Korea collection

Highlights from the Korea collection of Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde

Elmer Veldkamp

Collection Series Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde / National Museum of Ethnology

Contents 7

Preface

8

The Korea collection in Leiden

14

From head to toe: The Korean costume

52

In the hand: Daily utensils

60

Household items

82

Religious items

84

Coins

86

Entertainment: Music and games

92

Illustrating culture

108

Notes

109

Bibliography

Preface Highlights from the Korea collection of RijksmuseumVolkenkunde is the result of research on the collection of Korean cultural artifacts in the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology) in Leiden, the Netherlands, that was conducted during the period of March - December 2013.

The research and publication of this catalogue was made possible by a Korean Cultural Heritage Grant, which was generously provided by the Cultural Heritage Administration of Korea.

On 27 August 2012, a Memorandum of Understanding defining the contents of the project was signed by the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde and the Cultural Heritage Administration, Korea. As stated in the Memorandum, the general purpose of the grant is to ‘provide the public all over the world with information on the Korean artifacts overseas and to enhance their interest in the Korean history and culture’. For the Leiden collection, the main objective was specified as ‘developing a database and printing catalogues of Korean artifacts housed in the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde’, and the information that was gathered during this project can also be accessed through the object database on the website of the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde (www.volkenkunde.nl).

Until the start of this project, research on the Korea collection in Leiden had been fragmented and incidental. A thorough overview of the available documentation regarding the Korean cultural artifacts was duly needed, and the museum would like to express their sincere gratitude to the Cultural Heritage Administration for making it possible to embark upon this extensive study of our Korea collections.

During the course of the project, from September 23 - October 4, 2013, the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde welcomed a research group from the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, who conducted a comprehensive survey of the Korea collection.

The museum greatly appreciates the effort that

7 | Preface

was put into the examination and description of the Korean objects, and the survey has helped significantly to enhance the accuracy of the information in this catalogue.

The aim for this catalogue is to present the reader with a selection of interesting cultural artifacts from the Korea collection in Leiden.

Since the collection consists of a high number of ethnographic objects such as clothing, accessories, and daily utensils, this catalogue takes the body of the people that provide direct context to the objects as a starting point.

From clothing and clothing accessories in the first chapter, this catalogue works its way outward to utensils, to the household, and then to items related to the sociocultural environment, such as religion and entertainment. The final chapter presents objects of which the primary purpose is to provide a visual representation of Korean culture, such as models, paintings and illustrations.

Elmer Veldkamp, PhD Junior curator Korea collections

The Korea collection in Leiden The Korea collection of the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde (National Museum of Ethnology) in Leiden, the Netherlands, consists of about 950 objects and is one of the larger collections of Korean cultural artifacts, and most likely the oldest, in Europe. The exact number of objects depends on whether those within a set are counted separately (e.g., the arrows in a quiver) or as one piece (e.g., a set of brass altarpieces). Since the beginning of the museum collection, there has been some dispute over the geographical origins of certain objects and, as with other museums, arranging and rearranging the artifacts within the collection remains an ongoing task. Below, we take a brief look at the origin and development of the collection of Korean artifacts in Leiden.

The origin of the Korea collection: Philipp Franz von Siebold The history of the Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde in Leiden is considered to have started with the Dutch government’s acquisition of the ethnographic collection of Philipp Franz von Siebold (1796-1866), who was stationed at the Dutch trading post of Deshima in the bay of Nagasaki as a doctor from 1823 to 1829. An older collection of ethnographic objects that actually precedes the Von Siebold collection was already present in the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities, but it was not until 1883 that this collection was merged into the museum in Leiden (see next section).

1 | Illustration representing the meeting between the shipwrecked Korean men and Von Siebold. The composition is based on separate portraits of each of these men made by Kawahara Keiga (1786 after 1860), of which the original pen and ink paintings remain in album 1-4491 (see also ills.

130a+b on pp.100-101).

Upon his return from Japan in 1829, Von Siebold had a keen interest in existing ethnographic collections in the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities in The Hague (see below), which he deemed useful for his research,1 and initially planned to exhibit his own collection in his home in Leiden. In 1831, however, Von Siebold entered into negotiations to sell his collection to the Dutch government, and the two parties came to a definitive arrangement in 1837.2 This year is thus regarded as the start of the current Rijksmuseum Volkenkunde, the Von Siebold collection accordingly labeled as collection ‘1’ in the museum’s inventory.

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9 | Korea collection in Leiden

The government made an inventory list available directly, and an official catalogue was published the following year, in 1838.

Nippon In his work, Nippon, which was published in parts from 1832 onwards, Von Siebold discussed many aspects of Japanese nature and culture based on his findings during the time he spent in Deshima. Completed over the course of many years, Volume VII of this treatise describes what he found out about the ‘taxable territories and possessions of Japan such as the Southern Kuriles, Sakhalin, Korea and the Ryû Kyû Islands’.3 With regard to his work on Korea, he used both his own observations as well as some existing writings about the area. Deshima was where Koreans who found themselves shipwrecked on the island of Tsushima, close to the Korean coast, were brought, sometimes in the company of their wife and children, and where they remained until they were deemed fit enough to be sent back to their own country. Having observed them from a distance for some time, in 1828 Von Siebold succeeded in making arrangements to meet a small group of Koreans to inquire about their lives and perspectives. In Nippon he describes how, on March 17 of that year, he met with a group of six men out of a total of 36 Koreans present at that time. Hailing from the southwest province of Chŏlla-do, they had washed ashore partly on the Gotō islands and on the coast of Kyushu. The group with which Von Siebold met consisted of a boat boy, a sailor, a merchant, a fisherman, a second merchant by the name of Hosa-tsiêm (McCune-Reischauer: Hŏ Sa-ch’ŏm) and a teacher of Chinese and Korean script and Confucianism named Kum tsiun (McCuneReischauer: Kŭm Ch’i-yun).

He presented the Korean men with pieces of cloth, wool and some bottles of arrack and jenever (Dutch gin). The group presented Von Siebold with a number of items they had been able to salvage from their boat, such as ‘...some manuscripts, scroll paintings, a small

table, some cups and plates, to which each of them added an expendable piece of clothing or a bijou’.4 The scene of the meeting, as well as portraits of the men painted by Japanese painter Kawahara Keiga, were included in Nippon (ill. 1).

Development of the collection If we look at the historical development of the Korea collection in Leiden, we see that four decades pass without any acquisition of Korean objects. Then in 1883, artifacts from the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities, which had been dismantled a few years earlier, were brought into the inventory of the museum.

King Willem I (1772-1843), who reigned from 1815-1840, established the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities in 1816. It was common, as in this case, for the art and ethnographic collections of royalty and nobility to form the basis for ethnological museums that developed in Europe in the nineteenth century.

The objects that came into the collection from the Royal Cabinet of Curiosities in 1883, labeled as series 360, are much older than the date of acquisition suggests. In fact, the artifacts related to Korea were collected by a predecessor of Von Siebold named Jan Cock Blomhoff (1779-1853). Blomhoff resided in Deshima from 1809 to 1813 and again from 1817 to 1824. In his function as warehouse master and later as captain, he established good contacts with the Japanese, from which Von Siebold benefited as well during his stay in Japan.5 In spite of the fact that the number of Korean objects in series 360 is not that large (a total of about 25 items) and the grouping is not very structured, the Blomhoff artifacts do include a rare shaman’s hat (ill. 111), the museum’s first set of daily clothes (a linen paji; ill. 6 and a chŏgori; ill. 5), brass eating utensils (360-2961 and 360-2967) and an interesting black stoneware bottle with hemp netting (ill. 79).

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The period from the 1880s to the end of the nineteenth century may be considered the heyday of growth for the Korean collection in Leiden. In these years, the collection grew rapidly through a number of significant donations and acquisitions. A brief description of the collection’s development throughout this time by former museum director J.D.E. Schmeltz can be found in an article he wrote in 1891.

In the Schmeltz article, however, the first of the 1880s additions to the collection by an individual collector, the acquisition of about 70 objects from a person recorded as Otto Hertz in St. Petersburg in 1885, is not mentioned. Although the museum records do not reflect this explicitly, this person must have been Alfred Otto Herz (1856-1905), spelled without a ‘t.’ Herz was an entomologist who went on expeditions to China, Japan, Korea, Hainan and Siam/ Thailand, and whose collections are now kept in the Zoological Museum of the Russian Academy of Science in St. Petersburg. He visited Korea in 1884.6 Upon comparing the regional composition of the donated artifacts in Leiden, designated as series 1070, it becomes clear that objects from all of the areas Herz traveled are indeed present. Herz’s collection contains interesting everyday objects such as combs, fans, shoes, clothing, part of a road marker (changsŭng; ill. 113) and two games (changgi; 1070-136/159 and t’ujŏn; ill 121).

In 1886 J. Rhein (birth - death unknown), secretary and interpreter for the consul general and the diplomatic mission in Beijing, donated 51 objects to the collection (series 520). Among the significant pieces in this group of artifacts are samples of Korean clothing and headwear (among which is a very nice sample of the typical black kat; ill 29), as well as a document cabinet (ill 107), several fans and a number of coins. Rhein also donated a series of 36 genre paintings and 11 paintings of Korean human figures in 1888, which were included in the museum collection

11 | Korea collection in Leiden

under series 679 and 681, respectively (see ill.

131-137).

The largest single addition of Korean objects to the collection in the latter part of the nineteenth century consisted of over 200 objects acquired from Friedrich Kraus of Darmstadt in 1888. According to Schmeltz’s overview, his predecessor Lindor Serrurier (1846-1901), who was museum director from 1880 to 1896, got acquainted with Kraus in 1885. Kraus went to Korea to lead the establishment of the Royal Korean Mint and agreed to assist in advancing ethnographic research during his stay there. Following his return to Europe in 1888, he made good on his promise by providing the museum with the objects that are now in the Leiden collection under series 666. In addition to the many everyday objects in the collection, Kraus’ close connection to the Korean court is reflected in items such as an officer’s armor and helmet (ill. 47), which has a number of accessories that suggest a relation to the royal circles, and a matchlock gun (ill. 53) that probably originates from the Chosŏn police force (ŭigŭmbu). Other interesting pieces are samples of brassware such as a kettle, a rice bowl, an ashtray, a spittoon and a chamber pot (see ills. 73,84-86).

Additions to the collection were very infrequent during the first half of the twentieth century, with little more than twenty objects acquired. Then in 1946 a group of nine objects were brought into the collection via the Hendrik Muller Fund, among which are two large pieces of furniture (a three-level cabinet, or samch’ŭngnong; 2584-1 and a bedroom cabinet, or mŏrijang; 2584-2).

Following smaller additions, the collection started to grow significantly again in the 1960s. Among the larger additions during that time were 64 objects by J. Langewis in 1963 (series 3910) and 39 objects by the Korean government in 1976 (series 4852), both primarily consisting of samples of traditional craftsmanship. Former curator K. Vos made several contemporary acquisitions in the 1980s and 1990s, enhancing the collection

2 | Color illustration from Schmeltz (1891) showing some of the early objects of the Korea collection in Leiden.

with more samples of recent traditional-style clothing, utensils and craftwork (series 5380 and 5487), as well as a set of shaman’s clothing and attributes (series 5879) and sets of brass and wooden altarpieces (series 5935).

other objects are laden with historical value. As such, the orientation of the collection is particularly ethnographic in nature, as opposed to art-oriented collections in other museums.

The most recent addition to the Korea collection in Leiden is a very significant group of about 60 objects comprised mostly of clothing, shoes and headwear (series 6075).

These objects were transferred from the Royal Tropical Institute (Tropenmuseum) in Amsterdam in 2007 and are dated as originating from before 1889. They complement the nineteenth-century clothing in the collection from the early acquisitions mentioned above and contain some rare pieces like several leather officials’ belts (607542/43/44) and a red official’s robe and skirt (ill. 56, 57), as well as more common items that were not yet part of the collection, such as undergarments (6075-21/22).

In addition to Von Siebold’s descriptions and illustrations of Korean objects in Nippon and the overview and illustration of the earlyacquired objects by Schmeltz mentioned above (ill. 2), artifacts from the Leiden collection are mentioned in a number of publications both in and outside Korea. The 1980 Survey of Korean Folk Culture,Volume 2, for example, has color photographs of the aforementioned armor and helmet and its accessories (Korea University, 172-3). A larger selection of objects, including Blomhoff ’s stoneware bottle (also mentioned above), a folding screen depicting the Records of the Three Kingdoms (ill. 108) and boxes with ox horn inlay (ill. 96), is presented in the 1992 Korea Foundation publication The Korean Relics inWestern Europe. And a collection of genre paintings by Kisan Kim Chun-gŭn (series 679) is reproduced with descriptions in its entirety in Korea around 1900: the paintings of Gisan, by Christina H.Y. Han (2006).

Composition of the collection Although the Leiden collection is largely composed of utensils, clothing and other objects related to everyday life, it is interesting to note that many of the artifacts collected in the early days of the collection (up to 1900) are now considered part of the Korean cultural heritage. From the fashioning of the characteristic black horsehair hat, decorative knives, traditional shoes and brassware to the making of quivers, arrows and bows, many of the techniques that are now considered to be intangible cultural property and are protected by the Korean government were in fact made by craftsmen who catered to the daily needs of Korean society at that time. Needless to say, many of these crafts lost their contemporary function; hence their transformation to intangible cultural property.

From this viewpoint, even though the Leiden collection does not include a particularly strong selection of ‘classic’ Korean museum pieces like celadon, porcelain, literati paintings and the like, many of the common utensils and

13 | Korea collection in Leiden

From head to toe: The Korean costume In this chapter we will look at different aspects of the Korean costume, including clothing, headdresses, footwear and indispensable accessories to the dress.

Clothing Clothing is about wrapping the body and constitutes an important factor in the way people distinguish themselves from others. As a marker for social categories, people construct their own identity as part of a culture, a nation or a group/class within a larger social organization. In Korea, through the clothing and accessories one could and should wear, the traditional costume expresses a separation between the educated elite and the uneducated masses. Besides class and gender differences, we may also distinguish 3 | Skirt / ch’ima Late 19th century Silk 113 x 140 cm 1070-106

4 | Women’s jacket / chŏgori Late 19th century Silk, nylon 27 x 138 (sleeves) / 45,5 (chest) cm 1070-108

between every day and festive clothing as well as clothing for official duties.

The material of which the clothes are made is indicative of their use. For more common garments, materials such as hemp or cotton are used, whereas clothing for the upper class is more often made of silk. Ramie cloth (moshi), made of the fiber of Boehmeria nivea, is a much stiffer fabric considered to feel ‘cool’ and tends to stick less to the body; hence its use in summer clothing.

Clothing for women The basic costume for women consists of separate pieces for the upper and lower body, and the characteristic combination of a short jacket and skirt (ch’ima chŏgori) is still considered to be the standard image of hanbok, or Korean costume. The jacket and skirt are worn over undergarments, which are usually white or neutral-color wide pants and a jacket that may be complimented with a waistcloth or a piece of cloth tied around the upper body to cover the chest (kasŭmgarigae).

On top of this, a vest (magoja) and an overcoat (turumagi) may be worn to protect the person against cold.

15 | From head to toe: The Korean costume

The skirt in ill. 3 is made of light-green silk with a white waistband (malgi) and ribbons (korŭm) to close the skirt around the body.

The lower part of this skirt is decorated with a fine pattern of tiny perforations in horizontal lines. A similar pattern in vertical lines is visible on the white, upper part of the skirt.

The jacket in ill. 4 is made of white silk with blue cuffs and dark-blue ribbons to close the jacket left-over-right. As is typical for Korean upper body garments, there are two pairs of tying ribbons. One pair on the inside is used to tie one half of the jacket to the opposite front half, whereas the second pair (which is visible from the outside) is used to close the jacket. The collar is lined with a strip of white paper or cloth (kit) that is also seen on modern Korean dress, and which can be replaced when it becomes discolored with dirt, sweat or oils from the skin.

Clothing for men The everyday costume for men consists of a pair of trousers (paji) and a jacket (chŏgori) that, despite its identical name, is longer than those for women, reaching to the hip (see ill. 4). On top of this, a vest with sleeves

5 | Men’s jacket / chŏgori Ca. 1800-1823 Linen 69 x 189 (sleeves) / 72 (chest) cm 360-2952

6 | Men’s trousers / paji Ca. 1800-1823 Linen 103 x 59 (waist) x 35 cm (leg width) 360-2953

(magoja) or without sleeves (chokki) may be worn. For outside, an overcoat is worn (turumagi or top’o).

The jacket and trousers in ill. 5 and 6 illustrate the daily wear for men of all classes.

This set is made of hemp cloth, and the jacket shows a similar construction to the women’s jacket described above, with two pairs of tying ribbons. The trousers are closed by tying them with a belt or cord made of uncolored hemp, cotton or – in upper class dress – colored silk.

The bottoms of the trousers, which are very wide, may be cinched closed with a pair of ankle cover ribbons (haengjŏn), which are not shown here.

The overcoat in ill. 7 is made of light-blue cotton with dark-blue accents on the side split at the bottom, on the cuffs and on the collar.

Known as ‘turumagi,’ the prefix turu- expresses how this coat is ‘wrapped around’ the person.

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7 | Men’s overcoat / turumagi Late 19th century Cotton 117 x 147 cm 1070-100

Instead of the tying ribbons seen on the white jacket, which are also common for this type of coat, the particular coat in this case has a small knot (tanch’u) and loop at chest level with which it can be closed. This coat was for daily use and evolved from earlier overcoats for the literate class (top’o). The main difference between the two styles is that turumagi coats closed nearly all the way around (except for the front opening), whilst top’o-type officials’

17 | From head to toe: The Korean costume

coats had deep splits up to the hip. The lower classes were not allowed to wear an official overcoat until the Kapshin Clothing Reform of 1884 (Kapshin ŭibok kaehyŏngnyŏng), when differences in private clothing of the higher and lower classes were eradicated. After initial resistance to this reform, the turumagi became an important part of formal dress for all Korean males.

8 | Wisteria cuffs / tŭng t’osu Late 19th century Wisteria 16,5 x 9,3 cm 666-72

9 | Wisteria vest / tŭng tŭnggŏri Late 19th century Wisteria 45 x 30,5 x 2 cm 1070-110

Highlights from the Korea collection

10 | Quilted jacket / nubi chŏgori Ca. 1800-1829 Silk, cotton 79 x 150 cm 1-4169

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In order to make clothes more adaptable for hot weather, wristlets and corsets made of thin, flexible twigs of wisteria (tŭng), sometimes wound with reed, were worn beneath the upper garments. Wristlets (t’oshi) are used during both summer and winter, with winter versions primarily worn over the clothes and often lined with fur. By closing up the sleeves, they keep wind from getting into the garment. The summer version, shown in ill. 8, is worn underneath the clothes to maintain some distance between the skin and the garments. This keeps sweat away from the cloth and allows air to flow between the

19 | From head to toe: The Korean costume

clothes and the wearer. The wisteria corset, or tŭng tŭnggŏri (ill. 9), performs the same cooling function for the upper body, and is worn over the shoulders, back and chest.

The clothes above do not have a lining; they are made of single layers of cloth. For colder circumstances, special quilted clothing (nubiot, somot) was worn. An example of such cottonfilled garments can be seen in ill. 10 and 11, which is a set of jacket and trousers for male use. The outside cloth is silk, indicating that this set was intended for use by a member of the upper classes. Although these winter

11 | Quilted trousers / nubi paji Ca. 1800-1829 Silk, cotton 99 x 125 cm 1-4170

clothes now appear white, older records describe them as being a very light blue. Both the jacket and trousers have vertical stitching, and the space in between has been filled with cotton. This technique was also used in socks, which are described in the section on footwear (below). Only the waistband of the trousers has horizontal stitching with similar filling.

The jacket closes by way of silk knots on one side that fit into loops on the other side.

Clothing for children Children’s wear in principal mimics that of grownups, with a pair of trousers and jacket for boys and a skirt and jacket for girls. Rather than being intended for daily use, the children’s clothes in the Leiden collection are

12 | Boy’s vest / chŏnbok Late 19th century Silk, metal, enamel (buttons) 54 x 30 cm 666-37

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21 | From head to toe: The Korean costume

examples of festive clothing for children.

Throughout their childhood, Koreans pass through a number of ceremonies that mark the stages of life. On these occasions, colorful clothing often decorated with embroidery or gold-painted Chinese characters expressing good fortune is worn.

Ill. 12 shows a boy’s sleeveless, bell-shaped vest, or ‘chŏnbok.’ This vest is made of silk gauze in a dark-blue color with decorative, red silk knots positioned on the side and back slits and along the back of the collar. At the front, this vest has two butterfly-shaped buttons that fit into small, ball-shaped hooks on the opposite side of the garment. The butterfly buttons are made of a silver alloy with dark-

13 | Boy’s vest / paeja Late 19th century Silk, ramie, metal (buttons) 35,5 x 35,5 cm 666-39

for boys is a cap of stiff, black silk gauze called a ‘pokkŏn,’ which is described below in the section on headdresses.

14 | Boy’s overcoat / turumagi Late 19th century Silk 54 x 32,5 cm 666-38

Accessories

15 | Cuffs / t’osu Late 19th century Silk, calico 12 x 10 cm 666-41

blue, blue-green and red-brown enamel on the wings. The second vest (ill. 13) resembles a paeja and has a straighter cut. It consists of an outer layer of green silk gauze with flower and plant motifs, lined with red gauze on the inside. The seams have a black lining.

As with the blue vest, three red knots decorate the back of the collar. At the front are two round buttons in the same material as the blue vest.

The overcoat (turumagi) shown here (ill. 14) is made of bright-red silk gauze with a fine horizontal rib pattern. The collar has a white lining and dark-blue silk tying ribbons displaying a pattern identical to the coat itself.

Made of the same silk gauze are two cuffs (t’osu) (ill. 15), which were used to prevent cold from entering through the wide sleeves.

The final object in this set of festive clothing

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Although not part of the costume in a strict sense, accessories in Korean dress may be functional as well as decorative, and adornment of the basic garments with a range of useful and/or decorative accessories is often expected to make the picture complete.

Pouches and cases Due to the fact that traditional Korean clothes – with the exception of certain vests – do not have pockets, personal belongings are carried in a pouch attached to the belt or stored in the sleeve of the costume. These personal belongings may range from smoking equipment and sewing kits to scented oil and other perfumed substances.

These pouches, called ‘chumŏni’ (which is also the present-day term for ‘pocket’), can be divided into two types according to their shape: Round-shaped models that are closed by tying a cord around the top are called ‘turujumŏni,’ or ‘round pouch’, whereas the straighter, folded type is referred to as ‘kwijumŏni,’ or ‘ear pouch,’ because of the two ear-like pieces sticking out at the sides (ill. 16 and ill. 17). Some pouches were used to carry coins (ill. 18) or medicine (ill. 19).

The more-elaborate pouches are decorated with two types of Korean handiwork, namely embroidery (chasu) and Korean knots (maedŭp), now both considered a traditional craft. The latter is made by folding a length

23 | From head to toe: The Korean costume

16 | Purse / kwijumŏni Late 19th century Silk 16 x 12 cm 520-8

17 | Purse / kwijumŏni Late 19th century Cotton 11,2 x 13 cm 666-29

of cord and tying knots into it to form flat symmetrical patterns. No tools are used to tie the knots, which may resemble fruit and flower shapes such as plum blossoms or strawberries. This knotting technique is also applied to buttons for clothing, when a ballshaped knot is made to fit into a loop as jacket or vest closure (see the quilted jacket, ill. 10, pag 19).

Until today, the standard decoration for the women’s costume still is the norigae, a decorative pendant, but in earlier times, other items such as a case for glasses or a decorative knife were also suspended from the jacket at

chest height as accessories.

Glasses became popular not only to improve eyesight, but also as a status symbol that gave the wearer an air of sophistication. As a result, eyeglass cases such as the one shown in ill. 20 became fashionable to wear as an accessory.

The case shown here is made of paper covered in black lacquer. It consists of two parts, with the larger half fitting into the smaller top.

Attached to the larger half is a blue-green cord of silk, used to hang the case from a belt or jacket. The cord has a decorative Korean knot (maedŭp). The shape of this case is typical of those found in Korea during this period,

20 | Case for eyeglasses / angyŏngjip 19th century Lacquered paper, silk 26 x 7 x 3 cm 666-23 21 | Fan ornaments / hyangjip, p’aehyang Late 19th century Material unknown (wood?)

From 5,3 x 3,7 x 1,2 cm (tortoise) to 2 x 0,7 cm (coin shape) 666-1

18 | Round purse for carrying coins / turujumŏni 19th century Cotton 14,5 x 12 cm 666-31 19 | Embroidered purse for medicine / yakchumŏni Late 19th century Silk, gold thread 23 x 9 cm 666-33

although decorations vary greatly, ranging from simple black cases like this one to elaborately embroidered examples. They are hung from the belt or used as part of the norigae decoration.

Although the Leiden collection does not have significant samples of the norigae, there is a

25 | From head to toe: The Korean costume

collection of gold-painted objects that may have been used as part of these pendants, or perhaps as fan ornaments (sŏnch’u; see the section on fans below). Commonly referred to as ‘hyangjip’ or ‘p’aehyang’ (scented box or scented hanger), the ten objects in ill. 21 all have a hole through which a cord could be strung. Their shapes are varied, and the set

22 | Ornamental knife / changdo Late 19th century Wood, silver, steel 22,8 x 3 x 1,5 cm 520-13 23 | Ornamental knife with chopsticks / ch’ŏmsajangdo Late 19th century Wood, metal 17,8 x 2 cm 520-32 24 | Ornamental knife with chopsticks / ch’ŏmsajangdo 19th century Steel, silver, copper 12,5 x 1,5 x 2 cm 666-22 25 | Ornamental knife Late 19th century Wood, steel, silk 18,2 x 1,5 x 2 cm 1070-117

consists of one tortoise; two bats; two cicadas; two coin-shaped pieces; one square box; a lobed, diamond-shape box and a lobed, round box. Some of them have Chinese characters in relief on the surface, which refer to good fortune or the ousting of bad spirits and indicate that these objects also had a talismanlike function. Probably because of these characters, this group of pendant parts was described as ‘medicine’ from the earliest records onward.

Decorative knives Decorative knives (changdo) come in a variety of shapes and levels of decoration and are worn by men and women of all classes. Men carry the knife on their belt or in a pouch, whereas women carry it on their belt or as part of the norigae. The knives originally had a practical function, but during the Chosŏn period they came to serve increasingly as decoration, to the point where some knives could not even be removed from the sheath.

27 | From head to toe: The Korean costume

Simple models are referred to as ‘mappaegi’ and heavily decorated models as ‘kajŭnjangshik’ (varied decoration; ill. 22), the level of decoration indicating the social status of the owner. Further distinction can be made according to shape, such as knives shaped in a curved s-shape (or the Chinese character ‘ŭl’; ŭltchado), or those with a pair of chopsticks attached to the sheath, called ‘ch’ŏmsado’ (ill.

23 and ill. 24). Further differences include the shape of the sheath, which can be round, square or octagonal (e.g.; the knife in ill. 25).

The manufacture of these knives, which was designated as Important Intangible Cultural Property (Chungyo Muhyŏng Munhwajae) no.

60 in 1978, is centered around Kwangyang in Chŏlla province (South-West Korea). This area is famous for its long history of knife making, due perhaps to the presence of iron mines in that region.

Headdresses In traditional Korean society, headdresses were a status-defining (and status-confining) feature, but the choice of headdress was also closely related to one’s social position. This is especially visible in the headdresses for men, who would traverse public space more frequently than women. Headdresses were regulated according to social rank and could not be chosen freely: Commoners were prohibited from wearing certain types of headdresses, while the elite would make sure

to avoid all ‘common’ head covers, let alone face the outside world with their bare hair showing.

Traditional Korean headdress can largely be divided into two groups. The first group is that of caps and hats (kŏn, or ‘cloth/cap,’ and kwan, or ‘crown’), worn for the purposes of covering up the topknot and indicating the social status of the bearer. These are worn directly to the skin and can be worn inside the house. The second category is mainly for use outside of the house and consists of hats with a crown

26 | Headband / manggŏn Late 19th century Horsehair, tortoise shell, jade 57 x 7,7 cm 666-60 27 | Headdress for official / chŏngjagwan Late 19th century Horsehair 18 x 27 x 16 cm 666-59

and brim (resembling the shape of Western hats), referred to as ‘ip’ and ‘mo.’ The most well-recognized hat in this category is the typical black kat worn by the educated classes.

Kŏn and kwan: Gauze hats and caps The most common piece of headdress for a married (and thus, adult) male was the horsehair headband, or manggŏn (gauze cloth/cover), shown in ill. 26. It functioned as a basic cap to arrange the hair before putting on a ceremonial head covering. The manggŏn is wrapped around the head and tied with two laces that are strung through eyelets (kwanja) at the side of the head. It is sometimes decorated with a p’ungjam, an ornament made of wood, stone or tortoise shell. The latter is the case with the headband shown here.

The horsehair construction of these Korean

Highlights from the Korea collection

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29 | From head to toe: The Korean costume

headbands, similar to that of the kwan and the black kat below, became famous early on; already in the fifteenth century, mention is made of their export to China. In some cases human hair could be used for repairs.

The category of kwan is similar in technique and material to the headbands above, but their function is to indicate that the wearer has an official position (secretary, head of a Confucian ceremony, etc.). They could also be worn for practical reasons in place of the more voluminous and fragile kat. A crown-style model that may be familiar to many is the chŏngjagwan (ill. 27), which was standard headdress for government officials and was used indoors in combination with the official robe (top’o or ch’angŭi).