Suspension Bridge to Mt. Gamaksan

The recently constructed longest suspension bridge (150 meters) in South Korea is getting a fair amount of tourism. Warren Kim, leader of the Seoul Hiking & Nature Group, organized a busload of hiking enthusiasts to walk the bridge and climb the mountain behind, Mt Gamaksan, which offers a dramatic view from the sharp, rocky summit. From the summit also a person can look toward the north, beyond the DMZ, and get a clear view of North Korea, and on a clear day even the city of Gaeseong (the city that allows trade between North and South Koreas) can be seen. Because of this spectacular view, Mt Gamak is sometimes said to be "the closest mountain to the DMZ" which is not really true but is a great drawing card for tourism. But due to this reason, even the temple on the mountain trail to the top has a wishing pagoda for peaceful unification, and for Catholics, a Mother Mary figure on the peak.

As the date of departure approached, rain was in the forecast, but luck was on our side. The rain appeared as snow, the first snow of the year, and we got excellent pictures and had a fabulous time. 

Excellent W4,000 mountain herb bibimbop here!

Photo credits go to Warren of Seoul Hiking, Dong Wook Kim, and Eric. Nice shots, guys!

Hanji Museum in Wonju

Before paper, man recorded words via various materials in order to convey thoughts. Rocks, turtle shells, bronze ware and iron bowls, jukpyeon made from splitting bamboo, parchment from sheepskin, vellum made of bark, silk fabrics. Prior to the invention of paper, the base materials for writing and painting were difficult to use because of great weight, bulk, complex process in their creation, and huge expense to produce. Once paper was invented, however, knowledge began to spread quickly and unified culture rapidly developed. 

The exact period when paper was introduced to Korea is unknown, and different hypothesis range from 2nd - 7th century AD. What is known, however, and according to a very accurate record "The Chronicles of Japan" is in 1610 Koguryeo monks Damjing and Bupjeong went to Japan and taught how to color and manufacture paper, ink and millstones. This fact reveals that paper-making in Koguryeo had not only been introduced before this time but had developed at least enough to share with another country.

Paradoxically, paper which had been originally created and crafted in China and from there diffused to the West was reintroduced to China, but in an altered form, yangji (Western paper). The West had taken the concept of paper-making and used their own materials, mechanized the process and improved on mass production, and then the methods of Western paper production filtered back to China. The first factory for making yangji was established in China during the early 1800s, in Japan in 1872, and in Korea in March 1901.

When paper-making technique was passed to the West, it was during the reign of Emperor Xuanzong during the Tang Dynasty. In 751, General Gao Xianzhi, a migrant of Koguryeo and who commanded the expeditionary force of Tang, was defeated at the Talas Valley in the norther Tien Shan by the Saracenic army and many of his soldiers were captured. Through this war, the technique of paper-making became known to the Islamic culture. Muslims of the Islamic world had an altered production method; they scooped with their hands and filtered fibers with a net at a paper mill in Samarkand, Pakistan. Their culture likewise developed as, with the wide diffusion of a writing material, they were empowered to make their first Koran. From the Islamic world, the paper-making technique of the Islamic world spread out throughout Europe by the Crusades. 

"Pure-Light Dharani Sutra" which was printed on the Korean traditional mulberry paper, hanji, is the first book known to be printed with woodblocks. It was discovered in the Seokgatap at Bulguksa in Gyeongju. It has contents about long life, realizing wishes and the easy passage to eternity if the scripture is memorized for building the tower. Before the book's discovery, the oldest block printing in the world was "Hyakumantoudarni" of Japan, which was published in 770 AD. 

The Route of Paper Diffusion and Cellulose Variations

(click on images to enlarge)

 Cultures varied in their cellulose mediums

 Suroji translates as 'handmade paper. It is similarly called subuji and suchoji. After the diffusion of paper-making technique throughout the world, each country produced various types of paper from its native plants. 

The Origin of the Word, Hanji

There are many assertions about the origin of the word, hanji, and there are many possibilities. No matter its actual etymology, the present meaning is clear and is being borrowed into other languages to distinguish the unique paper type and quality of traditional Korea.

1. "Han" is a distinguishing term for things Korean and is used as a contrast word for things Western, "yang". Other words following this distinction pattern are hanbok, hanok, haneui ...
2. "Han" is also created from the Chinese character "Han" of "Daehanminguk".
3. The best quality of Korean traditional paper is made in the winter when the fibers are put into "han" water, that is, cold water.
4. "Hanji" is the specific name for Korean traditional paper while the Chinese traditional paper is huazhi and the Japanese is washi.

The History of Korean Paper, Hanji

Hanji is the Korean paper produced from mulberry bark and made in the traditional way. The technique, imported from China, was independently developed according to the period. Baechuji of Silla, manji of Koryeo and taejangji of Joseon -- all hanji, and it has been proven that hanji can last over one thousand years. It is strong, soft and glossy, and therefore is widely used for calligraphy and painting as well as general folkcrafts.

Three Kingdoms Period

The Three Kingdoms Period is the quickening period of hanji. Paper and the technique for paper-making had already been introduced from China, and during this period Korea imitated Chinese paper, finally producing their own form of paper (hanji) before the end of the period.

Unified Silla

The center for paper-making during Unified Silla was Gyeongju. Most paper produced here was used for necessary government documents. The most representative paper was called baekchuji during this time, and it was known as the best paper inside and outside of Silla.

Koryeo Dynasty

Koryeo Dynasty made huge leaps in the development of hanji. Koreans imported the new technique from China and developed the technique further, producing Koryeo-ji aka manji which was praised as the best by Chinese themselves. During this period, the government branch office, Jiso, was installed in order to stimulate and further paper production. 

"Pure-Light Dharani Sutra", excavated from Seokgatap at Bulguksa is now recognized as the first woodblock book in the world. It was discovered when Seokgatap at Bulguksa was dismantled in 1966. The sutra was wrapped in a silk cloth and put in a gold and bronze container used for crystalized sarira (cremated remains) of Sarigong and placed in the core of the second tier of Seokgatap. With exposure to air, its condition worsened and so underwent restoration and conservation from October 1988 to January 1998. This sutra is the relic which presents the development of techniques for making paper and printing from the early period in Korea.

Joseon Dynasty

The early part of the Joseon Dynasty was the final development period of the paper-making technique and the latter part was a time of stagnation. During the early period, organizations were established to produce paper, and techniques and raw materials were various. In this era the usage of paper became popular among the public. However, in the latter part of Joseon after the Japanese Invasion of 1592, the technique for paper-making declined in the continuous turmoil within the nation. Ultimately, the Buddhist temples began producing their own paper for sutra writings and they assumed the responsibility for paper production in the country.

Memoir of the Pilgrimage to the Five Kingdoms of India (Photographic edition) was the traveling journal written in 727 (26th year of King Seongdeok) by Hyecho, a Silla monk. The journal contains contents about religions, customs and cultures of India and the countries bordering western China. This book was discovered at Qian fo dong of Dunhuang, Gansu province in the northwest of China by the French Orientalist Paul Pelliot in 1908. After being published by Luo Yuzhen of China, it became known to the world.

During Japanese Colonial Period

The department for paper production under the Central Research Laboratory of Japanese Government General in Korea analyzed and valued the raw materials and products of Korea during Japanese rule. During this period, China widely distributed sunset hibiscus seeds and unified the necessary bark fibers for paper-making while Japan standardized size and form of mould-frames introducing the Japanese way. Paper-making by double-mould frame and iron board drying were imported in order to establish the Japanese method of making hand-crafted fibrous paper.

Fifty Years after Liberation

a modern hanbok made out of thick
hanji for the intent of promoting
hanji in the fashion industry

The base of hanji production was fundamentally weakened by the policy of placing priority on industrial development over agricultural security and maintenance. Political, economic and social turmoil ensued after the Korean War and the suppression of the citizens by military government and growing civil unrest. However, samjidak, the mulberry material for export was encouraged as well as the production of handmade paper. Not to mention the fact that, in 1901, the first factory for yangji had been established. This alter paper production required different kinds of machines and even chemicals for paper-making, but the paper-making process was speedier and ultimately cheaper, and it fed the growing public demand for more paper. With the increase in yangji production, Hanji decreased, and quite quickly fell out of common use. 

Because hanji-making is time-consuming and involves intensive labor, only a few artists are presently willing to produce it, and therefore training as a hanji master craftsman is rare. Little demand for hanji does not encourage hanji craftsman either, as a living must be made. In addition, many people are satisfied with the modern "hanji" which uses some of the materials for making the traditional hanji but also uses machines and chemicals. The paper quality is very compromised, but since it is produced much more cheaply, it can likewise be sold more cheaply and therefore this new form of "hanji" outsells the traditional form. 

In recent years (since 2000), the government wanting to promote and stimulate cultural traditions is now encouraging events and the development of new products that utilize hanji, one of Korea's traditional prides.  Hanji cloth to make hanji fashion clothing is one of the latest trends for stimulating hanji production and popularity.

Paper-making Process of Traditional Hanji

Cut, steam, boil, dry, strip paper mulberry bark, boil, beat, mix, scoop ... 

Never Wasteful: The Ancient Way of Recycling Old Hanji

Over the centuries Korea developed various uses of hanji, many of which pertain to craftworks in their daily lives. And when some hanji products became old, they were recycled into new and still useful craftworks, like twisting old hanji products, paper and ratty books into strands for alternative household usage. For example, saekji craftwork was done by accumulating small pieces of paper and making them into colored paper for some decorative purpose. 

Herb Restaurant (곤드래밥), by Woodblock Museum, Wonju

One of the tastiest restaurants I've been to, located at the bottom of the hill from the Gopanhwa Museum, 곤드래밥 restaurant. Awesome home-cooked food with great country ambience! The menu I believe is totally vegetarian, and totally good, and very reasonable priced too -- all under W10,000.

Gotta just love the country feel!

Can't remember what we ordered since everyone mostly ordered different items (lots of stress on the cook and her husband) but every dish was loaded with veggies and rich in natural homey flavors, and every dish is a recommend. 

This is the house menu - pumpkin and herb dolseotbibimbop. Simply amazing!

I'll definitely be back to the Gopanhwa Museum. I love the place, the monk who runs it and his wife, the whole ambience ... and the restaurant at the bottom of the hill. I've got future weekends already planned ... here just outside of Wonju!

Gopanhwa (Ancient Asian Woodblock Print) Templestay

The Gopanhwa Museum (aka Museum of Ancient Asian Woodblock Print) was started in 1999 as the brainchild of the Taego Order monk who operates the entire grounds. Director Han, with a PhD in Museum Education, is passionate about his private collection of about 4,300 ancient woodblocks and prints which represent five Asian countries: Korea, Japan, China, Mongolia and Tibet. In days prior to the conveniences of Internet and Ebay-like services, he would travel extensively to Asian countries sleuthing down Asian woodblocks and old prints to add to his collection. 

23 years ago Director Han, as a monk (he still is a monk but allows his hair to grow out as he works with people of everyday society), visited China and saw woodblocks. He felt a connection and wanted to learn more about woodblock making. And that was his beginning with his passion concerning woodblocks. In those days he was always going to China to continue his learning of woodblock craft. Now his focus has changed from doing and learning to collecting and preserving, and thus, the creation of his woodblock temple and museum. He says there are few original books and woodblocks remaining -- the Tripitaka preserved at Haeinsa is a primary and well-preserved example -- but China doesn't have these. He is madly running around trying to collect the few remaining woodblocks and prints so they can be preserved and appreciated.

The unusual-shaped temple, one of the first buildings constructed on the grounds, was designed by Director Han. The inside is truly spectacular--you'll have to visit to believe me! Also unusual is the Buddha image in the foreground here; it had been decapitated, but Director Han erected the Buddha in his temple garden and commissioned another stone head to be carved. The Hawaiian lei covers the seam and hides the discoloration between the old and the new stone.

Director Han has intense knowledge and his hands are about as expressive as his words. A special thanks to Sonja Glaeson who hosts the travel experience group in Suwon, Hippie Korea. Sonja was our phenomenal translator; otherwise, we would have missed the deeper meaning of all the symbolism and deep history wrapped up in the temple and the woodblocks. 

Director Han carved the Buddha in the temple himself. It was carved from a 300-year-old well-aged pine trunk, and it was completely carved in 3 weeks. Director Han praises Buddha for the quick carving of the temple's central image. 

Director Han commissioned this painting in the temple. The characters in the painting are a combined representation of all the mythic gods in Asia: the chilsung which is Taoist and gradually changed into a Confucian spirit-concept, Chinese spirits, the mountain god, Indian spirits especially as Hinduism transitioned into Buddhism, the dragon king represented by 매기 (a fish), and of course the Four Heavenly Kings. 

Buddhist food, and Buddhist manners for giving thanks

Before eating the Buddhist temple food, everyone was given a prayer-chant to recite along
with Director Han to express thanks for the food.

Buddhist monk style meal! Director Han was educating us on the order of eating and the command of Buddha to eat everything and not waste; everything means eating even the last grain of rice and the last speck of pepper powder. We were to swish water around in our bowl after eating and drink it all so as to "eat everything".

We were a little reserved about diving into the food the first meal ... not sure of the manners.

Meal 2. Oh never mind! If you're hungry, just eat. Worry about manners when you're full!

Gopanwha Museum: Ancient Asian Woodblock Print Museum

This whole museum was amazing! It has recently received an award for being one of the best museums in Korea! Also recently, Director Han had a woodblock display at Kyoungbokgung Folk Museum which ran for 2 months!

A brief history of ancient printing:

• Printing was best during the Goryeo Dynasty, but then the best moved to Japan during the Edo period.
• First color prints were made about 400 years ago in China. Then Edo embraced this style and greatly expanded on color printing. 
• Korea didn't do much with color printing. Instead, they inked woodblocks with the typical black and after stamping colored the paper by hand.  
• Korea did like embossing paper, which was a mark of high aesthetics and therefore highly valued in Korea. To emboss, they dampened hanji paper, pressed it on a patterned wood mold to emboss the pattern onto the paper.
• Bamboo-style (mid Joseon) - printed for writing and making accordion style

In short, the development of woodblock printing shifted each century 

• 17th C - China
• 18th C - Japan
• 19th C - Korea
• Now - Africa and artists like Picasso get a lot of attention with woodblock forming

Woods that have traditionally or preferentially been used by the three NE Asian countries are:

• 돌배나무 (wild pear, which doesn't have knots) - China
• "sakura" - Japan
• pear and cherry - Korea 

The museum is filled with treasures and each treasure has a story. The display in the picture above attracted a lot of our attention. In the display is an original Ming Dynasty art book; it is 400 years old and is the oldest art textbook known! Next to it is a 17th century Japanese copy of a famous art book from the 1600s. People who search for these books come here!

Another treasure is a late-17th century Ching Dynasty print that is a recreation of an art book from the Ming Dynasty. The book is totally made from multiple woodblock prints with different inks and without the use of any brush. 

Director Han greatly values these books and says "Since these woodblocks and prints are now recognized and valued as art, they can be protected and preserved for posterity as important art forms." 

The oldest book in this collection is represented by a single printed page of a sutra printed in the 9th century! The oldest woodblock here was created 500 years ago!

Three (3) special hands-on woodblock activities:

Stamping a t-shirt:

We each were given a white t-shirt, the choice of several stamps to ink, and instructions on how to stamp cloth to get the best results. After we stamped our t-shirts and allowed them to dry, Director Han wanted us to put them on so he could get pictures of his "pupils" showing off their scholarly endeavor.

Carving a fish, the symbol of eternal wakefulness in Buddhism:

Other than the tour of the absolutely phenomenal museum, carving the silly fish was my favorite part of the weekend. One of our group had been on this templestay program two or three years ago, so she had told us about the carving process, and I got all excited and came with pictures of tigers to carve. Director Han was absolutely firm about me not carving a powerful tiger but instead just making a cloned fish like everyone else. I was not amused ... but I have to say, in the long run, I think I benefited more by carving the fish because I could see my carving results and everyone else's and then we could see which style reproduced better. My style, even though carved very neatly, didn't reproduce as nicely as the others. It lacked character. This was very important information to gain!

Embossing a book cover with a woodblock stamp

The large patterned woodblock we used for embossing was, once upon a time, an "ironing board" for the old-fashioned method of ironing by striking wooden sticks on a flat surface. I had never heard of one of the old ironing boards as having a carved motif for leaving impressions in "ironed" clothing. Amazing!

The steps in making embossed book covers was is to traditionally use bees wax, but we used the more accessible candle wax, to rub in one direction on the construction paper. Rubbing back and forth rips fragile paper fibers and makes the cover rough and uneven textured. After laying a layer of wax on the whole page, we folded the paper around a stiff cardboard shape and glued the two together. Then we took the paper to the embossing board and laid the paper on the wood, wax-side up to rub a piece of wood over the entire book cover, leaving a pattern behind. 

After the cover had been embossed, the thick cover was hole-punched so with needle and thick thread we could sew the book covers and inside pages together.

Various inks, various patterns, gorgeous outcomes!

This whole weekend templestay was very unusual. While the temple is the central part of the grounds, the central focus is to experience the proper ancient usage of ancient woodblocks and to appreciate them as central elements to ancient scholarship. 

Just before we left, Director Han's wife, the curator and phenomenal cook for the visitors of the templestay program, introduced us to a special Monkey King woodblock. She even brought out the orange ink for inking the block--orange being the typical ink used for that particular carving. This was very special, especially as one of our group has a collection of monkey king objects and stories.

Woodblock carving competition:

As we were bidding our talented director goodbye and leaving, Director Han suddenly informed us that there was a woodblock carving competition currently taking place. He pointed to a wall-announcement and then to me and said, "You, tiger!" Haha, I hadn't wanted to carve the fish, but kept insisting on carving a tiger. He wouldn't let me, saying I needed methodology. I got a bit of that in his two-hour woodblock carving session, so here was my chance to carve my tiger. Yeah, I decided that I really wanted to enter this contest! The downside of the event, however, was that I had less than two weeks to design, carve and submit. Well, I gave it my best effort. You can read about my carving process here.

[If anyone is looking for woodblock carving materials, Hangaram Mungo has two branches at the Express Bus Terminal, Seoul. One Hangaram is a well-stocked stationery store, while the other Hangaram store around a couple of corners is for the serious art student: paints of all kinds, easels, papers and hanji, tools for various kinds of art, and yes, tools and smallish woodblocks for the carver. Very useful store! Leave your cash and your credit card at home before going, though!]

Templestay information:

One-day experience: People can come on tour (by arrangement) and either spend a day from 10:00-18:00 being introduced to the temple, the spectacular museum, and make a woodblock carving. W5,000/adult. Not sure of the minimum number of participants - perhaps 10. 

Templestay weekend experience: People can alternatively come for a weekend templestay experiential program like we did, from just before lunch on Saturday and leaving at 11:00 Sunday. W60,000/person but a preferred minimum of 20 participants is needed. Make reservations and send payment in full a few days prior to arrival.