The Place of "Religion" in Colonial Korea around 1910 : The Imperial History of "Religion"

The development of the concept of "religion" in colonial Korea will be considered as the culmination of the history of the concept of "religion" in imperial Japan. The purpose of considering the concept of religion within imperial history is not simply to demonstrate the relationship of mutual influence that existed between the concepts of religion in the metropole and colony. The perspective of an imperial history of "religion" taken up in this paper attempts to view the linkages within the concept of religion, whereby the colony and the metropole defined one another, allowing identities to form while engendering internal contradictions for both. This paper will highlight a number of examples from the documents of the Government-General of Korea, in order to consider the situation of religion in Korea around 1910.