Abstract

The “Gravesite Ordinance” was introduced to colonial Korea in 1912, forbidding private graveyards, limiting burials to public cemeteries and establishing cremation as the main means of burial. This aimed at establishing legal grounds for the burial customs Japanese settlers had brought with them, but also was a means to systematize Korean graves. At the time, legal disputes about private graveyard properties of Koreans were ensnaring the judiciary system. Also, many mountains covered with loose graveyards were a steady reminder of death that made it impossible to put such spaces to use for mining or infrastructural purposes. Koreans were strongly antagonized by the new law, for it ignored Confucian tradition and custom as well as geomantic principles. Koreans voiced their discontent with the new law, so one major revision was made after the outbreak of the March First Movement in 1919. The amendment however only changed rules for the Korean elite, so the masses became even further disgruntled. Thus, the number of law suits concerning graveyards did not decline, but the content changed: now frequent violations of the new law became the issue. Korean non-obedience of the laws led to secret burials and other forms of non-acceptance which were then criminalized by the Japanese authorities. Through an analysis of lawsuits, crime records, newspapers and other historical material this article shows that the Japanese law intending to “modernize” in the end had the contrary effect.