• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.63 no.7
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• pp.164-175
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• 2013

This study examined the Yemou(a hat for a dead woman) from the ladies' clothes excavated from the Lady Lee's tomb in order to trace the significance of the clothing composition and its social origin in the Chosun dynasty. The compositional characteristic of Yemou covers the body of the hat which is not connected with the cover, Wonsal which has a round shape that covers the face of the dead body, and two Gae(a ribbon on the backside of a hat). Seongho Lee-ik(one of representative Confucian scholars in the Chosun dynasty) stated in his book entitled "Seongho Notes", that the structural elements of Yemou originated in Yum(wrapping cloth for the head of a dead body). According to Seongho, Yemou's body part came from the scarf used to cover the head. Wonsal(the cloth of round shape for covering the face) and Gae were derived from Yum made of two ends of long cloth for covering and binding the head of a dead body. Yongjae Kim-kunhang(one of Confucian scholars in the late-Chosun dynasty) demonstrated in his "Yongjae Collection" the social background of the emergence of Yemou. Yemou was the hat produced from the process of nationalizing the Chinese courtesy of clothing. In other words, Bokgun(a man's hat) in the Chosun dynasty replaced the Chinese Yum. Unlike the Chinese custom, man and woman in the Chosun dynasty wore different clothes respectively. According to the clothing custom of the Chosun dynasty a woman wore a female hat, Yemou instead of men's Bokgun.