kyoto, Shiga, Gifu, and Aichi. The group visited exemplary farming villages, irrigation and drainage facilities, rice paddies, fertilizer factories, and seed packaging plants—sites directly related to agriculture and allied industries. The delegation stayed for an extended period in Anjō Town(安城町), an advanced agricultural zone in the Nōbi Plain of Gifu and the Okazaki Plain of Aichi, where large-scale irrigation projects and land reclamation had been undertaken during the Meiji era. Yun Pil-gu meticulously documented the history and current status of each site using quantitative data, organizing his observations into an agricultural travelogue that aimed to inform efforts to improve Korean agriculture. His report was serialized in the Joseon Nonghoe Bo(朝鮮農會報) and was actively used to promote the superiority of Japanese-style improved agriculture in Korean society. Impressed by the advanced agricultural technology and the affluence of rural Japan, Yun Pil-gu became increasingly aligned with Japanese colonial policy after returning to Korea. As a county magistrate, he implemented a wide range of rural reform measures, including the promotion of public education, improvement of administrative working conditions, introduction of rural financial systems, farmer organization, and encouragement of female labor and household industries. His initiatives were recognized as model cases by the colonial authorities and widely publicized. For his contributions, he was later appointed magistrate of Yeoncheon County, temporary member of the Gyeonggi Provincial Land Survey Committee, and magistrate of Pocheon County.