“Asian Review 040” ― Seoul part1
Seoul after 4 years’ absence
In the first half of the Japanese 10 day holiday, we visited Seoul, Korea, for four nights and five days.
The main purpose of the journey was to see how the city changed after the last visit four years ago, especially to see how the people are enjoying the finished projects such as the “Regeneration of the Cheonggye River,” “Seoul-lo-7017,” and ” Dongdaemun Design Plaza”. Under the President Moon Jae-in’s regime, the relationship between the two countries has become quite complicated, but it is said that “Japan and South Korea are neighbors who cannot turn their backs to each other”, and I also had an intention to certify the people’s atmosphere directly.
Seoul has a history of more than 600 years. It was called “Hansong (Han Castle)” in the 4th century when Baekje ruled it, “Hanyang” in the 7th century when Shinra conquest three countries. When Goguryeo ruled the country setting the capital in Pyongyang, it was called “Nanjing”, and when the Joseon dynasty was established in 1392, they set the capital here and renamed it to “Hansong” again. During Japanese governance as a “protected country” after the Russo-Japanese War, the city was called “Keijo”.
It was in 1948 when the Republic of Korea was established that this city came to be called Seoul. It was named after “Sorabol” which means “the capital” in ancient Shinra.
In 1446, the fourth King Sejong the Great of Korea established the Hangul letters so that people could write their own words without using Chinese characters. The reason why they named the city “Seoul” must be the same, they would like to appeal that “Korean people” have unique history and culture different from China and Japan. I feel the strong intention of the Korean ethnic here.
Nevertheless, we still can find remnants of “Hanyang” and “Hansong” in the names such as the Han River famous for the “Miracle on the Han River”, and the tourist resource “Hanyangdoseong”. From now on, I would like to explore Seoul for a while. Keep in touch!
