Calligraphy by An Jung-geun

An Jung-geun was born in Haeju, Hwanghae Province. In 1894, aged sixteen, when his father organised a militia of hunters (sanpogun) at the request of the provincial governor to suppress the Donghak forces, An took part in the campaign. In 1906 he founded Samheung School and took over the running of Donui School, devoting himself to school administration. After beginning his armed struggle against Japan, he attacked and defeated a Japanese army reconnaissance unit. On 26 October 1909, when the train carrying Itō Hirobumi arrived at Harbin and, having reviewed a Russian honour guard, Itō turned toward the crowd, An fired his pistol and struck him with three shots. He was imprisoned at Lüshun Prison and died a martyr's death at the execution ground on 26 March 1910. This calligraphy, titled Yokbo dongyang seon'gae jeongnyak sigwasilgi chuhoe hageup (欲保東洋先改政略時過失機追悔何及), was received in March 1910, while An Jung-geun (1879–1910) was in prison, by Orita Tadasu. Orita had served during the Russo–Japanese War as a jeonui (a senior physician's post attached to the Taeuiwon, the royal clinic of the Korean Empire; there were four such posts) and, after the war ended, was transferred to Lüshun Prison in Manchuria, where he kept this piece of An's own handwriting. When Liberation came on 15 August 1945 and his family returned to Japan, he passed it to his nephew Orita Kanji, and it was donated to Dankook University on 20 February 1989. The work carries the message: "If one wishes to preserve the East, the policy of aggression must first be changed. If the moment passes and the opportunity is lost, regret will be of no avail!" — urging Japan to correct its mistaken policy and warning its rulers to be alert. It is written in two lines of sixteen characters on fine, high-quality seonji (a traditional handmade mulberry paper) produced in Xuancheng County, Anhui Province, China, with an inked inscription to the left reading "Written by An Jung-geun, a man of Korea, in the third month of the gyeongsul year (1910), in Lüshun Prison," accompanied by a seal made with his palm print. It is valued as an important source for the study of both An Jung-geun's personal history and the history of the independence movement. Yokbo dongyang seon'gae jeongnyak sigwasilgi chuhoe hageup: if one wishes to preserve the East, the policy must first be changed; once the moment and the opportunity are lost, regret will be of no avail.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Yongin, Gyeonggi

Designation

Treasure · 보물