• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.16
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• pp.221-229
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• 1991

This thesis aims at reviewing the wearing aspect and formation of Chosun ceremonial dresses for meal and finding out the thought reflected by them from the standpoint that dresses themselves should be taken as one of the phenomena in culture. That is men's ceremonial costumes and confucian costumes of the royal family and the gentry family in Chosun is reviewed focused on the formation and the wearing aspect of Po, Which is a kind of them. And in the context of the phase of the times. I also considered the thoughts reflected on the clothes such as confucianism, Ying & Yang Theory, and the symbol and the thoughts of patterns in relation to the clothes. Confucian influence was the main force for the Chosun prohibitions for clothes. The major reasons for the prohibitions for clothes were as follows. First, they reflected confucian Chung myoung chooui(the principle that everything should be where it belongs). That is the prohibitions for clothes were used in the means to maintain feudalistic social order. influenced by social rank system. Second, they reflected confucian ethics in the means to recover social disciplines with the maintenance of traditional customs. This shows well in the restriction of luxurious items in dressing included the prohibitions for clothes. Third, they reflected Chosun's toadysm toward China. With the influx of Chinese style of dressing then government even changed the style of uniforms for public officials into that of Chinese resulting in dual styles of dressing. Ying & Yan Theory greatly affected the colors of Korean clothes and reflected toadysm toward China. too. The theory was embodied by prohibition of such colors for clothes as white, gray, and jade green. I reviewed the twelve patterns on Myunpok, Ten-Longivity patterns and Four-Gracious plants patterns in order to analyze the symbolism and thoughts of patterns for clothes. Nansam, Dopo, and Shimui worn by confucian scholars ensures that those clothes bears confucianism and philosopical factors. As shimui was worn by many people it appears in Chosun scholars' studies and a Chinese book called "Yeki". I reviewed the origin, procession, and ornaments of four ceremonial clothes and tried to find out the confucianism in them. First, In Kwanrei (the coming-of-age ceremony) remained ancestor worship and respect for manners. The clothes for this ceremony granted the rights and responsibilities of and adult to the wearer. The royal Kwanreipok had different dresses for each rank. As Samgapok, the crown prince wore Iksunkwan and Konryongpo for the first ritual, Wonryukwan and Kangsapo for the second, and Myunrukwan and Konpok for the third. The rank of the King's grandson was lower than the crown prince's. This example shows that Chosun people respected manners and thought the basic confucianism "God and people are equal." at the Royal court. Second, as Honreipok(wedding gown), the crown prince wore Myunrukwan and Konpok for Daereipok, Wonyukwan and Kangsapo for Napjing and Tongwoo, and Iksunkwan and Konryongpo for Chekbinui. But common people were allowed to wear an official outfit only for wedding in the means of congratulation on the most important day of their life. Wedding gowns which reflected Ying and Yang Theory emphasized the thought that union of a man and a wife is the most important event in life. Third, Sangrei(funeral) was the last ritual of a human being to send off the deceased. The mourning dresses expressed lamentation of the people left behind. Five-Dress-System for each the relative degree of familarity showed the solemnity and formality, which represented the formality of confucianism and ancestor worship. I reviewed the mourning dresses by dividing them into royal, Yangban's, and commons. They were featured by the fact that there was only one style for every walk of life. It is construed that anyone in mourning can wear the same clothes since he feels the same way regardless of his social rank. Fourth, Chereipok(sacrificial rite dresses) had different styles for each social rank. The King wore Myunpok(Kuryumyun and Kujangpok) were recorded to be worn first in the fourth year of King Taecho's ruling. The crown prince wore Palryumyun and Chiljangpok for sacrificial rite dress which was finally settled when King Sejong was in power. Common people wore Dopo, Shimui for the rite dress in the beginning of the Chosun Era and wore Dopo after Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. In conclusion, confucianism played the main role in ceremonial dress system of Chosun and that was because it emphasized the ethics of action in life, which was different from other religions. It is true that cause-oriented thoughts and Chung myoung chooui in confucianism drove all ceremonies to extreme manners, discriminating the people who belonged to the lower social rank, and resulting in extremly luxurious life style. However, they also created a unique trend and clothes culture in the Chosun Era. I wish that this thesis provieds important information and direction for furthur studies in the future.

• FLOWER RESEARCH JOURNAL
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.125-135
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• 2010

To discover the main characteristics of Korean traditional flower arrangement, they were compared with different articles and old paintings used in royal court ceremonies. The primary research involved principle of design. The times periods used were the Joseon Dynasty era of Korea, the Ming era of China, and the Edo eras of Japan. The result, which shows both the similarities and differences, of the research is summarized as follows. The similarities were that they all respect the features of nature, and their image expresses their creator's thinking. There was one technique, called 'Suje', in which a part of the stem is coming out from one branch. Also, each three eras preferred flowering trees and ornamental trees more than annuals or foliage plants. one of the differences was that korea used a simple number of materials. The work had volume and appeared mild by using a soft curved line which was repetitive and massive. The Joseon Dynasty era advanced a sense of beauty with artistic symmetry and balance. The work seemed soft and natural because of the little change in blank space, with almost no angle of line. The form had a characteristic preference of being taller than the typical Japanese arrangement. It appeared simple, calm, and rustic by using only one kind of material. In contrast, the Chinese style was gorgeous and displayed volume in a non-symmetrical tripodal form, which incorporated various colors and materials. Also, they avoided processing the materials in order to emphasize the original beauty of nature. Chinese flower arts did not become formalized because they did not consider the formality seriously the formal. The Japanese style was also gorgeous because it incorporated various materials and angles. It included an extreme technique in which an artificial line divided the blank space delicately. The line was both strong and delicate in an established form. The restriction of the main branch gave a light feeling, as well as more strain as in a balance sense. The Japanese eras emphasized more the use of line and a sense of blank space.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.5
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• pp.41-63
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• 1981

The mural portraits of the ancient Dukheungri tombs are very important for the study of our traditional costume because the tomb contains a stone. with the in-scription of the date of its erection, 408 A.D. and the name, and official status of the buried. The costumes shown in the mural paintings will be the basis on which historical research can be made concerning costumes before and after 400 A. D. The costume in the mural paintings is classified into five different categories; You (jacket), Po (overcoat), Go (trousers), Sang (skirt), and Gwan (hat). Comparing these categories with those of other mural paintings lead us to the following conclusions. 1. The length of the You (jacket) reaches below the buttocks and the sleeves are narrow. The edges of the sleeves are decorated with stripes. The You (jacket) over-laps on the right, center, and left sides, and there are many Jikryong (V-collar) and Danryong (rounded collar) styles, but it has a similar tendency to others of the Pyongyang area which exhibit many foreign influences. In a departure from tradition. the belts on the men's You (jackets) have only 3 knots in the front, with the back having more knots than the front. The belts of the women's You (jacket) seem to have had a band or button for fastening. We must re-evaluate the assumption that the You (jacket) and Go (trousers) of the northern peoples had the common characters of a belted You (jacket) and Po (over-coat) and that the Gorum originated from the Goryo or Unified Silla dynasty. The outside of the sleeves are longer and more to the side than the inner garment (underwear) so that the sleeves of the inner garment frequently overlapped the outer dress. The above mentioned facts have lead to the discovery of the "Hansam," "Tosi" and "Geodoolgi." 2. The Po (overcoat) was used only by the upperclasses and differs from those found in other mural tombs. The Po (overcoat) of the noble on the tomb mural is centered with an overlapping Jikryong (V-collar) while the other Po (overcoats) of the upperclasses are characterized by an overlap on the left, a Danryong (rounded collar) with two types of sleeves (wide and narrow). Foreign influences and traditional influences coexist in Po (overcoat). Belts have frontal knots without exceptions. The facts that the belts on the You (jackets) are on the front and the belts on the Po (overcoats) are on the back must be reexamined. 3. Go (trousers) is usually narrow, being wider in the rear and narrower below the knees. They were used by hunters on the back of horses with similar Go (trousers) from the Noinwoowha tombs being typical of the northern peoples. 4. Sang (skirts) are pleated as commonly seen in the Goguryo murals. The size of the pleat is varied, each pleat being characteristically wider and having different colors. Same types of pleat are discovered in Central Asia and China. It is uncertain whether the pleat of Goguryo was originated in Central Asia and China or only interrelated with those of the areas. 5. There are three kinds of Gwan (hats); Nagwan, Chuck, and Heukgun. Nag-wan was worn by the dead lords and their close relations. Chuck has three cone shaped horns. Heukgun was worn by military bandmen and horsemen. There are two kinds of hair styles. The up-style was used by the upperclass people closely related to lords, and other people used the Pungimoung hair style. The hair styles of the men and women are characterized by the Pungimoung style. which is a Chinese influence, but still retain their originality. The costume has a similar tendency from those from Yaksuri mural tombs, Anak No. 2 and Anak No. 3. We need to reexamine the costumes from $4{\sim}5$ century murals according to the Dukheungri murals. The costumes of Goguryo share many common factors with those of Western Asia, Central Asia and Ancient China (Han). It seems due to the cultural exchanges among the Northern peoples, the Western and Central Asians, and the Ancient Chinese. It may have resulted from the structural identity or morphological identity of the peoples, or their common social and natural environments and life styles. It will be very valuable to study the costumes of Japan, China, and Korea to find out the common factors. It is only regretful that the study is not based on direct observations but reported information made by 77 persons, because Dukheungri is an off-limits area to us.

• MISULJARYO - National Museum of Korea Art Journal
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• v.97
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• pp.87-104
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• 2020

Myogilsang on Diamond Mountain, signed and dated (2000) by Seon-u Yeong (1946-2009), is the first work by a North Korean artist to enter the collection of the National Museum of Korea (fig. 1a). The donor acquired the painting directly from the artist in Pyeongyang in 2006. In consequence, there are no issues with the painting's authenticity.This painting is the largest among all existing Korean paintings, whether contemporary or from the Joseon Dynasty, to depict this iconography (see chart 1. A Chronological List of Korean Myogilsang Paintings.) It is ink and color on paper, measures 130.2 × 56.2 centimeters, and is in a hanging scroll format. Since this essay is intended as a brief introduction of the painting and not in-depth research into it, I will simply examine the following four areas: 1. Seon-u Yeong's background; 2. The location and the traditional appellation of the rock-cut image known as Myogilsang; 3. The iconography of the image; and 4) A comparative analysis of Seon-u Yeong's painting in light of other paintings on the same theme. Finally, I will present two more of his works to broaden the understanding of Seon-u Yeong as a painter. 1. Seon-u Yeong: According to the donor, who met Seon-u at his workshop in the Cheollima Jejakso (Flying Horse Workshop) three years before the artist's death, he was an individual of few words but displayed a firm commitment to art. His preference for subjects such as Korean landscapes rather than motifs of socialist realism such as revolutionary leaders is demonstrated by the fact that, relative to his North Korean contemporaries, he seems to have produced more paintings of the former. In recent years, Seon-u Yeong has been well publicized in Korea through three special exhibitions (2012 through 2019). He graduated from Pyeongyang College of Fine Arts in 1969 and joined the Central Fine Arts Production Workshop focusing on oil painting. In 1973 he entered the Joseon Painting Production Workshop and began creating traditional Korean paintings in ink and color. His paintings are characterized by intense colors and fine details. The fact that his mother was an accomplished embroidery specialist may have influenced on Seon-u's choice to use intense colors in his paintings. By 1992, he had become a painter representing the Democratic People's Republic of Korea with several titles such as Artist of Merit, People's Artist, and more. About 60 of his paintings have been designated as National Treasures of the DPRK. 2. The Myogilsang rock-cut image is located in the Manpok-dong Valley in the inner Geumgangsan Mountain area. It is a high-relief image about 15 meters tall cut into a niche under 40 meters of a rock cliff. It is the largest of all the rock-cut images of the Goryeo period. This image is often known as "Mahayeon Myogilsang," Mahayeon (Mahayana) being the name of a small temple deep in the Manpokdong Valley (See fig. 3a & 3b). On the right side of the image, there is an intaglio inscription of three Chinese characters by the famous scholar-official and calligrapher Yun Sa-guk (1728-1709) reading "妙吉祥"myogilsang (fig. 4a, 4b). 3. The iconography: "Myogilsang" is another name for the Bhodhisattva Mañjuśrī. The Chinese pronunciation of Myogilsang is "miaojixiang," which is similar in pronunciation to Mañjuśrī. Therefore, we can suggest a 妙吉祥 ↔ Mañjuśrī formula for the translation and transliteration of the term. Even though the image was given a traditional name, the mudra presented by the two hands in the image calls for a closer examination. They show the making of a circle by joining the thumb with the ring finger (fig. 6). If the left land pointed downward, this mudra would conventionally be considered "lower class: lower life," one of the nine mudras of the Amitabha. However, in this image the left hand is placed across its abdomen at an almost 90-degree angle to the right hand (fig. 6). This can be interpreted as a combination of the "fear not" and the "preaching" mudras (see note 10, D. Saunders). I was also advised by the noted Buddhist art specialist Professor Kim Jeong-heui (of Won'gwang University) to presume that this is the "preaching" mudra. Therefore, I have tentatively concluded that this Myogilsang is an image of the Shakyamuni offering the preaching mudra. There is no such combination of hand gestures in any other Goryeo-period images. The closest I could identify is the Beopjusa Rock-cut Buddha (fig. 7) from around the same time. 4. Comparative analysis: As seen in , except for the two contemporary paintings, all others on this chart are in ink or ink and light color. Also, none of them included the fact that the image is under a 40-meter cliff. In addition, the Joseon-period paintings all depicted the rock-cut image as if it were a human figure, using soft brushstrokes and rounded forms. None of these paintings accurately rendered the mudra from the image as did Seon-u. Only his painting depicts the natural setting of the image under the cliff along with a realistic rendering of the image. However, by painting the tall cliff in dark green and by eliminating elements on either side of the rock-cut image, the artist was able to create an almost surreal atmosphere surrounding the image. Herein lies the uniqueness of Seon-u Yeong's version. The left side of Seon-u's 2007 work Mount Geumgang (fig. 8) lives up to his reputation as a painter who depicts forms (rocks in this case) in minute detail, but in the right half of the composition it also shows his skill at presenting a sense of space. In contrast, Wave (fig. 9), a work completed one year before his death, displays his faithfulness to the traditions of ink painting. Even based on only three paintings by Seon-u Yeong, it seems possible to assess his versatility in both traditional ink and color mediums.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.53 no.3
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• pp.164-183
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• 2020

In the textile culture of the Joseon Dynasty, the historic record of Banpo is fragmentary and contains many missing details. The main reason is a lack of associated literature, and it is also significant that the actual substance used is not clear at present. Banpo is a kind of cotton, but this has not been confirmed in the traditional textiles that are currently handed down. The word Ban [斑] in Banpo means "stain", and the letter Po [布] means "fabric". At the border of white discourse, Banpo did not receive attention as a research topic. This study is an attempt to restore some of the textile culture of the Joseon Dynasty through Banpo. Banpo is not just limited to the Joseon Dynasty; it is an important material for examining the development of textile culture and exchange in East Asia. This study was broadly divided into three parts. First, the record and meaning of Banpo during the Joseon Dynasty were examined. Records of Banpo can be seen from the early Joseon period during King Sejo and Seongjong, and the production and actual use of Banpo have been confirmed. Banpo was maintained until the beginning of the 20^th century, but is no longer observed. Banpo is a woven fabric made of cotton yarn dyed in many colors and has appeared in Southeast Asia since ancient times. In East Asia, there are other fabrics similar to Banpo, such as Ho [縞], Sum [纖], and Chim [綅]. In particular, the correlation between Banpo and Ho is an important link in understanding Banpo in the Joseon Dynasty. Second, the meaning of Banpo was examined from various angles through comprehensive analysis of Chinese and Japanese literature records and cases. The appearance and development of Banpo moved in sync with the period when cotton was introduced into East Asia. In East Asia, cotton was introduced and produced in earnest from the end of the Song Dynasty to the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, and the meaning of Banpo was diversified. In China, the name of Banpo was changed to Hwapo [花布], Gizapo [碁子布], Gizahwapo [棋子花布], etc. Japan was late to introduce cotton and developed it in acceptance of the changed meaning. In Japan, use of the name Banpo is not on record, but a Ryujo [柳條] fabric of the same type as banpo has been identified. This Ryujo is the same concept as Ho and Hwapo, and later merged into Ho. Names such as Ho, Hwapo, Banpo, etc. were used differently in each country, but the form was shared across East Asia. Third, based on the meaning of Banpo shared in East Asia, the format of Banpo in the Joseon Dynasty was classified. The format of Banpo in the Joseon Dynasty can be divided into grid and striped versions. The name Banpo disappeared over time, but the form remained and was passed down until recently. I hope that this study will help restore Banpo in the future.