== Gyeongseong Imperial University, Abe Yosisige, and Intellectuals in the colonial city of Gyeongseong ==
Gyeongseong Imperial University played a pivotal role in shaping the higher education of the modern Korea during the colonial period. ...
== Gyeongseong Imperial University, Abe Yosisige, and Intellectuals in the colonial city of Gyeongseong ==
Gyeongseong Imperial University played a pivotal role in shaping the higher education of the modern Korea during the colonial period. This paper examines Korean intellectual's recognition of "the other" by focusing on the formation of the intellectual class and the interchanges between Korean and Japanese intellectuals, happened in the fields of the Korean modern education surrounding Abe Yosisige, a professor of Gyeongseong Imperial University. Gyeongseong Imperial University, which was established for the purpose of cultivating talented people who were competent for the management of the colony, had great influences on the higher education of Korea. Abe Yosisige, who was in charge of the education of philosophy in the College of Law, left behind a lot of records of his personal experience about Korea, based on his long stay in Gyeongseong.
Cheong-Gu Miscellany and Geunyeokcho, records of personal experience of his stay in Gyeongseong, reveal that, despite his sympathy with the basic principles of Japan's colonial policy called "Harmony of Korea and Japan," Abe had great and unparalleled affection for the nature and the manners of Korea like Hanbok (the traditional costume of Korea) or Zigae (the traditional tool for carrying things). These writings also show that, as a philosopher in charge of the education of the colony, he had some anguishes and regrets about Japan's rule of Korea, and after the war he reflected on his conduct during the colonial period.
Abe worked with Tokieda Motoki, a grammar scholar, and professor Takagi Ichinosuke and professor Aso I내캬, who were in charge of Japanese literature. Yu Jinoh, a Korean student, got mingled with these Japanese scholars, and, from these gatherings, the intellectual class were formed, and Korean and Japanese intellectuals did some interchanges between them. From these intellectual meetings, came out these intellectuals: Jo Yunje who majored in Joseon literature, Choi Jaesuh, a literary critic, majored in English literature, Park Chiwoo majored in philosophy, and Lee Hoyseok, a writer. Through the acts of professors belonged to the school of humanities, the psychological landscapes of the Japanese intellectuals, and Korean students' reminiscences of them, we can understand the reality of Gyeongseong Imperial University and the intellectual society of Gyeongseong, the colonial city.
While strengthening its image as the best public institution and the successful career, Gyeongseong Imperial University, along with Gyeongseong, the cultural center of the colony, had quite serious influences on the thoughts of Japanese intellectuals. Abe Yosisige is a key person through whom we can understand and approach the subject of the establishment of the modern intellectual class, and of the mutual understanding of Korean and Japanese intellectuals during the colonial period.