• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.64-87
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• 2017

Dahoe is a traditional braid in Joseon Dynasty. There are many Dahoe artifacts, which can give us a glimpse of the costume, culture, and life of that era. The study of Dahoe is necessary in various fields, but it is difficult because this manufacturing technique has been passed down from hand to hand. Few studies have been done so far. This research examines the manufacturing technique of KwangDahoe which is passed down by Maedeupjang (Decorative Knotting) and is generally used for knotting and/or tying objects. The main characteristic of TieKwangDahoe, made through the same method as WonDahoe, is the square hole in the middle. It was impossibile to remake the original braid because there is no confirmed number of the strand. Especially it is very difficult to do conservation and restoration on serious degradation state of the fiber. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the non-destructive manufacturing techniques method for Dahoe and assess their applicability. First, we analyzed the artifacts' manufacturing technique based on the database of the Dahoe's manufacturing technique. In order to do that, we undertook schematization, restoration, morphological analyzation of the Dahoe. And then, X-ray CT scans were performed to improve the reliability of the DB. These results of scanning were interpreted based on the manufacturing technique. The selected Tie-KwangDahoe on the sword for the study are artifacts including artistic value and symbolism in Joseon Dynasty. Based on the analysis of the manufacturing technique, we found that both artifacts were made of 20-strand braid of single cross according to the length-scale measure. It was manufactured using 8-strand on left-right side, 12-strand on front-back side by the braiding manufacturing technique method Finally, this research suggests non-destructive analysis method of Dahoe's manufacturing technique is based on the database and the analysis results. I hope this research can be useful in various professional fields of Dahoe in the future. Moreover, I hope this can be of any help in preserving Korean cultural heritage.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.40
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• pp.111-131
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• 2015

An unusual success engendering loyalty among cult fans in the United States, Mamoru Oshii's 1995 cyberpunk anime, Ghost in the Shell (GITS) revolves around a female cyborg assassin named Motoko Kusanagi, a.k.a. "the Major." When the news came out last year that Scarlett Johansson was offered 10 million dollars for the role of the Major in the live action remake of GITS, the frustrated fans accused DreamWorks of "whitewashing" the classic Japanimation and turning it into a PG-13 film. While it would be premature to judge a film yet to be released, it appears timely to revisit the core achievement of Oshii's film untranslatable into the Hollywood formula. That is, unlike ultimately heteronormative and humanist sci-fi films produced in Hollywood, such as the Matrix trilogy or Cloud Atlas, GITS defies a Hollywoodization by evoking much bafflement in relation to its queer, posthuman characters and settings. This essay homes in on Major Kusanagi's body in order to update prior criticism from the perspectives of posthumanism and queer theory. If the Major's voluptuous cyborg body has been read as a liberating or as a commodified feminine body, latest critical work of posthumanism and queer theory causes us to move beyond the moralistic binaries of human/non-human and male/female. This deconstruction of binaries leads to a radical rethinking of "reality" and "identity" in an image-saturated, hypermediated age. Viewed from this perspective, Major Kusanagi's body can be better understood less as a reflection of "real" women than as an embodiment of our anxieties on the loss of self and interiority in the SNS-dominated society. As is warned by many posthumanist and queer critics, queer and posthuman components are too often used to reinforce the human. I argue that the Major's hybrid body is neither a mere amalgam of human and machine nor a superficial postmodern blurring of boundaries. Rather, the compelling combination of individuality, animality, and technology embodied in the Major redefines the human as always, already posthuman. This ethical act of revision-its shifting focus from oppressive humanism to a queer coexistence-evinces the lasting power of GITS.