Seoul, rickshaw men in top hats

Dezső Bozóky hand-coloured glass diapositive. Photograph taken by Dezső Bozóky. Related item: A.4760.2.21.5. (photo). A rickshaw is approaching on the Jongno, with a well-off passenger and two escorts (one of whom is covered by the vehicle). Open shops line the road, in front of which a couple moving away can be seen, as well as onlooking small girls. In the distance, the city gate can be seen at the end of the road, as well as a tram. Rickshaws had been in use in Seoul since the middle of the 1880s. In 1884, during the Gapsin Revolution, protesters set fire to all of them, as vehicles of Japanese origin. In the next decade, however, they appeared again in the streets of Seoul, and in 1899
there were enough rickshaw men to protest against the introduction of the tram service for fear of losing their jobs.