000			02097nam a22001457a 4500
999			_c525771 _d525771
008			240415b ||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d
100			_aOh, Younjung _951689
245			_aThe paradox of authenticity: The Korean product showroom of Mitsukoshi department store in Colonial Seoul
260			_a Modern Asian Studies
300			_a57(4), Jul, 2023: p.1246-1276
520			_aMitsukoshi, a famed Japanese department store, opened a Korean Product Showroom in its Keijō (Seoul) branch in 1930. The Korean Product Showroom was the only space decorated in ‘Korean style’ within the Keijō Mitsukoshi building, which was designed in Neo-Renaissance style, much like its flagship store in Tokyo. This showroom offered Korean artefacts as luxury souvenirs aimed at Japanese tourists. The most popular items sold in the showroom were Koryŏ-style celadon ware and lacquerware inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which Mitsukoshi ordered from local workshops in Korea. Interestingly, the workshops were run by Japanese entrepreneurs and sometimes even employed Japanese artisans. This article examines the inauthentic authenticity of ‘Korean style’ and ‘Korean products’ that the Japanese produced and consumed in colonial Korea. It does not imply that only Koreans are entitled to represent Korean culture. There have been many studies asserting that Korean culture was destroyed and distorted from its ‘original’ forms by Japan’s cultural genocide during the colonial period. This article neither is interested in repeating such criticism nor focuses on recuperating genuine Koreanness. Rather, it explores why the Japanese desired ‘pure Korea’ and how that desire shaped ‘Korean style’ and ‘Korean products’ through Keijō Mitsukoshi’s Korean Product Showroom and its products.- Reproduced https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/modern-asian-studies/article/paradox-of-authenticity-the-korean-product-showroom-of-mitsukoshi-department-store-in-colonial-seoul/DDB9626F57E341C8ABE6C692471A3F0F
773			_aModern Asian Studies
906			_aHISTORY
942			_cAR