The Development of Modern Survey and the Characteristics of Survey Drawings in Early Modern Korea
The purpose of this study is to understand the transition process of Korean architecture and urbanism from traditional state to modern state, by investigating the development of modern survey and the characteristics of survey drawings during the Great Han Empire (大韓帝國), the early modern Korea. The governmental efforts of the Great Han Empire to introduce a modern survey system named Gwangmu Land survey (光武量田事業) ended in failure. After the Russo-Japanese War (露日戰爭, 1904-1905), the Residency-General (統監府) held the hegemony of Korean Peninsula. It reintroduced a modern survey system for the survey of land and buildings all over the country and enforced the Land and Buildings Certification System (土地家屋證明制度). Since then, the land and buildings survey was propagated rapidly and the modern system for land use was gradually organized. With the progress of modern survey, the survey bureau of Cabinet (內閣) and Department of Royal Household (宮內府) created survey drawings that had some characteristics of colonialism. Takjibu (度支部) produced cadastral maps of major cities, with which the modern land system was developed. In addition, the Royal Property Bureau (帝室財産整理局) produced survey drawings of land and buildings owned by the Royal Household which were finally converted into modern facilities.