Hangeul Day, 2018 - Calligraphy at City Hall

History of Hangeul Day (Wikipedia)

According to the Sejong Sillok, King Sejong proclaimed publication of Hunmin Jeongeum, the document introducing the newly created alphabet which was also originally called by the same name in 1446. In 1926, the Korean Language Society, whose goal was to preserve the Korean language during a time of rapid forced Japanization, celebrated the octo-sexagesimal (480th) anniversary of the declaration of hangeul on the last day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar, which is on November 4 of the Gregorian calendar. Members of the Society declared it the first observance of "Gagyanal" (가갸날). The name came from "Gagyageul" (가갸글), an early colloquial name for hangeul, based on a mnemonic recitation beginning "gagya geogyeo" (가갸거겨). The name of the commemorative day was changed to "Hangullal" in 1928, soon after the term "hangul", coined originally in 1913 by Ju Si-gyeong, became widely accepted as the new name for the alphabet, and celebrated according to the lunar calendar.  

In 1931, the celebration of the day was switched to October 29 of the Gregorian Calendar, the calendar which is in contemporary use. Three years later, the date was moved to October 28, to coordinate the date with that of the Julian Calendar, which had been in use during the 15th century, when King Sejong had made his proclamation. 

The discovery in 1940 of an original copy of the Hunmin Jeongeum Haerye, revealed that the Hunmin Jeongeum was announced during the first ten days of the ninth month. The tenth day of the ninth month of the 1446 lunar calendar was equivalent to October 9 of that same year's Julian calendar. The South Korean government, established in 1945, declared October 9 to be Hangeul Day, a yearly legal holiday which excused government employees from work. 

Major employers pressured the South Korean government to increase the country's annual number of work days. In 1991, to balance out the adoption of the United Nations Day, it vacated Hangeul Day's status as a holiday. By law, Hangeul Day remained a national commemoration day, and the Hangeul Society campaigned for the holiday's restoration. On November 1, 2012, the Society won that campaign, when the National Assembly voted 189 to 4 (with 4 abstaining) in favor of a resolution that called for the return of Hangeul Day as a national holiday. This put pressure on the Lee Myung Bak administration, which applied the change in 2013.

But in reality, this is a bit of a "free" day for Koreans, meaning there are no social or family obligations entwined at all with this day. This holiday has no specific food traditions, no ceremonial traditions, and no duties or functions to perform or even think about. So people can just enjoy a whole day without communal obligations or need to gather over specifically prepared foods. They are totally free to plan their hours without any social constraints. and so I was really pleased to see a large gathering at City Hall where people could indulge in street food and experience Hangeul Day themed art. 

An extensive line-up of display boards lined the Cheongyecheon and the boards were loaded with Hangeul Day postcards, many done in watercolors and calligraphy inks. I'm under the impression that middle and high school students made a large contribution to this display, but the public was certainly encouraged to make their own Hangeul Day postcard at booths on both sides of the display. Wherever this huge display of handmade postcards came from, I have to say that the art level of some of the postcards was quite stunning!

History Alive: RAS Walking Tours

Hanyang aka Seoul, the pulsing vibrant capitol of the Joseon Dynasty and of modern Korea, mixes traditional architecture of the past with soaring tower constructions of the present. Vestige artifacts of the 500-year long dynasty are virtually hidden amidst the scrapers of capitalism. And yet, the old structures whisper history for those willing to listen.

In my 20+ years living in Korea, I’ve read books on the history of Korea and talked with many Korean friends, but it’s been the Royal Asiatic Society walking tours led by historians who have opened my eyes to the many historical treasures nestled in the Seoul downtown landscape.

While I read that Bosingak Belfry was the time keeper of the Joseon Dynasty and the bell was rung 33 times at 4 a.m. and 28 times at 10 p.m. to signal the opening and closing of the great gates and the market places, I learned in walking tours that the belfry was totally destroyed in the Korean War and the bell virtually buried in debris and earth.

The plaque at Tapgol Park reads that the March 1, 1919 independence protest began at Tapgol, but a RAS historian further explained the top of the 10-storey pagoda had been missing in the early 1900s and Koreans had no intention of reconstructing it. Korean belief was if the pagoda were completed, their nation would fall, which indeed happened. The Japanese learned of the superstition, completed the pagoda, and then ruled the peninsula for 35 years.

Tapgol/Pagoda Park in Seoul, ca. 1904 - Wikimedia Commons

I also learned Chong-ro—the road connecting the belfry, Tapgol Park and running close to the palaces—was formerly a place where people were executed by hacking or hanging, and the street was haunted by ghosts. It was also the road populated by the noble class with their horses, and peasants were obliged to bow in subservience while yangban processions passed. Pimatgol, literally meaning avoid + horse + alley, was the parallel alley for the peasants to go about their business and literally avoid the horses and forced bowing. Chong-ro is now a major downtown street and Pimatgol has been reconstructed into a place for business and social dining, but marked rocks in Pimatgol shout that history bled onto those stones. 

Why does a nation need five great palaces? Gyeongbokgung, the greatest of palaces, was built on principles of geomancy and astronomy. Building it symbolized the establishment of a dynasty, destroying it in colonial times symbolized the fall. Changdeokgung had been an alternative palace for a time and then used as a state palace, similar to Changgyeonggung, which in colonial times was desecrated by the Japanese invaders and turned into a zoo, an overt act of defilement. Deoksugung became the royal palace when Emperor Kojong was forced from Gyeongbokgung by the Japanese; after his death in 1919 the palace became a park and an art gallery, like many of the palaces. Gyeonghuigung was never a state palace, and during colonialism it was converted to a boys’ high school so the tramping of boys’ feet could smash its energy.

some dan-cheong imagery

I learned the exterior of the palaces is based on dan-cheong, literally “red” and “blue”. Dan-cheong is traditional painting of the palaces, so the palace supports are red like tree trunks, and the roof or upper part is green like leaves. And I learned that green and blue were not traditionally viewed as distinctly different in Korea as in the West. The small figures on the roof tiles invoke the power of the Monkey King, and the latticework on doors and windows are wishes for happiness, wealth or blessings for health. Architecturally, palaces, temples and houses were built without nails. Their joinery was the careful hewing and placement of beams at 90-degree angles. There are no flying buttresses and rose windows in Korea, but the graceful sway of the roofs are said to be like the up-turned feathers of a crane in flight. Traditional buildings are in harmony with nature.

Now when I walk the streets of Seoul, I nod my head as I listen to the buildings and stones telling me their little-heard histories. And while I still sign up for the RAS historical walking tours, I’m now a member of the society’s excursion committee planning other tours of discovery. For me, learning of the past is understanding the national foundation on which the present is built.

Published in The Korea Times under Culture and 4th in a series of viewpoints on Seoul as written by expats. [My Seoul Story[ History alive: Royal Asiatic Society walking tours, August 10, 2017.

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.

Nat'l Museum of Korea: Moveable Type (special exhibition)

The National Museum of Korea has a special exhibition displaying huge trays of moveable type with placards around giving more specific information on what is being seen. The museum has two English-speaking docents who are new to guiding guests, but they were phenomenal in organization of slides and content. The docent who primarily led this tour, Sun, put together the following slides to facilitate guests in gaining easy access to a lot of information in the single-hour tour. Thank you, Sun! 

National Museum of Korea: Home to world's largest collection of moveable type 

The National Museum of Korea is holding the first-ever exhibition presenting a complete picture of the Joseon Dynasty moveable type housed in its collection. Most of the more than 820,000 pieces of moveable type were used by the royal court and in government offices from the 17th to early 20th centuries. It is a rare case for such a large volume of moveable type originating within a single dynasty to have survived. In terms of both quantity and quality, over 500,000 of the pieces of metal moveable type in the collection have no parallel anywhere in the world.

Moveable type represents the ambitions of the rulers of the Joseon Dynasty as they sought to govern the nation through Confucian principles. Chests for storing moveable type pieces allow a glimpse into Joseon typesetters' unique system for classifying and storing moveable type pieces.

Chests for storing and organizing moveable type

Metal moveable type produced by the state represented royal authority and therefore demanded meticulous maintenance and management. A set of moveable type was generally stored in a collection of seven chests, and the amount stored in each chest was recorded in a moveable type catalog knows as a jabo. These catalogs classified moveable type in Chinese characters in a manner distinct from the system found in classic dictionaries of Chinese characters. For more convenient use and storage of moveable type, certain radicals of the Chinese characters were integrated with other radicals, and characters were classified by shape rather than by the number of strokes.

In Joseon why was moveable type produced?

In contrast to woodblock printing that was by nature restricted to only the inscribed content, moveable type, once produced, could rapidly print a range of documents by simply recombining type pieces as needed.

How many times was moveable type produced?

During the Joseon dynasty, both metal and wooden moveable type sets were respectively produced at least 30 times. Production of metal moveable type was mostly a project of the state, and wooden moveable type was also produced by the state on a number of occasions. The quantity of wooden moveable type produced by the citizenry is difficult to determine.

How many pieces of moveable type were produced each time?

Due to the quantity of type pieces required to print several kinds of books in logographic Chinese characters with a given set, at least tens of thousands of pieces were produced for each set of moveable type. Additionally, pieces of type that might appear multiple times on a single page were often produced in the hundreds.

A Timeline of Moveable Type