A Critique of the Jeonbuk Gaya Hypothesis and a New Perspective : Focusing on the Views of Kwak Jang-geun and Park Cheon-su

This study aims to elucidate the nature of Gaya-related archaeological sites and artifacts found in the Jeollabuk-do region, which has been referred to in previous scholarship as the so-called Jeonbuk Gaya. The identification of Namwon in the Jeonbuk region as Kibun (己汶) was first proposed by the Japanese scholar Imanishi Ryū (今西龍) during the period of Japanese colonial rule over Korea. Subsequently, with the accumulation of archaeological findings in 1972 and 1982, the discovery of Gaya-related sites and artifacts in Jeollabuk-do led to the emergence of the so-called Jeonbuk Gaya Hypothesis. However, this hypothesis is fundamentally an extension of the Mimana Japanese Government Theory, as it is based on the identification of Kibun (己汶) and Banpa (伴跛) mentioned in the Nihon Shoki (日本書紀) as being located in the Jeonbuk region. Given this context, it is imperative to reinterpret the Gaya-related archaeological remains in the Jeonbuk region from a perspective independent of such colonial historiographical frameworks. Therefore, this paper critically examines the problems inherent in the existing Jeonbuk Gaya Hypothesis as argued in previous scholarship. Furthermore, it reinterprets the Gaya-related sites and artifacts in the Jeonbuk region as evidence of mass migration of Gaya populations into Baekje.