Korean Peerage Ordinance and the Grant of Titles

On 29 August 1910, the day annexation was proclaimed, Japan issued the Korean Peerage Ordinance, and in October it gave titles and bounty bonds to 76 members of the Korean imperial family and high officials.

On the day it proclaimed the annexation treaty, Japan also issued an ordinance granting Japanese titles of nobility to members of the Korean imperial family and senior officials. At the investiture on 7 October 1910 the first grantees numbered 76: six marquises, three counts, twenty-two viscounts and forty-five barons. With the titles came imperial bounty bonds ranging from 25,000 to more than 500,000 yen by rank and merit, totalling over 4.5 million yen.

The eight ministers who led the conclusion of the annexation treaty — Lee Wan-yong, Yun Deok-yeong, Min Byeong-seok, Go Yeong-hui, Park Je-sun, Jo Jung-eung, Yi Byeong-mu and Jo Min-hui — are called the "Eight Traitors of 1910", and all received titles at this time. Prime Minister Lee Wan-yong was made a count and raised to marquis in 1920.

Eight men, including Han Gyu-seol, Yu Gil-jun and Kim Seok-jin, refused or returned their titles; Kim Seok-jin took his own life after refusing. Titles passed to sons, and in all more than 150 people became Korean peers during the colonial period.