• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.60 no.6
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• pp.117-138
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• 2010

This study tries to analyse the type of sasanian crowns by looking into the icons and meanings of various motifs that changed the archetype and shape of the crowns, and the social and political factors that affected those motifs. Based on such analysis, the study is aimed at completing the periodic typology of the sasanian crown. For this study the literature research is combined with the empirical analysis of information. Korymbos which symbolizes globe represented the authority and power of the sasanian kings, but the motif with such meaning was replaced by star motif in the late-sasanian crowns. The basic motifs embellishing the sasanian crown represent Gods, which is interpreted as an attempt to symbolize the relations between Gods and kings. These motifs are found on each king's crown in a different and individual way, which seems because the kings at the time chose the motif that can symbolize their own political intention or spirit. At the early days of the sasanian dynasty, Korymbos motif was highly emphasized on the crowns, and was used throughout the end of the dynasty and then was replaced by star motif. From the mid-4th century, Crescent motif started to be used, which was always shown as the shape supporting Korymbos and star motif on it. Bird wing motif was intermittently used in the early and middle days of the dynasty, and was highly emphasized in the crowns of all the kings in the end of the dynasty. Star motif started to be used in the end of sasanian dynasty.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.58 no.6
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• pp.1143-1165
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• 2012

Tinted with ontological concern, Ted Hughes passes through an existential climate, eventually confirms death( or nothingness) as the new foundation of his poetry, and explores the various paradoxical effects of nothingness. Nihilism, fraught with rather negative and traumatic themes such as death, melancholy, and despair can, however, generate being (even in multiple modes), animalistic vitality, and insubstantial specters. Among these new functions of nothingness animality and spectrality are the most notable in Hughes's poetry. A considerable number of animals and bioorganisms that Hughes introduces exhibit the enormous energy derived from the dignity of death, from subversive challenges against the established hierarchy, and from new and dynamic multifaceted sources of nothingness. In other words, Hughes's animals, yield surplus power beyond themselves, as if they are demi-gods; in short, they feature the sublime as unidentified terrifying effects of nothingness. In a sense, animality means allowing some level of violence without legal sanction. Hughes inaugurates this kind of all bigotry-eradicating violence and attempts to subvert higher beings such as humans and gods, and existing doctrines: thrushes rise up against the animal and human worlds; a rush of ghostly crabs at night press through the human world. Hughes also resists the highest being, God, employing the technique of rewriting God's theology. Dirty, anomalous crows attack, subvert, and dismember the delicate, indurate, and thorough system of logos. Hughes, of course, does not place the animals merely in lofty regard, aware of the ulterior deprivation of the sublime animality, the trace of existential negativity. Thus, a seemingly omnipotent crow can become a mere beggar guzzling ice cream from the garbage bin on the beach. In addition, the violent and dignified aspects of nothingness can be transformed to reveal the thin and trivial traits as unreliable specters. Dark, heavy, and terrible nullity lessens its own volume and mass, and exposes the airy waves of shadows or specters. However, owing to nullity's untraceable track, the scarcity and unfamiliarity of the phantoms inversely display their foreign gigantic effects such as fantasy and violence.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.34
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• pp.172-195
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• 2001

This research on the house folklore in China, Korea, and Japan is focusing on a kitchen God that is common in these three countries. This god originated in China and has subsequently influenced Korea and Japan. Today, all three countries use the same name of this kitchen god which is called Youngwang(竈王) as its name has been spelled in Chinese. In China, this kitchen god has been believed in two different ways. The Han people have developed their belief in Youngwang while another creed has been originated from other ethnic groups. Because of the particular house style with upper stories of ethnic groups in the southern and southeast areas of China, a kitchen fireplace is centered in the house. Han people in China also worship painted depictions of kitchen gods. And the ethnic groups believe it has three stone legs for a fire box. These differing beliefs has bad influenced on Korea and Japan. The kitchen god of Cheju island (off the south Korea coast) is believed to be almost the same as among the ethnic groups in China Interestingly, form of belief in the kitchen god in Okinawa (off the south coast of Japan) is almost identical as in the southern area of China Custom in China. Korea, and Japan regarding the kitchen god symbolized family values healing, initiating a new daughter-in-law to reveging the kitchen god, etc. are all the very similar. A fireplace and its fire are very important and, have many taboo, attached. Existing rich tales of kitchen gods are similar in the three countries. Moreover, people in the three countries, think that the clay or time plaster of the fireplace with bring good luck on New Year's eve. However, Korea kitchen god features one thing that is different from those China and Japan, that is that water symbolizes the kitchen god in Korea. A painted kitchen god as they are popular in China, has influenced only some Buddhist temples in Korea.

• Cartoon and Animation Studies
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• s.31
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• pp.91-116
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• 2013

The accessibility and effect of cartoon on children are very significant. Since cartoon is a medium of conveying information through text and pictures, it has a characteristic of being easily approached by children than any other medium. Its accessibility to children is inevitably more exceptional than any other medium in the sense that it is a method of not only telling or reading stories but also showing stories. The main audience of is children. It has a characteristic of being easily accepted by children since it's mythology seen in cartoon than read in text. However, gods conducts are full of unethical expressions. Sexual expressions of intermarriages between mother and son, between brother and sister and between uncle and niece, as well as extramarital intercourse are very unethical that could have negative effects on children. This study analyzed the unethical expressions of gods that could have negative effects on children at current point in time. Zeus was often unfaithful to his wife with many stories about the children of Zeus that were created from extramarital intercourse. Standard of value on rational decision has been established for adult readers, but children can readily accept things since they lack their own rational decision on what's right and wrong. As an alternative to children's uncritical observatory study, there is a need for author's intervention to help children form desirable values. The purpose of this study is to analyze the sexual expressions of Zeus and gods in that could affect children's social study.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.38
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• pp.43-107
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• 2005

A ritual ceremony accompanied by a song and dance is called as Kagura in Japan. The word Kagura is originally derived from Kamukura, which means the place where spirits reside. However, later it came to refer to the whole process of the ritual ceremony itself. Through the field studies, this paper examines Takachiho-kagura, helded in Takachiho, known as the village of myths, located in northern Miyazaki-ken in Japan. Kagura takes place all night through in each and every village in Takachiho and it normally runs from the end of November when the harvest season ends until early February the next year. One ordinary house is especially chosen for this ceremony, in which Kagura performs 33 repertoires. Takachiho-kagura is sometimes called as Yokagura, since the performance takes place over-night. A song and dance is performed by ordinary village people called hoshyadong, who inherited Takachiho-kagura. Currently, the ceremony is held in more than 20 villages and designated by the government as "Important Intangible Folk Cultural Property" in Japan. Takachiho-kagura follows the example of rituals held in Sada shrine in Izumo, which is now eastern Hiroshima-ken. It is the dance using a bell, a sword, a fan, which signify Norimono and is usually combined with mask-play called as Shinno. From the shrine of village, itwelcomes the gods who defense their village, called Ujikami and other 8 million gods, called Yaoyorozunokami, in Kagurayado, where Kagura of 33 repertoires is played in order. Kagura starts from dances for attendance of the gods, Hikomai, Daidono, Kamioroshi, performs dances of Amanoiwato, the gate of heaven's cave in Japanese myths, Dazikara, Uzume, Dotori, and continues dances for the old ghosts Shibahiki, Yatsubachi mixed with acrobatics. Finally, this performance ends with dances to send off the gods, Hinomae, Gurioroshi, Gumooroshi, until the dawn the next morning. This paper explores Takachiho-kagura from the perspective of folk performance with ethnography. These days, ecstasy and oracle do not happen in Takachiho-kagura. However, it kept the old form of folk performance as Kagura held in ordinary house. Especially, in Takachiho, remarkable venue of the Japanese myths, Takachiho-kagura is developed artistically. The first field study was held in Gokamura, Iwato-zone and Ashakabe, Mitai-zone between December 6th and December 12th 1997. Afterwards, the second field study was conducted in the area of Shiba and Ashakabe from December 17th until December 19th 1997 and from December 1st until December 10th 2000.

• The Critical Review of Religion and Culture
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• no.32
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• pp.13-54
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• 2017

The Ise Grand Shrine(伊勢神宮) dedicated to the sun goddess Amaterasu (天照大神), located in the city of Ise(伊勢市), Mie Prefecture of Japan, is a center of Japanese Shinto Shrines and composed of a large number of Shinto shrines centered on two main shrines, Naiku(內宮=皇大神宮) and Geku(外宮= 豊受大神宮). Historically it has kept very close relationship with Emperor, because its enshrined deity Amaterasu is generally said to be the ancestor of Imperial Family. The food and alcohol offering to the gods in Japanese Shinto rites are called Shinsen(神饌, ambrosia). Main subjects of this essay dealing with Shinsen are the various matsuri (rites) of Ise Grand Shrine and Emperor, such as Higoto-asayu-omike-sai(日別朝夕大御饌祭, offering repasts to the gods in the moring and evening everyday), Kan-name-sai(神嘗祭, offering of the year's new rice harvest), Shikinen-sengu-sai(式年遷宮祭, year of the ceremony), Nii-name-sai(新嘗祭, Ceremonial offering by the Emperor of newly-harvested rice to the gods), and Daijo-sai(大嘗祭, first ceremonial offering of rice by newly-enthroned Emperor). Then, the purpose of this essay is to examine not only the social, religious, and political but also cultural meaning of Shinsen especially in relation to Korea, basically introducing some types and characteristics of Shinsen with its mythological background and historical development. In so doing, I will show the concrete list of items and processes of Shinsen in those rites. For example, the social meaning of Shinsen might be examined in association with agricultural features, ancient dietary life, Japanese food, and its contemporary context etc. Besides, its religious meaning can be mentioned especially from the perspective of divine nature, life and rebirth etc. On the other hand, the politics was in ancient Japan originally called Matsurigoto which means the ancestral rites for gods. This suggests the political meaning of Shinsen that the politics in Japan has originated from Shinsen.

• The Journal of Korean Philosophical History
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• no.31
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• pp.173-202
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• 2011

Hierophany, according to Mircea Eliade, is a natural manifestation of the initial sacred. Through hierophany, profane objects and sites transform their qualities and then they themselves become sacred. People in traditional societies, in an attempt to reenact the initial hierophany, tried to perform consecrating rituals to replicate the first moment of the initial hierophany, at the same time and site. This article focuses on the concrete sites of hierophany. In ancient China, we can see specific sites that manifest the sacred such as Kunlun(崑崙), Jianmu(建木) and zongmiao(宗廟). Kunlun has the characteristics as the Cosmic Mountain that is the realm of the gods that tiandi(天帝) built as his center on the Earth, and it bridges Heaven and Earth. Jianmu joins Heaven, Earth, and the underworld like a Cosmic Tree or Pillar. It can be stated that zongmiao, the royal ancestral temple, functions as the Center of the World, the axis mundi, in which religious human beings express their desire to live in a sacred site, and in which they can regain their initial purity of spirits by communicating with the gods and ancestors. These three are the sites of manifestation of the sacred in China.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.56 no.3
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• pp.543-555
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• 2010

In his early poems, Wallace Stevens shows us different gestures, compared with his later poems, when he acquires reality by faculty of imagination. The former is made of ontological violence while the latter is revealed by bareness of less sensuality. However, they are the identical gestures, though from different angles, to accomplish things as they are rather than the ideas of things. In "Sunday Morning," ontological violence occurs in such epistemological couples as thought and thing, mind and world, and imagination and reality. Especially, in order to recuperate his poetic reality, Stevens undermines the traditional hierarchy between heavenly divinity and earthly divinity. In the poem, Christianity faces a critical challenge and then it is disempowered by the earthly divinity. Additionally, by disadvantaging religion, he wants to raise his poetic issue of the faculty of imagination to acquire reality. Stevens' concept of imagination is less subjective and more transcendental than Kantian one. After the ontological violence, Christian divinity and mythic gods leave ontological boundary for earthly divinity in an ambiguous way. In other words, between "Sunday" and "sunny day," the ontological conflicts haunt us throughout the poem as if the violence would happen between imagination and reality. For Stevens, both Christian divinity and mythic gods are mere obstacles to real divinity; both play a mere role of imagination before reality is revealed. Whatever reality is, imagination is always ready to draw an ontological line of reality in an ambiguous way, regardless of how long it lasts. In general, most ontological violence requires such physical remnants of conflicts as borderline, deaths, and pains which still prevail in the poem. Those ontological remnants remain to be found on earth. The sky is an abstract borderline between heaven and earth because in a sense, it belongs to both earthly landscape and heavenly sphere. Without any ontological borderline or threshold, there is no recognition of the divinity because the vitality of divinity is inflamed in continuous transgression of the other. After the final ontological conflict between heaven and earth, there remains only ambiguous borderline near the earth beside the friendlier sky.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.41
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• pp.7-32
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• 2015

This study started from an interest in the unique history and literature of Okinawa and Jeju Islands. The Battle of Okinawa at a late stage of the Asia-Pacific theatre of World War II, and the indiscriminate violence in the 4.3 Jeju Massacre directly show the shared tragedy of the two islands; furthermore, they are are both located on the frontier of a nation's authority, and thus are symbolic cases. This thesis analyzes Oshiro Tatsuhiro's Island of the Gods and Hyun, Ki Young's Sooni's Uncle, both directly deal with the tragedy of two different but analogous incidents, and question the difference in memory struggle and definitions. Thus, though both novels show a similarity in focusing on and exposing the forbidden memory of mass suicide and massacre, the methods of suggesting the course of memory struggle are different. For example, in contrast to Hyun who took a different approach from the fury, accusations, and violence of South Korea to espoused forgiveness and reconciliation, Oshiro showed the changes in the form of responding to the mainland Japan.

• Sim-seong Yeon-gu
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• v.30 no.2
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• pp.111-144
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• 2015

Chilseongpul-i is a Korean shamanic myth in which the life story full of hardships of seven sons is told, until they will take up the sacredness of Chilseong god. The seven sons, who were born from Chilseongnim and his wife Okneobuin, are abandoned by their father, Chilseongnim. But sometime later they are born with new characters after going through a special growth process of suffering, dying, and rebirth. They finally recover the sacred position to save their mother. As considered by the analytical psychology, the fact that the seven sons became Chilseong gods shows an individuation process of the heroic mythology. The individuation process might be regarded as a symbol of Self-archetype of Koreans. Self-archetype functions as a healing which gets one's split heart and mind together. An imago dei of healers should be projected upon the seven gods by ancestors.