A few weeks ago, ahead of a walk for the RAS, I wrote this article for the Korea Times about the traces of the Japanese Empire in the Namsan area. There was already the 국치길 (path of national humiliation) - not how I would brand it, but then I don't work for the city government - which 'opened' in 2018 and runs southeast from the former site of the Joseon (Shinto) Shrine to the former site of the Japanese legation, but I wanted to visit the site of the 호국신사 (Defense-of-Nation Shrine) that opened in 1943 and has only its stairs still standing, which meant starting at Sukmyeong Women's University Station, next to which was the 1920s-built Namyeong Arcade.
I then realized the 1923 shootout between Kim Sang-ok and Japanese police took place not far from the Shrine, and worked out a route from there. Funnily enough, the last half of that Korea Times article is about the history of Jangchung-dan and Bakmunsa (the temple to Ito Hirobumi, seen here in 1955), the latter of which, much like nearby Dongguk University, hosted a piece of Gyeonghui Palace, but with 30 people on the walk, we never managed to get there (the first time doing a walk is when you get to figure out if what you planned is doable or not). I'll likely create another walk beginning near City Hall that heads through Myeong-dong and Chungmu-ro before ending at the Jangchung-dan area.
I did a lot of online research to learn about these remains (and disappeared buildings), but in terms of storytelling was helped immensely by Todd Henry's book Assimilating Seoul, which made me realize that a space south of Cheongnyangni Station that appears as a site of rail yards in a 1947 aerial photo was in fact the site of the 조선대박람회 (Chōsen Grand Exposition), images (and the exact location) of which can be seen here.
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