It was very cold when I had visited the Deoksugung.
There are 5 palaces of Choson Dynasty in Seoul.
The first is Gyeongbokgung which had been built with the begging of Choson Dynasty.
According to the principle of building Palace, the main palace must’ve been built with other 2 palaces. One for the secondary and others for the emergency.
The secondary palace was Changdeokgung.
Third king of dynasty Tae Jong had built Changdeokgung.
He became King as a result of the coup which was known as the revolt of the prince.
King Tae Jong killed lots of his opponents in the main palace Gyeongbokgung.
So he didn’t want to stay in the main palace.
Instead he built Changdeokgung.
Gyeongbokgung had been totally destroyed during Japanese invasion 1592 - 1598
With the destruction of Gyeongbokgung, Changdeokgung had been used as the main palace.
In the other hands, Changgyeonggung had been built near Changdeokgung. Changgyeonggung had been used for the important ceremony, e.g. the coronation or the diplomatic ceremony.
The building of the Palace had been continued with the historical incident.
After the Japanese invasion in 1592, All most of palaces were destroyed.
So they had rebuilt Changgeokgung for King and Gyeongheegung had been built for the king’s family. But Gyeongheegung had been destroyed under the rule of Japanese imperialists.
Deoksugung was originally the palace for the emergency. There was few buildings and place was narrow. In this reason, Deoksugung had not been used as an important place for long time.
Deoksugung was the temporary facility in fact.
But at the end of Choson Dynasty, Deoksugung had played the important role. Last king had moved to Deoksugung as soon as his wife had been killed by Japanese solders in main palace.
It seemed that he moved to Deoksugung seeking for the help from the foreign country. The embassies of the great powers had been located around Deoksugung.
It seemed that the moving palace was the last attempt to sustain the independence from the threat of the colonization by Japan. But it was useless, the great powers had admitted the colonization of Choson by Japan.
It was impossible to maintain the independence without their power and ability.
In this respect, Deoksugung was the place of the disgrace for Korean people in history.
It was not intended visit. I walked near the City Hall of Seoul.
At that time I had heard the traditional marching music.
At the gate to Deoksugung, the ceremony of the changing the guards was held.
This ceremony seemed to be held for the tourists.
I felt strange why they held this ceremony at Deoksugung.
As I explained so far, each palace of Choson dynasty has it’s own historical meaning.
Deoksugung was the disgraceful palace for sovereignty being taken away.
In this palace, the ceremony of changing guards didn’t suit for historical meaning.
Any way the ceremony was held.
I couldn’t take whole ceremony, because I was late at the ceremony.
If I have chance to take the photo once more, I would post the ceremony more in detail.
In this posting, I’d like satisfy with showing you some pics of the ceremony at the gate of last Palace of the Dynasty.