1925 Japanese Urban Planning Wall Maps of Seoul (Keijo), Colonial Korea

This is a set of seven large-format c. 1925 planning maps of Seoul (Keijō), produced during the Japanese colonial period. Together, they constitute a remarkable survival from the Japanese colonial era and provide a window into a forgotten chapter in the history of one of the world's largest cities.

A Closer Look

This set consists of seven large maps of Seoul, each measuring 51.25 inches across by 34 inches tall, as well as a cover containing an index. Each map contains the phrase 'Keijō Capital City Plan' (京城都市計畫, 'capital' referring to the capital of Chōsen, or Japanese Korea) and maintains the same 'base map,' a topographic map with information on the natural and built environment (waterways, elevation, terrain, roads, railroads, buildings, etc.), as explained in a legend (凡例) at the bottom-right. On this 'base map,' colorful representations of various sorts of topical information are displayed, with each map utilizing its own specific legend. Some recognizable landmarks, especially the Han River, the main railway station, Namsan (南山 South Mountain) at the center towards the right, and the Gyeongbokgung Palace at the top-center, help to orient the viewer.

Discussing Each Map

1. Appendix Map No. 1. Keijō Capital City Plan Area Map (附圖第一號 京城都市計畫區域圖) - This map highlights the most heavily populated areas of the city and areas ripe for expansion (the population was growing rapidly during these years). At the center towards the top is a red dot marking the site of Keijō 's City Hall (京城府廳), built between 1924 and 1926 and still forming part of Seoul's City Hall. Concentric circles emanate from the building at 2,000-meter intervals. Blue shading indicates areas unsuitable for housing due to the presence of water, while green shading denotes an elevation too steep for easily constructing buildings. Among the most significant features on this map, which is relevant to later maps as well, is the plan to reclaim and utilize the island of Yeouido (여의도) towards the bottom-left (marked here as '將來豫備地'). Historically an uninhabited sandbar along the Han River, the island was used for Seoul's first airfield starting in the late 1920s, but was still prone to flooding and was gradually phased out as an airport after the Korean War. Eventually, in the 1960s, dredging, reclamation, hydrological works, and other infrastructure made the island an ideal location as part of wider plans to develop areas along the Han River. Government offices (including the National Assembly Building) and businesses began to flock to the island, and it quickly became the political, financial, and media center of Seoul and South Korea writ large.
2. Appendix Map No. 2. Keijō Capital City Plan Land Use Map (附圖第二號 京城都市計畫地域圖) - This map demonstrates the intended use, in economic terms, of different areas of the city. Bold blue lines indicate the main corridors through the city, including the Hangang Bridge (at this point just a footbridge) over the Han River, the first such bridge to span the waterway and only the second after the nearby railway bridge, completed in 1900. Red shaded areas indicate commercial space, blue for residential space, yellow for industrial use, and green for areas yet to be determined. Like other outlying areas included within the boundaries of the plan (thick red line around the outside of the city), the large planned industrial area to the south and west of Yeouido Island was not part of Keijō when this plan was prepared. The area was annexed by Keijō/Seoul in stages in the following decades, becoming Yeongdeungpo District and indeed becoming an industrial hub as envisioned.
3. Appendix Map No.3…. Street Network Map (附圖第三號 京城都市計畫街路網圖) - This map's legend presents lines of different colors and thicknesses corresponding to the width of roads, from the widest boulevards of 53 meters to narrower streets of 11 meters. Streets yet to be planned (again in the southwestern and northeastern parts of the to-be-expanded city) are marked with a dashed red line. Planned dikes (防水堤) are also noted. Numbers on the map likely refer to items in the report to which these maps were appended.
4. Appendix Map No. 4… Streetcar Network Map (附圖第四號 京城都市計畫電車線路網圖) - This map noted standard streetcar lines in red, high-speed or express tram lines in green, and railway lines in blue. Major stations are indicated, including Keijō's main rail station (京城驛, built in 1925, now an arts and culture center called 'Culture Station Seoul 284'). In a fascinating addition reflecting thorough research on the part of the planners, red and blue shading, along with adjoining notes, explain the time required to travel from residential areas throughout the city to the nearest station, with red being 5 minutes (or less) and blue 10 minutes (or less). Streetcars had operated in Seoul since 1899, with the first line being opened by an American company, a rare example of foreign technology not introduced by Japan. However, many of the drivers and conductors were Japanese. In 1909, the operation of the city's tram network, which had expanded to four lines, was taken over by a Japanese company.
5. Appendix Map No. 5… Park Layout Map (附圖第五號 京城都市計畫公園配置圖) - The map distinguishes between 'general parks' (一般公園) and 'nature parks' (自然公園), with the general parks ringed by a 500-meter radius traced in blue indicating a zone of 'attraction' (誘致) for children and a 750-meter radius marking a similar zone for other nearby residents.
6. Appendix Map No. 6… Water Supply System Map (附圖第六號 京城都市計畫上水道系統圖) - This map uses color shading to indicate areas unsuitable for water supply, high and low elevation bands of water supply lines, existing and planned lines, and equipment. Again, the trend is that the historic core of the city and the more recently developed industrial area towards the Han River are relatively well-supplied, while newly developing or still-undeveloped parts of the city would require new infrastructure.
7. Appendix Map No. 7… Sewer System Map (附圖第七號 京城都市計畫下水道系統圖) - This map divides the city into districts (區) to assess their sewage and drainage systems, marking both existing and planned sewage drains (汚渠), culverts (暗渠), ditches (開渠), and waste treatment areas (處分場). Letters on the map likely refer to items in the report to which these maps were appended. Around the time of this map's production, in 1925, the Japanese mayor of Keijō, Mano Seiichi, launched a major public health campaign that sought to combat the city's reputation for disease within the Japanese Empire. With the city's population growing rapidly (probably surpassing 300,000 around this time) but most people still relying on well water, which was often tainted due to an insufficient sewage network, failure to act could result in destructive epidemics, and indeed, there were outbreaks of smallpox, cholera, and typhoid fever in these years.
   
   The problem is instructive in analyzing the nature of Japanese colonialism, at least in Keijō, at the time. On the one hand, Korean nationalists used the press, especially the Dong-a Ilbo (東亞日報) newspaper, to publicly harangue the Japanese authorities for the state of the city's public health and especially the disparity between wealthier Japanese and poorer Korean neighborhoods. Public health became a way to strengthen and modernize the nation, albeit within a colonial context. At the same time, many Korean elites and intellectuals were enlisted by the colonial administration to encourage, cajole, and all but force their fellow citizens to participate in public health campaigns meant to change ingrained habits and beliefs. Authorities went so far as to enter people's homes on inspection tours as part of neighborhood sanitation cooperatives rooted in mutual surveillance and reporting. New taxes were imposed to pay for improvements to sanitation, and increasingly intrusive campaigns were launched to root out infectious diseases, with limited success.

Modernizing (and Assimilating) Seoul

Together, these maps represent the efforts of colonial urban planners, mostly Japanese, especially at the higher levels, with the input of some Korean elites and intellectuals, to remake Seoul as a showcase colonial capital. Already a large city, the largest Korean city by far, Seoul (Hanyang or Hanseong during the Joseon period, 1392 - 1897), grew quickly under growing foreign influence, especially from Japan, in the late 19th century. After Japan established a protectorate over Korea in 1905 and annexed it outright in 1910, Japanese businesses and colonists arrived in greater numbers, and the emergence of new industries attracted more Koreans from the countryside to the city. (Tenant farmers were also being pushed out of the countryside by the increasingly Japanese-dominated landowning class.) New government, banking, military, and police structures cropped up around the city, and ideas were floated for a comprehensive remake of the city's premodern armature. Following large-scale patriotic protests on March 1, 1919, Japanese colonial planners also changed tack and increasingly sought to develop a modern Korean identity within Japan's empire rather than purely seeing Koreans as an exploitable labor source or an incidental appendage to Japan's wider imperial aims. A degree of open discussion was allowed, and educated Koreans were able to have input on important issues of the day, such as the future planning of Keijō.

Colonial urban planners, therefore, had two main objectives in redesigning Seoul into a modern colonial capital: first, to ensure and reinforce Japanese rule, and second, to modernize the city's infrastructure. These two objectives were generally congruent in that modernizing the city's layout also made it more 'legible' - wider streets on a predictable grid pattern made policing and military operations much easier while also facilitating commerce, readjusted and reallocated plots of land made taxation much smoother, even the alteration of waterways for irrigation or to prevent floods had a political and ideological resonance, especially in an East Asian context where urban plans are historically intimately linked to fengshui principles. Markers of Korean identity and the preceding Joseon Dynasty were systematically replaced with colossal colonial architecture, with perhaps the most dramatic example being the erection of a massive Shintō shrine atop Namsan, traditionally the highest point in the city, where Koreans were regularly forced to praise the Japanese Emperor. Like their contemporaries in British India or French Indochina, these planners aimed to use monumental architecture and infrastructure to impress upon colonial subjects the preeminence of the metropole. They also genuinely believed that they were improving the lives of the city's common folk, which they certainly were in some respects (sanitation, transportation).

Publication History and Census

These maps contain no publication information, but their titles (Appendix Map 附圖) strongly suggest that they were prepared for a government report, most likely the 1926 plan for Keijō (京城都市計畫區域設定書), the first formal plan laid out by the city government, following on earlier partial and unofficial investigations. We have been unable to locate the maps in institutional collections. However, the two catalog listings for the 1926 plan (OCLC 38434126) held by Harvard University and the University of Hawaii at Manoa do refer to folded color maps. All in all, this is a rare opportunity to acquire a very rich resource for the history of Seoul during Japanese colonization.