Original Photo - JAPANESE IN KOREA - EMPRESS FUNERAL

An original photograph, circa 1920's, capturing the state funeral of Empress Myeongseonga, during the Japanese forced occupation of Korea, two years and two months after her assassination by the Japanese. The Empress's coffin was carried by 600 men wearing white mourning cloth. Publisher's stamp to verso, otherwise in Very Good Condition. Photograph measures approximately 4.75 inches x 6.75 inches (12cm x 17cm).

In the late 19th and early 20th century, various Western countries actively competed for influence, trade, and territory in East Asia, and Japan sought to join these modern colonial powers. The newly modernised Meiji government of Japan turned to Korea, then in the sphere of influence of China's Qing Dynasty. The Japanese government initially sought to separate Korea from Qing and make Korea a Japanese satellite in order to further their security and national interests.

In January 1876, following the Meiji Restoration, Japan employed gunboat diplomacy to pressure Korea to sign the Treaty of Ganghwa, which was regarded as an unequal treaty, which granted extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens and opened three Korean ports to Japanese trade. The rights granted to Japan under the treaty were similar to those granted western powers in Japan following the visit of Commodore Perry.

Empress Myeongseong (1851-1895), also known as Queen Min, was the first official wife of King Gojong, the twenty-sixth king of the Joseon dynasty of Korea. The Japanese considered her as an obstacle against its overseas expansion. Efforts to remove her from the political arena, orchestrated through failed rebellions prompted by the father of King Gojong, Heungseon Daewongun (an influential regent working with the Japanese), compelled the Empress to take a harsher stand against Japanese influence.

After Japan's victory in the First Sino-Japanese War, Queen Min advocated stronger ties between Korea and Russia in an attempt to block Japanese influence in Korea, which was represented by the Daewongun. Miura Goro-, the Japanese Minister to Korea at the time and a retired army lieutenant-general, backed the faction headed by the Daewongun, whom he considered to be more sympathetic to Japanese interests.

In the early morning of 8 October 1895, sword-bearing assassins allegedly under orders from Miura Goro- entered Gyeongbok Palace. Upon entering the Queen's Quarters, the assassins "killed three court [women] suspected of being Empress Myeongseong. When they confirmed that one of them was the Empress, they burned the corpse in the pine forest in front of the Okhulu, complex of the immense palace, and then dispersed the ashes."