• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.54 no.2
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• pp.216-239
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• 2021

Inlay (入絲), a poetic technique of digging grooves in the surface of crafts and decorating them with metal materials, was used throughout the royal daily routines, ceremonies and government officials of the Joseon Dynasty. The government-owned handicraft industry in the Joseon Dynasty was composed of craftsmen belonging to central and local government offices and was operated mainly by government-owned craftsmen. The inlay craftsman was transferred to the central government office and was in charge of inlay poetry for crafts. The current records of Korean inlay craftsmen are concentrated in the state-owned handicraft industry. In the state-owned handicraft industry, the government offices of inlay craftsmen can be divided into Kongjo (工造), Sangeuiwon (尙衣院), and the military. Here the election of a temporary government office for airspace is added. The government offices and military inlay craftsmen who use inlay crafts are assigned, and the inlay craftsmen are placed separately in the temporary office where the fine division of labor is developed. It can be made by utilizing craftsmen. The operation of these production systems was indispensable in pre-modern Korean society, where crafts had to be produced by hand. In this paper, we investigated the roles and job types of craftsmen in the state-owned handicraft industry during the Joseon Dynasty, focusing on inlay craftsmen. Although the details applied to the characteristics and materials of the field, labor supply and demand, etc. are different, Korea pursued crafts for various purposes through craftsmanship within the framework of the basic state-owned handicraft policy . The institutional equipment for implementation was almost common. We believe that adding and analyzing some literature records and relics will help us to study the crafts of the Joseon era in more detail.