A Study on Origin of Use of Term ‘Saji(寺址)’ and Plan for Improvement

The purpose of this study was to consider the beginning and origin of the use of ‘Saji(寺址)’ used as a term of tangible cultural properties, and propose an plan for improvement, by finding out problems. The terms of cultural properties should be crated for people to easily understand and remember. The ‘Saji’, however, has many homophones, so it would be difficult to understand it, unless the Chinese character is simultaneously written. Although the original Korean nouns, such as ‘Jeolteo’, ‘Sagi(寺 基)’ and ‘Saji(寺址)’ are synonyms, ‘Sagi(寺基)’ was used as the transcription of ‘Jeolteo’ in the data produced before the creation of Hangeul, while ‘Saji(寺址)’ seems to be used, as Japanese attached it to the names of our cultural p roperties, a fter t he p eriod of J apanese colony. T he t erm ‘Jeolteo’ may be easily understood as the name of cultural properties, so this study proposed that it is better to attach ‘Jeolteo’ to the names of cultural properties, rather than ‘Saji’. The types of how ‘Saji’ is combined with the names can be divided into two: ‘Sa’ of the proper noun ‘Hwangryongsaji’ cannot be separated, so only ‘ji’ should be replaced by ‘teo’‘ ; ’Saji’ should be replaced by ‘Jeolteo’, for ‘Jahangrisaji’, the type in which the word ‘Saji’ is combined with the proper noun ’Janghangri’ The meaning of ‘Saji’ might be understood, when Chinese characters were often used or they were simultaneously written. Now, however, they are not simultaneously written in most cases, and moreover, many generations cannot understand them. It is desirable to change the names of cultural properties into those which every people can easily understand. Furthermore, it is also necessary to remove ‘Saji’, as the term is a trace of the Japanese colony.