1899 Report of Ulleungdo by Japanese warship Maya

This is a report of Ulleungdo by the Lieutenant Junior Grade of Navy （海軍中尉）Furukawa of a warship Maya，dated September 27^th, the 32^nd year of Meiji (1899). It was almost the same period as the Hwangseong Sinmun (皇城新聞) article “Ulleungdo Situation (鬱陵島 事況)” on September 23^rd 1899.

http://dokdo-or-takeshima.blogspot.com/2008/04/hwangseong-sinmun-1899-sep-23-ulleungdo.html

http://dokdo-or-takeshima.blogspot.com/2008/05/1899923.html

The information in the report was mainly from a man from Shimane prefecture Amano Genzo who had lived there for 5 years. There is no particular interesting mentioning in the report, it referred to the circumference of Ulleungdo as 13-ri (52km) and it also mentioned that it lacked in flat places because of steep mountains. It said that there were 500 Korean families with population of about 2,000 while Japanese population was only about 100. It was 150 until May or June that year. The place where the many Japanese stayed was 東洞 (Todong), where 15 families with 30 people lived. At 南陽洞 (south part of Ulleungdo) there were four families with seven people and at 通亀尾 (south part of Ulleungdo) three families with 9 people. According to the Hwangseong Sinmun article, Korean population was 300 families and Japanese population was about 200. It is interesting that Korean overestimated Japanese population and Japanese overestimated Korean population.

The report said that Korean people dwelt next to the land they cultivated themselves so their houses were scattered, they only formed 8 village communities. It also said that Korean people were full-time farmers, cropping soybeans but some village communities had a few little ships and some of them did fishing and hunting but the catch was not so large (僅少ノ漁猟ヲナスモノアリト云フ).

As to the Island Supervisor (島監) 裵季周, the report mentioned that he lived at 東洞 and that he was a good-natured man who could understand Japanese language. He was appointed to the post four years before and he visited Japan and inspected Tsuruga and Matsue during one year from May 1898 until May 1899. There had been another Island Supervisor before but he was disliked by villagers for some reasons and was expelled.