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| King Gojong in the winter of 1883-84 / Robert Neff Collection |
By Robert Neff
When Harmon V.S. Peake, an American missionary, visited Fusan (modern Busan) in 1891, he seemingly took great pleasure in describing in his diary what he perceived as the backwardness of his Korean hosts but grudgingly described one young Korean lady as having "sparkling dark eyes, smiling, cherry lips and perfect teeth." He was not the only American visitor in the late 19th and early 20th centuries who chastised Koreans on one hand for poor hygiene, but on the other hand, praised them for their brilliantly white and well-maintained teeth ― which contrasted decidedly with many of the Westerners' teeth.
However, not all Koreans had perfect teeth. Americans who had the pleasure of attending functions at the palace or personal intervals with the monarch often described the royal family as having bad teeth.
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| The Korean emperor in the early 1900s / Robert Neff Collection |
It was a fairly painful experience for the emperor and many feared the cooks and food tasters would be banished as punishment. Fortunately for the kitchen staff, Gojong was more than pleased with Souers' work and pardoned them for their carelessness. As for Souers, the emperor provided him with 1,000 yen as compensation ― a princely sum of money.
Over the years, Gojong would continue to have problems with his teeth. In October 1917, a Japanese dentist was summoned to Deoksu Palace to treat his toothache.
When the king died suddenly on Jan. 21, 1919, many people speculated he had been poisoned, as his corpse was grotesquely swollen, his teeth had fallen out of their sockets and there was a black mark extending from his throat to his stomach.
Gojong was no stranger to attempted poisonings. In August 1898, a former member of the court ― angered with his dismissal and subsequent banishment ― arranged to have a fatal amount of opium placed in the monarch's morning coffee. Fortunately for Gojong, he did not partake in the drink, but his son, Crown Prince Sunjong, drank a fairly substantial amount ― as did the chief eunuch ― and became violently ill. The crown prince eventually recovered but he lost 18 teeth and, some believe, his virility ― being rendered impotent.
The male members of the royal family were not the only ones to suffer from poor teeth as evidenced by the accounts of some of their female American guests.
In 1892, Helen Heard (the youngest daughter of Augustine Heard, the American minister to Korea) was granted the privilege of an audience with Queen Min. In her journal, Helen's description of the queen was brutal:
"The Queen is small, not pretty but having grace & charm of manner. She was affable & talkative. Her face was as white as this paper with powder & paste & she also wore a huge chignon minus the wooden thing. Instead she had Chinese jewelry stuck in all around it which was quite becoming & quaint. But her teeth were horrible ― black & irregular."
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| An elderly man and some children. One of the posters on the wall is an advertisement for Lion Toothpaste. Seen at the Bozoky Dezso Exhibit at the Seoul Museum of History Museum in November 2019. / Courtesy of Robert Neff |
Perhaps she can be excused for her somewhat impertinent (yet, private) description by blaming her youth and inexperience of interacting with foreign nobility, but the same cannot be said for Eleanor Franklin. An American journalist who later married Franklin Roosevelt and was U.S. first lady from 1933 to 1945, Franklin visited Korea in late 1905 and seemed to take great pleasure in ridiculing the Japanese and Koreans she encountered. Eom Seon-yeong, the Imperial Noble Consort of Emperor Gojong, was not exempt from her facetious pen:
"Lady Om is no longer young, but she is still his Majesty's favorite and his counselor in all things. She is uglier than most of her ugly little sisters, too, so her power over him is a decided mystery. If he were very clever it might be easily explained, but he is not, and he has always been devoted to his bevy of court 'beauties.' Lady Om is small and squint-eyed, pock-marked, and toothless, a withered little bit of the ugliest femininity on earth; but it is through her that the royal favor must be sought, and through her that much of the royal favor is bestowed, and it is a triumph for a most benighted womankind."
It has been suggested that the introduction of Western foods may be blamed, at least partially, for the decay of dental hygiene on the Korean Peninsula. However, the Korean court was plagued with dental problems long before the 19th century.
King Jungjong (reign 1506-44) suffered from frequent toothaches. In the summer of 1544, he complained of having swollen oozing gums and loose teeth and was worried that he would have difficulty in eating. He was advised to use a paste made from various plants and herbs, and to bite upon a mulberry branch.
The king's treatment was relatively palatable, as opposed to the treatment some commoners received. According to David E. Hahn, an American and one of the first Western dentists ― if not the first ― to reside in Korea, many people used salt and a dead rat to chase away the pain. "The rat is covered with salt, and when anyone suffers from a toothache salt is taken from the rat and rubbed on the affected member."
My appreciation to Diane Nars for her invaluable assistance.
Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books including, Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.
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