wa: A Precious Look at
Traditional Korean Life t wasn1t until the early 1970s that the Korean people began to take an interest in minbwa, or folk paintings. Prior to that time, these paintings lived in the shadow of what is generally known as 11 traditional painting. 11 People seem most attracted to those works that exude an unsophisticated, awkward or even childish ambience. Perhaps their curiosity is piqued by the uniqueness, the strangeness of these paintings, particularly in comparison to the more familiar genre of traditional painting. However, one can hardly say such childish paintings are synonymous with minhwa. Many minhwa are in no way inferior to traditional paintings in terms of technique Here we encounter a problem that arises in any discussion of minhwa. Living as we do in modern times, we often approach minbwa, born amidst the traditions of the past, from the viewpoint of Western art theory Another problem is the concept of the folk painting itself. Minhwa, the term most commonly used to refer to this genre, was first used in 1959 by Yanagi Munayoshi, a Japanese folk art scholar, in an article entitled 11 The Mysterious Choson Minhwar in Mingei magazine. Yanagi used the term minbwa in the sense that it was created by and for the people ( minjunf!), and purchased by the people Nevertheless, Yanagi1s compound word (min for 11people11 and hwa for 11 painting11) does not necessarily corre42
Haet'ae, a mythical unicorn-lion,
colors on paper, 45x34 em, private collection, Seoul
Folk painting was very popular by the end of the Chos6n Kingdom as dynamic changes shook the established order. Minhwa suited the tastes of the new class that emerged as a result of the unprecedented social mobility brought on by the thriving commoner economy. Art dealers and itinerant painters appeared, actively participating in the commercialization and distribution of folk paintings.
EomSoYeon Research Fellow National Folk Museum
spond to the Korean sensibility. Furthermore, the Korean people have not firmly defined what is meant by the term 11 people11 (minjunf!), either socially, culturally, or historically It is only for the sake of convenience that we use the term minbwa since it has become familiar to us. In fact, a number of alternatiye terms have been suggested by scholars in this field for example, Kim Ho-y6n1s ky6re kurim (ethnic painting), Zo Zayong1s hanhwa (Korean painting), as well as terms such as kongyehwa (craft painting) or minsokhwa (folklore painting). Each of these terms has its own inherent limitations, however. With this in mind, I would like to discuss the origins of the minhwa genre, its distinguishing characteristics, and various types of minbwa Al( folk paintings share the following elements: extant folk paintings are generally between 200 and 300 years old; they are based on themes found in native religions; and the artists are
unknown The wide variety and titles of the folk paintings listed in annals from the Choson period (1392-1910), such as Tongguk Sesigi, Y6lyang Sesigi, and K)X5ng;lo Chafâ‚Źi> suggest a connection with kut, or shamanistic rites, since shamanism was the dominant religion at that time. These documents include references to paintings of images of ch'6yong(a plague spirit), a horned spirit, a general in a suit of armor (a common figure in kut), the