Kudō Takeki, Director of Keijō Women’s Hospital, and His Medical Service for Women and Buddhist Activities in Colonial Korea

Abstract

This paper examines the relationship between women’s medical care and Buddhism through the activities of Kudo Takeki 工藤武城 (1878-?), director of Keijo Women’s Hospital during the Japanese occupation of Korea, and how Kudo’s projects functioned under Japanese “cultural rule” (Bunka seiji 文化政治) in colonial Korea. Kudo Takeki specialized in gynecology at the University of Wurzburg, Germany. Along with some other influential figures in Korea, he sought to cure even spiritual problems of his patients through Buddhist propagation and literary activities. Through his activities, Kudo Takeki helped promote such initiatives on the part of the colonial rulers in their management of colonial Korea. His activities involved forging connections between medical service and Buddhism and between Buddhism and women. After the March First Movement of 1919, Governor-General Saito turned his attention to women, who had become more receptive to Buddhism in Korea after centuries of domination under Confucianism in Choson, as well as to medical science and service, the “benefits of civilization.” In this respect, the “cultural rule” of the colonial state tried to exercise governance by reconciling medicine, Buddhism, and women into a regime that could effectively further its agenda. In this invisible framework, Kudo took it as his calling to improve the social status of Korean women and give them relief through his medical knowledge and practice.