Preserving Ito Hirobumi's Handwritten Cornerstone Stone

Leaving It As Is at the Bank of Korea Headquarters and Installing a Signboard in the Flower Bed
"A Separate Subcommittee Will Be Formed to Discuss Wording and Size"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The cornerstone of the Bank of Korea headquarters in Seoul (formerly the Joseon Bank main office, Historic Site No. 280), confirmed to bear the handwritten inscription of Ito Hirobumi, Japan's first Prime Minister, is undergoing preservation procedures. According to the Cultural Heritage Administration on the 26th, the Modern Division of the Cultural Heritage Committee recently decided to leave the cornerstone as is and install an information board containing related explanations. Although options such as covering the cornerstone with stone or relocating it to the Independence Hall were discussed, the decision was made to preserve it as a historical record. The Cultural Heritage Administration stated, "The information board is expected to be placed in the flower bed around the cornerstone," and "a separate subcommittee will be formed to discuss the wording and size."

The cornerstone of the Bank of Korea headquarters bears the inscription "Jeongcho (定礎)" meaning "cornerstone laying." In October last year, Jeon Yong-gi, a member of the Democratic Party of Korea, claimed at the Cultural Heritage Administration's national audit that the inscription was Ito's handwriting, based on the "Economic outlines of Chosen and Manchuria" held by the UC Berkeley Library in the United States. The Cultural Heritage Administration formed an advisory group of three calligraphy experts to conduct an on-site investigation. They compared and analyzed it with Ito's brush calligraphy held at the Hamamatsu City Central Library in Japan. The inscription on the cornerstone exhibited characteristics found in Ito's handwriting, such as the use of ink brush strokes and the diagonal stroke descending from the upper left to the lower right.

In December last year, the Cultural Heritage Administration surveyed over 1,000 citizens regarding the management plan for the cornerstone. 52.7% of respondents answered that it should be preserved as a historical record and an information board should be installed. The remaining 47.3% said that traces of Ito should be erased.

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