• Science of Emotion and Sensibility
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.3-20
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• 2022

The origins of the world-recognized Korean gat can be traced back to Gojoseon, and the jades for the sangtu and gwanja come from Hongshan culture. This study examines the etymology of the hat, the symbolism of the gat and the jade comb, and the history of the development of the accessories for the hat. The research methods of literature review, investigation of relics and murals, and analysis of cases of pronunciation changes were used. Most of the relics excavated from the Hongshan are identical to those excavated from Korea. The Byun-Khan people wore a triangle-shaped conical hat (the byun), which was shaped to fit the protruding sangtu hairstyle, with a foldable brim that, if pulled downward, changed the hat to a gat. The Chu sangtu, a pointed top-knot hairstyle, is uniquely found among Northeast Asian peoples, and it is an ethnic symbol for Koreans. Until the modern period, many Koreans wore their hair in the sangtu style, indicating their descent from the sky. Jade combs shaped like birds and clouds from the Hongshan period emphasized the religious nature and ceremony of hair styling at that period. The word hat is widely used to refer to gat all over the world. The pronunciation of ㄱg, ㅎh. and ㅋq/kh are closely related to each other, and the ancient pronunciation ㄱg gradually evolved to ㅎh or ㅋq/kh. The English 'Hat' and Korean 'Gat' were transformed from the middle-ancient sound 'gasa > gosa > got' of the crown 'gwan, gokkal'. This creative hair style culture that started from the Hongshan culture continued to be fashionable during the Gojoseon Dangun period, and the decoration techniques for hats and accessories were inherited over time and continuously developed. Along with the method of making gat, creative hair-related parts, such as manggeons, donggot pins, gwanja buttons, and fine combs were developed over the course of a thousand years.