2024-08-04 16:45:48
Centennial Photo No. 72
This is a 100-year-old photo that looks back on the present through a photo from 100 years ago. The heat was the same then as it is now. However, there are many more ways to endure the heat now. The photo I chose this week is a photo of a store with the character for ice (氷) written all over it. It is a story from the August 1, 1924 edition of the Dong-A Ilbo that a store selling ice was doing well in the hot summer. The store was called ‘ga-ga’, meaning ‘a temporary house’.
It is so hot that it is ridiculously hot. As the weather gets hotter, the people who are having a good time are ice merchants. The ice consumed in Gyeongseong city during the summer usually exceeds 20,000 won, and even if this price is reported as the wholesale price this year, it is said that the price of this money is 13 won and 50 jeon per won, so it is not less than 170,000 won. If this is converted to the retail price, it is said that it is at least 2 to 3 times more abundant. However, last winter, the weather was unusually warm, so collecting ice from the Han River was not easy, and so out of the twenty or so ice stores in Gyeongseong, except for two companies, Gyeongseong Natural Ice and Joseon Natural Ice, there was no ice stored at all, and even the two companies did not have the 20,000 won (don) of ice consumed in Gyeongseong throughout the year. As a result, the general public was worried that the price of ice would be high this summer, but in fact, on the contrary, the retail price was cheaper than last year, showing a strange phenomenon. The reason for this was that Japanese ice merchants, who were well-versed in profit, guessed that there was a shortage of ice in Gyeongseong, so they imported ice from Andong-hyeon, Baekma in Pyeonganbuk-do, and Seohojin in Hamnam-do, and distributed it in Gyeongseong and sold it cheaply. It is said that the two natural ice companies in Joseon and Gyeongseong, who saw this because they handed it over to retailers, started selling it competitively at a cheaper price. However, the retail price is still the same as last year when ice was expensive. The 200 or so retailers charge 20 or 25 jeon per ‘cup’ by adding a little bit of special flavor to ‘Ichigo’.
● The reason why the Japanese started buying ice in the days when ice was collected from the Han River and used in the summer
In the days when artificial ice could not be made by freezing, the Han River in Seoul was an important resource for ice to be used in the summer. Although ice mining in the Han River had been around since before, the ice business was an important industry that supported Seoul’s winters from the Joseon Dynasty to the modern era. During the Joseon Dynasty, ice mining was mainly led by the government, and the ice collected was used in the royal palace and government offices. The royal family used ice to provide cold food in the hot summer, and the royal ice storage was thoroughly managed, and much effort was made to ensure that the supply of ice was not cut off. In the modern era, the ice mining industry gradually spread to the private sector. In the late 19th century and early 20th century, as the population of Seoul rapidly increased, the demand for ice also increased rapidly. Accordingly, large-scale ice merchants emerged in the Han River area to collect and sell ice. When the Han River froze in winter, they would go out to the river to collect ice, cut it, and transport it to the city center. According to the article, it seems that 100 years ago, the winter weather was warm, making it difficult to collect ice from the Han River. Japanese merchants who were smart about money calculated in advance that there would be an ice shortage and a surge in prices, so they gathered ice in advance in cold regions like Andong (Shenyang, China) and transported it to Seoul, but when summer came, the prices were not that high. This is the article’s content, saying that it was thanks to a discount event held at ice stores run by Joseon people.
● The Japanese regulated the ice industry under the pretext of sanitary issues. The Korean merchants’ response was to establish a union.
Let’s also take a look at the article from January 16, 1925.
It contains an appeal about the difficulties caused by sanitary regulations for the ice business. It asks whether politics should interfere with the livelihood issues of many workers who make a living by the Han River.
For hundreds of years, the ice storage industry, a traditional Korean occupation, has been around. When the Han River freezes over in Simdong, they build an icehouse nearby to collect and store ice, and then provide it to customers in various areas in July or August of the following year. The cost of collecting ice is only 3 to 4 jeon per ice block, which does not require much capital. If the market price is high the following year, one ice block can be sold for 70 to 80 jeon or even 1 won or more, making it a very profitable business. In addition, fishing along the rivers protects freshwater fish from ice in the summer, so if this ice storage industry is no longer possible, it will not only lead to a loss of fishing, but will also lead to unemployment for workers in the winter. That is, since the goods distributed in Yeongang through ice mining amount to at least 70,000 to 100,000 won a year, the workers look forward to this period as much as the harvest period for tenant farmers. However, since the authorities have not permitted it for the past two or three years, the workers in Yeongang have been suffering from a miserable life that is hard to describe. There is no room for objection that the authorities are interfering with the business by focusing on hygiene, interpreting it as good intentions, but isn’t there a limit to interference? Why must we invest a lot of money to establish a storage facility? Even if the existing ice facility is imperfect, it can sufficiently defend against the intrusion of foreign substances, and if the storage facility is improved, it can be used sufficiently, and even if it is stored in a warehouse, it is common to take it out after 4 or 5 months, so if the essence of politics is to make each company safe and free of resentment by taking into account the previous circumstances and general situation, I earnestly hope that the authorities will reflect more. Finally, I would like to make a single request to the Joseon bingo business owners: Do not be dazzled by small profits in the short term and take the path of competition. Instead, pool your capital and form a substantial society or union that can be fully managed. In this way, maintain the legacy passed down from your ancestors and save your fellow workers who are crying out for unemployment!
● Traces of ice harvesting from the Han River
![Selling Ice from the Han River – A Special Business That Makes Summer Cool[청계천 옆 사진관]](https://dimg.donga.com/wps/NEWS/IMAGE/2024/08/03/126303702.1.jpg "Selling Ice from the Han River – A Special Business That Makes Summer Cool[청계천 옆 사진관]")
In the mid-20th century, refrigeration technology developed rapidly. As electric refrigerators became widespread, the need to collect ice from nature decreased. Refrigerators were installed in every home, and as a result, the ice collection industry in the Han River gradually declined. It is hard to imagine these days, when each household has one or two refrigerators, but until the 1960s, ice collected from the Han River was often stored and sold in the summer. According to the Dong-A Ilbo database, in the early 1980s, ice was transported on a rickshaw on the street. Of course, the ice at that time was not natural ice, but artificial ice. Even now, large restaurants sometimes receive ice from ice factories.
● Today, we looked at a few landscape photos from the time when ice was sold in the Han River in the winter, starting with a photo of an ice shop from 100 years ago. What did you see in the photos? What are your memories related to ice? Please leave a comment. If we just endure a little, the rainy season and the hot summer will be over. I hope you have a healthy summer.
In an era where anyone can take great pictures of their family and scenery with a smartphone camera, let’s look back at the origins of our photography in an era where photography has become commonplace. A photojournalist selects one black-and-white photo from a newspaper 100 years ago every week and introduces it. If readers add their imagination to this, the context of the photo will become clearer.
Reporter Byun Young-wook [email protected]
2024-08-04 16:45:48