The exact origin of the Kyŏnggi chapka repertoire is unclear, but the genre is be-lieved to have developed and been passed on from around the early 1800s by a succession of four prominent male singers, starting with Ch’u Kyoshin, a talented kagok (lyric songs) singer born in 1814. His student Cho Kijun (1835–1900), a renowned singer of both kagok and kasa, in turn taught Pak Ch’un’gyŏng (1850–1920?), who became a specialist of kasa, shijo, and chapka, and instructed, among others, Yu Kaedong and Pak Ch’unjae. Pak Ch’un’gyŏng was a member of the successful male singing group Sagyech’uk, which was presumably named after the hometown of its main members, which stretched from today’s Malli- dong to Ch’ŏngp’a- dong just south of Seoul Station. The group performed at marketplaces and town squares, while also regularly meeting in a so- called kip’ŭn sarang to perform, teach, and practice.154
A kip’ŭn sarang (kip’ŭn = deep, sarang = reception room for men), sometimes referred to as an umjip (dugout), was a hole roughly three by nine meters wide and one- and- a- half to two meters deep, dug into the side of a field with a simple roof placed over it.155 The dugout would have looked poor from the outside The first phrase of “Yusan’ga” on Pak Ch’unjae’s 1911 recording has virtually identical lyr ics, but much less ornamentation.
overall. The much higher pace may account for the fairly basic tonal ornamen-tation and lack of grace notes.152 Another difference is that in Pak’s version the main pitch drops half a tone from F to E in the last few mea sures (see below).
The greater speed is likely to have been caused by the very limited recording time. SP recordings generally provided no more than three- and- a- half min-utes of playing time per side. What is more, the recording technology did not allow small nuances nor great dynamic shifts, which left most recordings from this time sounding flat by today’s standards:153
but would have been nicely decorated on the inside, usually with wall paper, a folding screen, a table, and basic furniture.156 When farming work became im-possible because of the winter cold, occasionally as many as thirty commoners, including handicraft traders and farmers, comprising both amateur and semi-professional singers, would gather in tents like this to enjoy folksongs, kasa and shijo. The songs they sang in the kip’ŭn sarang were sometimes referred to as pangan sori (room songs).157 Before they dis appeared in the 1950s, there were many of these hangouts scattered around Seoul, in townships such as It’aewŏn, Sŏbinggo, Wangshimni, Majang, Ch’ŏngp’a, Ŭngbong, and Ttuksŏm.158 In summer, folk music enthusiasts would also regularly gather to sing and play music in the naturally air- conditioned summer version of the kip’ŭn sarang, the kongch’ŏng (public posts). The kongch’ŏng looked like the lookouts that can still be found in farming fields today. They had a roof over an elevated wooden floor built on pillars a few feet above the ground, and like the kip’ŭn sarang, they were often furnished with chairs and floor mats.159
Both the kip’ŭn sarang and the kongch’ŏng served primarily as practicing and performing spaces for male students. At the end of the nineteenth century, most female singers of Kyŏnggi chapka and other folksongs from the region were trained at professional kisaeng schools. For a long time three classes of kisaeng had existed: members of the first (ilp’ae) belonged to a government office, and although a number of them may have served as courtesans, they studied dance, the refined arts of the aristocracy (yangban) known as p’ungnyu, and kagok as their sole vocal art. Some of the women in this class studied medicine as well, so they could treat women at the palace. The performers were either trained at government institutions called ch’ang hagwŏn (singing institutes) or at pro-vincial government offices at small, local posts called kyobangch’ŏng (deputy offices).160 The second class (ip’ae) of entertainment girls consisted of retired first- class kisaeng who usually ended up as concubines or ran their own enter-tainment establishment, while the third class (samp’ae) comprised working- class hostesses who sold wine, sang folksongs, and occasionally performed sexual services.161
Businesses dealing in prostitution and young female entertainment would persist well into the twentieth century, but the legal foundations of the long- existing class distinction between the aristocracy and commoners, including kisaeng, were abolished in the mid-1890s as part of the major social and po liti cal changes made to the Korean government known as the Kabo Reform.162 Repu-tations and traditional notions of class would, however, long persist, leaving the social status of those at the lower and upper echelons of the social hierarchy largely unchanged. Even a 1908 police ordinance abolishing the distinction between the vari ous classes of female entertainers did little to ameliorate the women’s position, especially when in March 1909 it was deci ded that like
prostitutes, kisaeng now also had to be examined by a designated doctor each month to determine whether they had any contagious illness.163 Over the fol-lowing years, the Japa nese nevertheless implemented social reforms that sought to bring an end to the low status of certain social groups, such as Buddhist monks, butchers, and entertainers.164 The rising market economy they helped usher in meanwhile served to expand the middle class and change social mark-ers, enabling those considered working class to buy items that symbolized a de-gree of sophistication not previously associated with their station.165 Although popu lar kisaeng may have had some power in the form of social capital, as they appeared on recordings and the radio, the majority remained firmly locked in the lower echelons of society.166 The burgeoning Japa nese tourism industry may have focused on the girls’ artistic talents, but it made little attempt to hide their association with sex work. Widespread contempt, social isolation, and the duty to perform sexual ser vices drove many to suicide or, like the celebrated p’ansori singers Yi Hwajungsŏn (1898–1943) and Pak Nokchu (1906–1979), drug abuse.167
The Japa nese closure of the state schools for kisaeng in the early 1910s cre-ated possibilities for private entrepreneurs, some of whom had already estab-lished schools for kisaeng in and around Seoul and Pyongyang.168 While the smaller establishments in the countryside would only engage a handful of girls, including former prostitutes, those in central Seoul took on as many as 180 girls, including former first- class kisaeng. Most of the girls came from poor families, a small, but notable percentage of which were shaman house holds.169 While the students and teachers were all Korean, management of the schools would eventually come to include a number of Japa nese. The girls, who were mostly in their mid- to late teens, were trained over a period of three years in a variety of skills. Although the range of skills covered differed between schools, they included calligraphy, kasa, shijo, kagok, Kyŏnggi minyo, traditional Ko-rean instruments, Japa nese and Western dance, as well as etiquette and the Japa nese language. As part of etiquette, the girls were taught how to walk and sit, and how to greet and engage in conversation with their male clientele.170
The establishments outside Seoul were mostly known as chohap (associa-tions). From 1914 onwards, however, those in Seoul began to adopt the term kwŏnbŏn (Jap. kenban), the Japa nese equivalent of which was used for geisha agencies.171 In Seoul, one of the first schools was the Ta- dong chohap (Ta- dong Association), which was established in February 1913 by Ha Kyuil (1867–1937).
Located in Seoul’s central Ta- dong area, between Ŭlchiro 3-ga and Ch’ŏng-gy ech’ŏn, the school trained many girls from the northwestern region, but it changed its name to Taejŏng [Jap. Taishō] kwŏnbŏn in 1919 when it set up a separate school for girls from Pyongyang called Taedong kwŏnbŏn, presumably named after the Taedong River that ran through their hometown. It was located nearby, in Sŏrin- dong, on the northern side of Ch’ŏnggyech’ŏn below Chongno
5- ga.172 In 1923, three years before taking charge of teaching vocal art at the Court Music Office of the Yi Royal House hold, Ha renamed the original as-sociation Chosŏn ( Korea) kwŏnbŏn and adopted all the students from the Kyŏnghwa kwŏnbŏn, which had been located in Shi- dong in the south of Seoul.
It was at the Chosŏn kwŏnbŏn that later holders An Pich’wi and Muk Kyewŏl, and nominee Kim Okshim, would eventually come to study Kyŏnggi chapka with Ch’oe Chŏngshik. Other schools in Seoul’s Central District included the Kwanggyo kwŏnbŏn— later renamed Hansŏng kwŏnbŏn173—in Mugyo- dong, where chapka were taught by a former student of Pak Ch’un’gyŏng and even-tual holder of Sŏnsori sant’aryŏng, Yu Kaedong, and the Hannam yegi kwŏnbŏn (yegi = kisaeng), better known as simply Hannam kwŏnbŏn, in Kongp’yŏng- dong.174 They were joined by the Chongno kwŏnbŏn in Nagwŏn- dong, where chapka were taught by another of Pak Ch’un’gyŏng’s former students, Pak Ch’unjae. In 1940, the Chosŏn kwŏnbŏn, Chongno kwŏnbŏn, and Hansŏng kwŏnbŏn merged to form the Samhwa kwŏnbŏn.175
The schools did not only provide professional training in a variety of skills, but also created possibilities for the girls to perform for the media. Although it is not clear exactly what it broadcast between 1924 and 1927, the year in which the Kyŏngsŏng Broadcast Corporation’s radio ser vice went “live,” newspaper announcements show that at least from July 12 to September 23, 1926, it em-ployed only kisaeng from Seoul’s main schools, primarily to sing folksongs.176 Due to the popularity of a number of kisaeng, the association with third- class kisaeng began to fade. Yet despite the fact that they had all been trained at one, the first generation of Kyŏnggi minyo holders remained reluctant to discuss their experiences with kisaeng organ izations, and it is perhaps therefore left out of the CPC’s report.177 An Pich’wi, for example, referred to the stigma when she com-mented, “I know that in the past kwŏnbŏn were places where commoners and kisaeng [female entertainers] were trained, but that was not absolutely so. The study substance and atmosphere were more strict and diligent than at today’s art schools.”178