『The death of Kim Ok-gyun (金玉均の死)』 is a drama that Ujaku Akita (秋田雨雀) published in the January issue of the 『Ningen (人間)』 magazine in 1920. In this literature, any political aspect is suppressed notwithstanding that Kim was a politically conspicuous figure; he exiled himself to Japan after the failure of his coup (甲申政変) in 1884, and later was assassinated in Shanghai. On the other side, only the cultural aspects - such as classification of Korean and Japanese language, likes and dislikes on foods and the meaning of clothes - are emphasized in this play.
We can find the reason in Akita's diary. It seems that this drama was probably commissioned by Kuzuu (葛生) brothers who were right-wing activists. The elder brother had played a leading role in the management of Genyousha (玄洋社) where 『Kim Ok-gyun (金玉均)』 had been privately printed. For that reason, it can be inferred that this article was read by Akita when he chose Kim as the main subject in this work. Akita was, however, on the opposite side admiring the socialist ideology. So, I conclude he had to exclude the political feature in his work.
Instead, Akita depicted that Kim wants to be a farmer in Hokkaido (北海道) in future. Cultivation of a farm can be thought of as the metaphor of working for the Korean kingdom. As a result, it can be interpreted as a roundabout expression of Kim's will to recover his political position. It also contains Akita's perspective on Korea, which is represented by “reflection for conquerors and training for subordinates” written in his diary.
