Diario La Nación
- The funeral of Korea’s last emperor
A large photographic feature presents the funeral of Korea’s last emperor through four numbered captions: ceremonial wooden horses, their burning, the transport of the catafalque and mourners before the coffin. This partial reading translates the title and captions only.
Large central funeral title and numbered caption beneath the four photographs only; body paragraphs are outside scope.
Translation
The funeral of Korea’s last emperor
The funeral of Korea’s last emperor
1. The wooden horses used in the ceremony. — 2. The burning of the horses. — 3. The catafalque being carried from Seoul to the mountain. — 4. Koreans prostrate before the coffin.
Context
An emperor after the loss of sovereignty
Sunjong became emperor in 1907, but Korea lost its sovereignty to Japan in 1910. He then lived at Changdeokgung until his death in April 1926. “The last emperor” therefore describes more than the end of one life: the funeral recalled a monarchy whose independent rule had already ended sixteen years earlier.
A royal funeral under colonial control
The funeral took place on June 10, 1926. Research on its contemporary record shows that Japanese intervention combined older Korean royal practices with a modern Japanese-style state funeral. The elaborate procession and ritual objects belonged to a ceremony that preserved royal forms while also displaying the changed political position of the royal house.
A distant ceremony presented through photographs
The four captions guide Chilean readers through objects, an act of burning, the journey of the coffin and public mourning. They turn a distant funeral into a sequence of visible scenes. Published more than three months after the ceremony, the page functions as illustrated remembrance rather than a report of an event occurring that day.
Original
Los funerales del último Emperador de Corea 1. Los caballos de madera que sirvieron en la ceremonia — 2. El acto de quemar los caballos — 3. El catafalco, al ser transportado de Seoul a la montaña — 4. Coreanos postrados ante el ataúd.
Los funerales del último Emperador de Corea
1. Los caballos de madera que sirvieron en la ceremonia — 2. El acto de quemar los caballos — 3. El catafalco, al ser transportado de Seoul a la montaña — 4. Coreanos postrados ante el ataúd.
Source: Source: Internet Archive