[Specialists’ Views on Dokdo]Dokdo - Our Ground, Our Life
2007-07-27 Observer
Residents often used astronomical navigation when they went to Dokdo about 30 years ago. Before leaving, they waited for Samtaeseong (Capella) to rise at dawn. They observed the stars every two hours for about six hours until Samtaeseong would rise in the surrounding area of Dokdo. Coming back to Ulleungdo, they noticed Bukduchilseong (the Great Bear).
There are many kinds of wind in Dokdo. "Dongsae" blows from the east. The tide is low when dongsae blows. "Jeongsae" indicates the wind blows from the northeast, "Ingampung" between the northeast and the east, "Buksae" or "Bukcheongpung" during which the tide is high, from the north, "Danggal" from the west, "Cheongpung" from the northwest, and "Danggalcheongpung" from between northwest and west.
"Danggalcheongpung" is an arid wind which has little humidity as "it dries a man's liver." "Cheongpung" usually blows in winter, but sometimes in spring. Many fish are said to be caught during this period. The wind blowing from the south is "Jeonggalbaram," and the wind from the southwest is "Galbaram." When the latter blows in summer, fish are rarely caught. Sometimes, "Satbaram" blows in summer. Besides, "Cheojingalbaram" is from the southeast, and "Uljin" from between the east and southwest. The word "Cheojida" indicates the wind blowing under atmospheric pressure, and it is also known as the wind blowing from another direction. Residents regard it as a bad wind. Fishermen find the moonflower-shaped cloud by the sun under atmospheric pressure to be a sign that this pressure is being generated. In three or four days, while clouds are being scattered, strong winds are coming. "Waksae" may be called a sudden wind from the southeast. "Wuljin" and "Waksae" are kinds of harmful wind. When "Danggal" and "Galbaram" blow abruptly, they do considerable damage in the east of Ulleungdo. The wind from the southwest is the best in Ulleungdo. Fishermen use the west wind to go to Dokdo. Many fish are caught when the wind from the southwest, blows It may be thought of as a harmless wind.
Fishermen in Ulleungdo call a rocky reef with seaweed popular with local fish a "Geol." It is a mountain under the sea, and is commonly said to be "the shape of a water wave." Many fish are gathered in it. When measured how deep it is by putting a rope into the sea, the east of "Geol" is high and the west is low.
It is characteristic to exercise an exclusive right against other fishing boats within their own space of 15 meters, as the residents of Ulleungdo don't have a defined communal fishing industry but do recognize this fishing zone. A dualism of private and public possessions exists in the basic feature of a fishing community, which maintains a natural economy of industrial capitalism. The communal rights to exercise what has been inherited traditionally is replaced by the unincorporated, a fishing community, when it produces and distributes together on the one hand, and gives a right only to people who invest designated funds on the other hand.
In summary, what has been described is ethnographic data which to do with semantic classification and category of residents on wind, a tide, and submarine space formed by the folklore of Korean fishermen and residents in Ulleungdo. Through this data, we can see that Dokdo is a place of Korean life and culture that has formed and been established during a period of long history, and is a space to display a traditional cultural activity on the basis of that information, and it is not an ownerless land or an uninhabited island at all.