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Kudō Takeki, Director of Keijō Women's Hospital, and His Medical Service for Women and Buddhist Activities in Colonial Korea Jaemok Choi, Jeonggon Kim Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, Volume 19, Number 1, April 2019, pp. 59-90 (Article) Published by Duke University Press For additional information about this article https://muse.jhu.edu/article/725765 [ Access provided at 30 Sep 2021 03:08 GMT with no institutional affiliation ] Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies Vol.19 No.1 © 2019 Academy of East Asian Studies. 59-90 DOI: 10.21866/esjeas.2019.19.1.004 Kudoˉ Takeki, Director of Keijoˉ Women’s Hospital, and His Medical Service for Women and Buddhist Activities in Colonial Korea* Jaemok CHOI** Yeungnam University Jeonggon KIM*** Yeungnam University ABSTRACT This paper examines the relationship between women’s medical care and Buddhism through the activities of Kudoˉ Takeki 工藤武城 (1878–?), director of Keijoˉ Women’s Hospital during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and how Kudoˉ’s projects functioned under Japanese “cultural rule” (Bunka seiji 文化政治) in colonial Korea. Kudoˉ Takeki specialized in gynecology at the University of Würzburg, Germany. Along with some other influential figures in Korea, he sought to cure even spiritual problems of his patients through Buddhist propagation and literary activities. Through his activities, Kudoˉ Takeki helped promote such initiatives on the part of the colonial rulers in their management of colonial Korea. His activities involved forging connections between medical service and Buddhism and between Buddhism and women. After the March First Movement of 1919, Governor-General Saitoˉ turned his attention to women, who had become more receptive to Buddhism in Korea after centuries of domination under Confucianism in Choso˘ n, as well as to medical science and service, the “benefits of civilization.” In this respect, the “cultural rule” of the colonial state tried to exercise governance by reconciling medicine, Buddhism, and women into a regime that could effectively further its agenda. In this invisible framework, Kudoˉ took it as his calling to improve the social status of Korean women and give them relief through his medical knowledge and practice. Keywords: Kudoˉ Takeki 工藤武城, “Fujin kagaku” (婦人科學 gynecology), Buddhism, medical service, women, colonial rule, mind-field (shinden 心田), Kannon faith, Zen, Choˉsen Bukkyoˉ Introduction Kudoˉ Takeki 工藤武城 (1878–?) was the director of a women’s hospital in Seoul during the Japanese occupation of Korea. This paper explores the relationship between medical service and Buddhism through his activities and discusses how they functioned under Japanese “cultural rule” 文化政治 (Bunka seiji) in colonial Korea. Kudoˉ Takeki was born in Kumamoto, Japan and specialized in gynecology at the University of Würzburg, Germany. He was one of the elite Japanese settlers in Korea. Appointed to Hanso˘ng Hospital run by the Association for Japanese Residents (Kyoryuˉmindan 居留民團) in Seoul as chief of its Gynecology Department in December 1905, he established Keijoˉ Women’s Hospital two years emails of the authors: [email protected], [email protected] 59 Jaemok CHOI and Jeonggon KIM later and worked as its director (Kawabata 1910, 91–92; Choˉsen koˉronsha 1917, 307). In collaboration with elite Japanese settlers working in other fields in Korea, Kudoˉ played a role in supporting Japan’s colonial rule over Korea. He was not simply a doctor who tried to cure bodily disease. Along with other influential figures in Korea, he sought to cure even the spiritual problems of his patients through Buddhist literary activities.1 In a sense, Kudoˉ can be seen as a figure exemplifying the ideals of Japanese colonial rule based on his Buddhist convictions. Hence, this paper attempts to illustrate how Kudoˉ Takeki’s medical and religious activities were closely associated with the policies of Japanese imperial rule in colonial Korea. This paper will first examine how Kudoˉ’s understanding of “the science of gynecology” and his Buddhist literary activities, including his Zen 禪 practice, were related to Japan’s cultural rule; and second, it will explore how medical service, Buddhism, and women were connected in colonial Korea through the medium of Kudoˉ’s “Kannon faith.” Religion and Medicine One of the major concerns of religion has always been how to address the problem of pain in people’s lives. This is not merely an important consideration; indeed, it is arguably the central point of religion. In the Bible, for example, Jesus served as a healer of the sick and those possessed by demons, and this was central to his mission, along with preaching the Gospel. Building hospitals was considered an important part of Christian missionary work in terms of modernization throughout the world. Confucianism and Buddhism were no exceptions: As expressed in such terms as “Confucian physician” 儒醫 and “monk physician” 僧醫, these two religions also regarded the problem of disease and treatment as important, though they tended to locate the cause of disease in the “mind.” Taoism even has a scripture on the human body, the Huangdi neijing 黃帝内經. By presenting an ideal principle for medical remedy, as expressed in the statement “The perfected person treats diseases according to the Tao” 眞人以道治病, this ancient Chinese medical text still retains a certain influence even today. Buddhism can itself be described as an extensive medical system whereby its followers, faced with the sufferings of birth, aging, illness, and death—miseries that people are fated to experience throughout life—attempt to find the causes of these sufferings, remove them, and proceed to the world of enlightenment. Above all, the presence of faith in Bhaiṣajyaguru (J. Yakushi nyorai 藥師如來) and * This work was supported by the research fund for post-doctoral researcher projects, 2014, of Yeungnam University. ** First author. *** Corresponding author. 1 Kudoˉ Takeki’s writings on the problems of Korean women, such as early marriage, drew much attention from readers in colonial Korea. In Japan, Kudoˉ was considered as having upheld Korean women’s rights during Japan’s occupation of Korea, helping them to stop passively accepting discrimination and to instead assert themselves (Araki Nobuko 2015, 69–83). However, he was also a supporter of Japan’s colonial rule of Korea and its colonial policy (Ch’oe Chaemok and Kim Cho˘ nggon, 2015). 60 Kudo- Takeki, Director of Keijo- Women’s Hospital, and His Medical Service for Women and Buddhist Activities in Colonial Korea Avalokiteśvara (J. Kannon bosatsu 觀音菩薩), who save people from the sufferings of illness, is a case in point. When we discuss Buddhism with regard to women, the Saddharma Puṇḍarˉika Suˉtra (or Lotus Sotra 法華經) was also widely known to both Japanese and Korean people, along with the Śrˉimaˉlaˉdevˉi Siṃhanaˉda Suˉtra 勝鬘經. Good fortune is promised to those who remember, transcribe, recite, explain, and practice the sutra, which itself claims to be “foremost among all sutras.” This sutra emancipates all sentient beings from their anguish…just like a sick person encountering a doctor . [it] allows sentient beings to be released from all kinds of sufferings, all kinds of illness-originated pain, and frees them from all the bonds of life and death. If someone listens to [a recitation of] the Saddharma Pund..arˉika Suˉtra or writes it down, or has someone else write it down, he will have immeasurable good fortune . If a sick person can hear this sutra, the illness will disappear immediately and he will achieve perpetual youth and immortality. (Kim 2001, 405–9) (Authors’ emphasis) Women suffering from some kind of weakness or illness have long loved this sutra. One chapter called “The Avalokiteśvara Bodhisattva Universal Gate from the Lotus Suˉtra” 觀世音菩薩普門品 became independent and was separately called the Avalokiteśvara Suˉtra 觀音經 and gave rise to the “Kannon faith” or “Belief in the Bodhisattva of Avalokiteśvara,” projecting the feminine image as a goddess of mercy who delivers her followers from afflictions and distress. If a pregnant woman gives obeisance and offerings to Avalokites´vara to have a boy, she will have a son with good fortune and wisdom; if she wants a daughter, she will have a proper and beautiful daughter. If she performed a great many good deeds in her former life, she will be loved and respected by all. When someone was needed to be delivered through a woman, [Avalokites´vara] appeared immediately in a woman’s body and taught [him/her] the Dharma. (Kim, 2001: 429–30, 432). The teachings of Zen and Zen dialogues have sometimes been compared to medical practice, as exemplified by such phrases as “medicine applied according to illness” 施設藥病 and “curing the diseases and untying the bonds” 治病解縛 (Linji 2015, 204 and 252). Buddhism aims to resolve the sufferings of life, and medical science focuses on disease. Both share the same basic originary motive. Health in Buddhism can be said to be inseparable from enlightenment as it is a necessary condition for “practicing the path of enlightenment,” and not an objective in itself (Sasaki 2011, 25–26). How did Kudoˉ try to connect religion and medical knowledge? Kudoˉ took an especially keen interest in religion. Kudoˉ criticized Korean medicine (like science in general in Korea) for having made no progress under the influence of Confucianism and Buddhism. Nevertheless, he said that it was worth encouraging Korean medicine to adopt Confucian and Buddhist ideas, including the understanding of the human body based on the theory of yin-yang and the five elements in the Yijing 易經 (Kudoˉ 1911, 27). He referred to Confucianism and Buddhism when he discussed the historical impact of religion on medicine in 61 Jaemok CHOI and Jeonggon KIM Korea, as both had exerted significant influence on traditional medical science, but the medical knowledge found in Buddhist sutras had much greater importance. As a result, medicine was practiced by “monk physicians,” and this system was also introduced to Japan.

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