With the rise of the necessity to making diplomatic ties with foreign countries at the time of the opening of ports, the national symbols which originally served for the image of an independent national state externally and also for the integration of a nation state internally underwent a fundamental transformation. In this paper, I examined the changes of national symbols in everyday usage especially focusing on textbooks, picture postcards and commercials from newspapers in terms of their characteristics and meanings.
National symbols came to be widely transmitted through officially published textbooks since 1896. However, after the Eulsa Treaty, textbooks came to be published by the protectorate government and national symbols were employed more in privately published textbooks. The national flag was represented in the picture of marching soldiers with flags or flags on warship. The symbol of plum tree flowers were that of the Imperial family and included in the chapter for ‘lihua’(the chinese pronunciation of the flower)’. However, after 1905, from the officially published textbooks, the pictures of flags or plum trees disappeared and the chrysanthemum, the symbol of Japanese imperial family were newly included instead. After 1910, the Taegeukgi and plum tree flowers were totally replaced by Japanese Hinomaru and chrysanthemum.
Picture postcards, thought as a method of public enlightenment then, included pictures of national symbols commemorating socially significant events or persons. Therefore, from the official picture postcards, national symbols of Great Han empire came to be replaced by those of Japanese imperialism. Postcards commemorating the coronation of King Sunjong in 1907 or the imperial tours of South and West region in 1909 employed the image of plum tree flowers, the symbol of the royal flag of King Sunjong. With the visit of the Japanese crown prince to Korean peninsula in 1907, the image of chrysanthemum firstly appeared in the form of the seal printed at the postcards. During the Japanese colonialism, chrysanthemum, Hinomaru, Paulownia Coreana were enthusiastically employed.
The national symbols were also employed in commercials. During the Great Han Empire, Taegeukgi was utilized for the commercial of tobaccos representing patriotism. In addition, the Hwapyeongdang pharmacy used the image of plum tree flowers for commercials. During Japanese colonialism, the image of Taegeuk was mobilized to call for the patriotic usage of domestic goods. However, in commercials, Japanese Hinomaru came to be more popular, while the meaning of domestic goods was changed to that of Japanese goods. In some commercials, patriotism was mobilized only to sell more goods.