2011 May 13 - "Dong-a Ilbo" Reports Discovery of a "Dae Dongyeojido" Map Showing "Dokdo"

In a May 13 article entitled, "First Domestic Discovery of a Hand-drawn Dae Dongyeojido Map Showing Dokdo," Korea's Dong-a Ilbo reports the following:

A Dae Dongyeojido (大東輿地圖 – 대동여지도) map showing Dokdo has been discovered  domestically for the first time.

On the 11th, the Academy of Korean Studies revealed, "In November of last year, while researching old documents as part of an effort to promote Korean Studies, a hand-drawn copy of a Dae Dongyeojido map showing Dokdo was found in Seoul's Seodaemun District Korean Research Center library.

On this handdrawn copy, an island labeled "Usan" (于山) was drawn to the right of Ulleungdo. Usan was the old name for Dokdo. The sea was drawn blue and the islands were drawn yellow.

Worldwide, there are a total of 25 block-print or hand-drawn copies of the Dae Dongyeojido. As for copies showing Dokdo, until now there was only a block-print copy in Japan's Diet Library, none had been found domestically. In the block prints, Kim Jong-ho, himself, craved the map on the blocks in 1861. The hand-drawn copies were made by placing paper over the original blocks and tracing them.

The Research Director of the Academy of Korean Studies, Ok Yeong-jeong, said, "A hand-drawn Dae Dongyeojido map showing Dokdo is important for understanding how Dokdo was seen by Koreans in the 19th century.  Lee Sang-tae, an endowed professor at the Graduate School of Korea International Culture University, explained, "Japan has claimed sovereignty of Dokdo by saying 'Dokdo has hardly appeared on a Dae Dongyeojido, which is Korea's representative map,' but the discovery of this map has confirmed that claim is groundless."

Above Ulleungdo on the map is written, "In the 11th year of Yeongjong, Gangwon Gamsa Jo Choi-su inspected Ulleungdo, and Usando is to the east of Ulleungdo." Concerning this, Professor Lee explained, "Until the Daehan Emprie was established in 1897, King Yeongjo was called 'Yeongjong,' so this hand-drawn map was drawn sometime between 1861, when the Dae Dongyeojido was first made, and 1897.

Thanks for the link to the article, Chaamiey.

The following is an image of the map from YTN News:



Of course, the island the article is claiming to be "Dokdo" is actually Ulleungdo's neighboring island of Jukdo (竹島 - 죽도), which is two kilometers off Ulleungdo's east shore, as shown in the Google satellite image below:

Besides the Dae Dongyeojido shown above, Kim Jong-ho also drew the following 1834 map of Ulleungdo and Usando, a map which has gridlines for distance along the edge. Each gridline represented ten ri, which was about four kilometers. The gridlines prove that the Usan (于山) on the map could not have possibly been Liancourt Rocks (Dokdo), which are are about 90 kilometers southeast of Ulleungdo and are essentially made up of two rock islets, not one.