A Study on the Bibliography of Records of Gisaeng and Changgi and the Implantation of a Prostitution System by Japanese Resident- General: Focusing on the Prostitute-Related Documents Composed from September to October 1908 and in March 1909

This study analyzed and examined prostitute-related documents (from September to October 1908 and in March 1909) on the enactment preparation, issuance, enforcement, detailed regulation, report format, etc, of the second document type on 2) the Prostitute Regulation Law (Prostitution System) among four types of documents composing the records of Gisaeng and Changgi. Then, this study conducted a thorough analysis of the “prostitute-related documents” while maintaining academic objectivity and neutrality. First, the Prostitution System targeted the prostitutes involved in a prostitution business on the Korean Peninsula during the end of the Korean Empire Period. It was a Japanese-style prostitution system which was forcibly implemented by the Japanese colonial ruler. In fact, the Japanese Resident-General arranged all the related policies, enacted and announced related laws, laid down phased and detailed guidelines, and made the Japanese police officers manage and supervise the prostitutes. Second, the Korean Peninsula did not originally have a nationally authorized prostitution system. In September 25, 1908, right before the colonization of the Joseon Dynasty, the Japanese Resident-General implemented the firstever prostitution system for Korean prostitutes. In other words, the Records of Gisaeng and Prostitute are bitter records on process of how the Korean Peninsula, which strictly prohibited any prostitution involving money, was degraded into an immoral society in which people traded sex without any legal punishment. Third, the National Unified Prostitution Law was enacted in Japan on October 2nd, 1900. The Prostitution System, forcibly implemented on September 25, 1908 by the Japanese Resident-General, was the lighter edition of the National Unified Prostitution Law restructured based on the circumstances of the colonized countries, such as Taiwan. Finally, a correct understanding and new perception toward the Korean modern history of Gisaeng and prostitutes need to be formed by clearly distinguishing and understanding the concepts of Gisaeng Group as the artist group that inherited the tradition of female musicians and the prostitute group as a group who lived off of prostitution during The Korean Empire’s turning point of modernization.