[CPProt.net] A Tussle Over Treasures: Who rightfully owns Korean artifacts looted by Japan?

[MusSecNetworkCulPropProtNet]

 A Tussle Over Treasures
Who rightfully owns Korean artifacts looted by Japan?
By Kay Itoi and B. J. Lee
Newsweek International

Feb. 14 issue - Eisei Miki, the head monk of Kakurinji Temple in the western
Japanese city of Kakogawa, still shivers with anger when he describes the
robbery the temple suffered in 2002. Among the stolen goods: one
particularly important painting of the Amida Buddha from Korea's Koryo
period (918-1392), which the temple had treasured for hundreds of years.
Caught last October, the two Koreans responsible for the theft insisted they
were on a mission to reclaim pieces of Korean history, which had been
appropriated by the Japanese. Worse, the Korean media and public bought the
argument. "Have you heard of anything more ridiculous?" asks Miki.


His frustration embodies yet another thorny controversy embroiling Japan and
the Korean peninsula: to whom do hundreds of thousands of ancient Korean
artifacts in Japan rightfully belong? Koreans accuse the Japanese of
plundering the artwork, mostly during their 36-year occupation of the
peninsula, and they blame their own government for not seeking the objects'
return. Most Japanese consider the issue a dead one, resolved by the 1965
Japan-Korea Treaty, which led to the return of some 1,400 items. To be sure,
not all the works were looted; Kakurinji Temple, for instance, received the
painting-probably as a gift-long before the Japanese invasion. Nor was the
settlement in the 1960s definitive, as it neglected artifacts in Japanese
private collections as well as those originating in North Korea. But with
cultural relations between Japan and South Korea warming, experts are hoping
the dispute can finally be resolved.

Japan is hardly unique in having made off with treasures from a former
colony. The best European museums would be empty without looted art. But the
size of the haul is astounding. Eighty percent of all Korean Buddhist
paintings are believed to be in Japan. And, says Seoul art historian Kwon
Cheeyun, "35,000 Korean art objects and 30,000 rare books have been
confirmed to be there, too." That's only the tip of the iceberg: much more
is believed to be hidden away in private collections.

Historians believe Japan carried away the bulk of its Korean cultural assets
during two aggressions: the 16th-century invasion of the Korean peninsula
and its 20th-century occupation. Determining legal ownership is far more
difficult than with the art looted by the Nazis, for instance. "It's almost
impossible to trace the provenance" of centuries-old artifacts, says
Toshiyuki Kono, a law professor at Kyushu University. Besides, the Japanese
annexation was internationally recognized in 1910; relocating Korean
artifacts within "Japanese territory" was lawful at the time. Furthermore,
Japan didn't sign the 30-year-old UNESCO convention to prevent trafficking
of stolen artifacts until 2003.

To Korea's annoyance, Japan holds many items of particular value. More than
1,000 bronze, gold and celadon pieces owned by the late businessman
Takenosuke Ogura now make up the core of the Tokyo National Museum's Korean
section. Another precious item is a two-meter-tall stone tablet, originally
built in northern Korea to commemorate the country's repelling of the
16th-century Japanese invasion. The work sits in Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine,
where Japanese politicians occasionally enrage Koreans and Chinese by paying
respects to the war dead enshrined there. Last month, South Korea's former
prime minister, Lee Han Dong, launched a campaign in Seoul to seek its
repatriation. "For both Koreas," says Joo Dong Jin, a civil activist working
for the campaign, it is a matter of "national spirit and pride." Yasukuni
will return the piece, says a shrine spokesman, once both North Korea and
South Korea make official requests through the Japanese government.

While officials on both sides drag their feet, citizens are driving the
repatriation movement. Yoon Sung Jong set up Korea's Citizens' Committee for
Cultural Heritage Return Movement in 2002 to run promotional exhibits,
seminars and a Web site calling for the return of the artifacts. Several
Japanese collectors have voluntarily donated their holdings to South Korean
museums. The Tenri Central Library in Nara, western Japan, loaned a 1447
painting titled "Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land" by the
15th-century Korean master An Gyeon to Seoul exhibitions in 1986 and 1996.
Considered one of the most significant Korean paintings of all time, Yoon
says the work should hang in Korea. The library, however, maintains that it
has never been formally asked for the return of the painting-and declines to
say whether it would return the work if it were.

Generational change is also helping soothe tensions. The subject of looted
art remains most sensitive to older Koreans. "We are the first generation
[of experts] who can be objective," says Hideo Yoshii, a 40-year-old
archaeologist with Kyoto University. Young Korean scholars like Pai Hyung
Il, an archeologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, give
Japanese credit for first discovering beauty in items like the peninsula's
celadon porcelains, which Koreans previously ignored in favor of Chinese
antiques, which they considered more valuable. To Pai, demanding the
repatriation of all Korean items isn't realistic. Another young academic,
Tokyo arts professor Yoko Hayashi, who recently conducted the first
comprehensive study of the situation proposes promoting privately held
relics exhibits, joint research by the two countries and long-term loans of
Japan-owned Korean treasures to Korea.

Still, the issue will not be quickly resolved. And the Kakurinji Temple's
painting is still missing-though the Korean thieves were sentenced to jail
after a Korean judge failed to buy their patriotic defense. Still, Miki, the
head monk, holds no grudges against Koreans. His temple was, after all,
founded by a Korean monk in the sixth century and occasionally sponsors
events promoting Korean arts. "Our temple is like the oldest symbol of
Japan-Korea friendship," he says. That friendship is, once again, being
sorely tested. 

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