• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.12 no.1
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• pp.44-58
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• 2006

This study of Shintoism is to inquire the relationships between social-political ideology and place of Shinto shrine(神社). In Korea, the Shinto shrine was a place of the center of Japanese colonial policy that symbolized the goal of Japanese Imperialism. This was one of the strategies of "Japan and Korea Are One". Before the China and Japan War in 1937, the number of shrines amounted to 51 sites, 12 of them were closely related to open ports, and the others were located at inland major cities. They also were associated with railroad transportation systems that tied coast and inland major cities. This spatial distribution of shrines was so called "Shrine Network" that was essential in tracing Japanese invasion into Korea. It was an imperial place where Japanese residence and colonial landscape were combined together to show the strength of Japanese Imperialism. Most of shrines were located at a hill with a view on the slope of a mountain and honored Goddess Amaterasu and the Meiji Emperor. I presume from these facts that Shinto Shrine was a supervisionary organization for strategic purpose. The Jeonju Shrine was located on a small hill, Dagasan(65m) where commanded a splendid view of Jeonju city and honored Goddess Amaterasu and the Meiji Emperor. It was a place which was adjacent to Japanese residence and colonial landscape. The Dagasan was changed as a symbolic site for Japanese Imperialism. But, after liberation in 1945, the social-political symbol of the hill was changed. By the strong will of civil, there was a monument to the loyal dead and the national poet, Yi Byeng-gi placed for national identity at the site of the demolished Jeonju Shrine. Dagasan as a place of national identity, shows the symbolic decolonization and the changing ideology. After all, this shows that political ideology is represented in a place with landscape.