madre perla

10． 3969 / j． issn． 1000 －7067． 2012． 03． 007

Korean Lacquer Art Technique*

Korean Lacquer Craft of Goryeo to Joseon Dynasties

Lee Nan Hee

( The National Folk Museum of Korea)

Abstract: Korean lacquer art especially takes the representative form of artwork and has been permea-ted into our life culture for more than 2，000 years，being easily found in Anbang and Sarangbang ( a mainroom and a reception room of a Korean traditional house) ．

At the moment，lacquer produced in Wonju in Gangwondo province takes large part of the whole prod-ucts． Korean lacquer sap has the best quality in the world． It is because the proportion of Urushiol，a maincomponent of lacquer，is large enough to make the activation of enzyme very effective，resulting in quick hy-dration and hardening of lacquer layer． However，only small amount of high qualified lacquer is produced inSouth Korea，being more expensive than those from Japan． As a result，dependence on imported Chinese lac-quer sap is increasing in South Korea．

From the prehistoric period to Three Nations Era，the lacquer culture of Korea was centered on a methodof drawing colored patterns on the varnished lacquer． However，from the period of the United Silla，the methodby which the products were made changed into luxuriously embellishment using various gemstones or jewelrymaterials such as mother － of － pearl，amber，sapphire，gold，silver，etc． During the period of Goryeo and Jo-seon Dynasties，mother － of － pearl inlay develops into widely － used technique when ornamenting products．The mother － of － pearl inlaid lacquer － ware was especially highly evaluated to the degree that it was well －known even in Song dynasty and is regarded as a representative artwork of Korea．

Keywords: lacquer sap; Urushiol( 漆酚) ; Lacquer － ware Heritages of Korea; Excavated Lacquer －wares from Anapji( 雁鴨池) Pound; Mother － of － pearl of Goryo( 高麗) Dynasty; Lacquered Sutra Box( 經

函) inlaid with Mother － of － pearl of Goryo( 高麗) Dynasty ; Mother － of － pearl of Joseon( 朝鮮) Dynas-ty; Mother － of － pearl of Korean Lacuqer

摘要: 韩国的漆艺文化已有两千年以上的悠久历史，堪称已经渗入到内房和厢房等生活文化当中的代表性艺术品。目前，韩半岛上的主要生漆生产地为北韩平安北道泰川和南韩江原道原州，占整个半岛生漆产量的大部分。韩国

产生漆的品质很好，生漆的主要成分漆酚( Urushiol) 的含量高，酶的活度相当好，生漆涂层的干燥时间很短，硬度也很

强。但是，南韩原州产高品质生漆的产量较少，价格也比日本产的贵，因此主要依靠中国进口。从史前时代至三国时代，韩国漆艺文化的主要技法是在生漆底上施以颜色绘制纹样，统一新罗时期开始变化为在生

漆底上用螺钿、琥珀、青玉、金、银等宝石材料加以装饰。其后，高丽和朝鲜时代螺钿装饰成为漆器上所采用的主要技法。高丽螺钿在中国的宋朝也得到了高度评价，其卓越性被认可，直到现在高丽螺钿也被视为韩国的代表性艺术品之一。

关键词: 生漆; 漆酚( Urushiol) ; 韩国古代漆器; 雁鸭池出土漆器; 高丽螺钿; 高丽螺钿经函; 朝鲜时代螺钿; 韩国的

螺钿

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第 31 卷第 3 期2012 年 9 月

中国生漆Journal of Chinese Lacquer

Vol． 31 No． 3Sep． 2012

* 收稿日期: 2012 － 09 － 03作者简介: 李瓓姬，女，韩国国立民俗博物馆学艺研究士

1 Introduction

Korean art products base their motives on the na-ture － loving spirit，seeking to live with the nature． Kore-an beauty is best seen in artworks such as wooden lac-quer craftworks，mother － of － pearl inlaid craftworks，horn craftworks，grayish － blue － powdered céladon andwhite porcelain，vividly enlivening the wonder of the na-ture． Among these，Korean lacquer art especially takesthe representative form of artwork and has been permea-ted into our life culture for more than 2，000 years，beingeasily found in Anbang and Sarangbang ( a main roomand a reception room of a Korean traditional house) ．

From the prehistoric period to Three Nations Era，

the lacquer culture of Korea was centered on a methodof drawing colored patterns on the varnished lacquer．However，from the period of the United Silla，the methodby which the products were made changed into luxuri-ously embellishment using various gemstones or jewelrymaterials such as mother － of － pearl，amber，sapphire，

gold，silver，etc． During the period of Goryeo and JoseonDynasties，mother － of － pearl inlay develops into widely－ used technique when ornamenting products． In China，

there were many ornamental techniques like mother － of－ pearl inlay ( 螺鈿) ，carved lacquer － ware ( 彫漆)

and filled － in and submerged － gold decoration ( 鎗

金) ，among which the carved lacquer particularly hasbeen evolved into the main method of crafting． In Japan，

Makiee transplanted drawing ( 蒔會) has been mostlyfavored as a technique for embellishment．

On the other hand，Goryeo mother － of － pearl inlaywas highly reputed in its quality to the degree that thefame was greatly acknowledged by Song ( 宋) Dynastyof China，still well known as an archetypical type of Ko-rean artworks． This paper tries to find peculiarities ofpatterns and methods of Korean lacquer craftworks ac-cording to the historical flow through examining the rep-resentative lacquer products from each period． In doingthis，misunderstandings in the historical flow of lacquercrafting methods are expected to be rectified，contribu-ting to accurately grasping the characteristics of those

methods． In addition，it is hoped that the deepening ofunderstandings in Korean lacquer culture will add to re-discovering the true value of Korean art which nowadaysbeing more and more forgotten and furthermore becom-ing the world － famous art．

2 Lacquer － producing Areas in Korea

Lacuqer is hardened sap at room temperature whichis oozed when Urushiol of Anacardiaceae is cut，becom-ing glue type or block developing ingredient． The sap isa w /o( water in oil) emulsion． There are several types ofurushiol． Most fall into one the three types: 1． Urushiol( Korea，China，Japan) ，2． Laccol ( Taiwanese，Vietnam-ese) ，3． Thitsiol( Thai，Burmese) ． There are three differ-ent kinds of lacquer tree grow in the district of East Asiaaccording to the feature of soil，and peculiar lacquercrafting techniques have been developed in each part ofthe area．

Urushiol is produced widespread in Korea，but theproducts collected from cultivated Urishiol trees innorthern mountain areas are the best qualified． To give amention only on unrefined lacquer product，one from Ko-rea is the best in the world． It is because the proportionof Urushiol，a main component of lacquer，is large e-nough to make the activation of enzyme very effective，

resulting in quick hydration and hardening of lacquerlayer．

Lacquer － producing areas in Korea are found inthe historical records such as Donggukyeojiseungram( 東

國輿地勝覽 ) Tosanjo ( 土産條 ) and Ojuyeonmun-jangjeonsango［五洲衍文長箋散稿］． The book entitledProducts of Joseon( 1910) points to Taecheon in North-ern Pyeong － ahn province，Wonju in Gangwondo prov-ince，Hamyang in Southern Gyeongsangdo province andthe areas around Shinheung in Southern Hamgyeong asthe districts where lacquer tree growing was popular．Lacquer from Taecheon was specially indicated as well－ qualified and recommended to be cultivated． At themoment，lacquer produced in Wonju in Gangwondoprovince takes large part of the whole products． In Kore-a，lacquer － wares are consistently being found not only

03

2012 年第 3 期 Lee Nan Hee: Korean Lacquer Art Technique － Korean Lacquer Craft of Goryeo to Joseon Dynasties

in mountain areas but also as excavated artifacts and in- heritances． ( Plate 1)

Plate1 Map of lacquer tree sites in Korea and some of the place where lacquer － ware unearthed

3 Important Lacquer － ware Herita-ges of Korea

3． 1 Ancient Lacquer －ware HeritagesThe oldest remains of lacquer － ware are in pre-

sumption pieces of foil varnished with lacquer，found to-gether with bronze tools from a stone graveyard in Nam-sungri，Asan in Chungnam province． Also，a black lac-quered sheathe which is assumed to be from B． C． 108 toA． D． 313 was found in the ancient graveyard in Jeong-baekri，Pyeong － yang．

As for representative examples of artifacts from theearly iron era，there are round lacquer ritual dish( Plate2) and square lacquer ritual dish( Plate3 ) foundin Dahori excavation site in Gyeongsangnamdo provinceas well as a writing brush and a dagger with lacqueredsheath，most of which are black lacquered． A heritagesite of Lolang Period in the contemporary Pyeong － yanghad also a number of ritual dishes but Dahori lacquer －wares had different forms that are unseen the Lolang lac-

quer － wares in the Han period; under layer of blacklacquer foil had particles in high density which seemedto be the part of soot．

Plate 2 Plate 3Plate2 Round Lacquer Ritual Dish，1st C． BC，Excavated from

ancient tomb sites，Daho － ri，Kyongsangnam － do Changwon，L9． 8x6． 3x7．

5cm，National Museum of Korea Collection

Plate3 Square Lacquer Ritual Dish，Daho － ri，1st C． BC，Excavated

from ancient tomb sites，Daho － ri，Kyongsangnam － do Changwon，L7．

9x12． 5cm，National Museum of Korea Collection

3． 2 Three － nation Era，United Silla periodThree － nation Era( 三國時代，around AD1 ～ 668)

－ Lacquer － ware piece of dish form in sun pattern wasexcavated in Togwang Tomb located in Seokchongdong，

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a district of Baekjae in around A． D． 300． Underneath oflacquer foil on the sun patterned lacquer － ware( plate 4－ 1，4 － 2) was soot black lacquer layer and red lacquerlayer．

Plate 4 － 1 Plate 4 － 2

Plate4 － 1 Pieces of Lacquerware，3rd century，Sokchon － Dong，Se-

oul，40x32． 4x4． 7cm，Seoul National University Museum

Plate4 － 2 Detail ( Plate 4 － 1)

In addition，wood products like Headrest ( Plate5) ，Footrest ( Plate 6 ) ，as well as wooden coffin forwhich lacquer，coloring or gold embellishment were usedwere excavated at the King Munyeong’s Tomb where agraveyard called Gyemyo ( 癸卯) ( 523 年) is located．

Plate 5 Plate 6

Plate 5 Wooden Painted Head － Rest for Queen，Paekche，6thcentury，

Excavated from King Munyong’s Tomb，Gongju，Chungchongnam － do，L

40． 0cm，National Treasure No． 164 Gongju National Museum Collection

Plate 6 Wooden Painted Foot － Rest for King，Paekche，6thcentury，

Excavated from King Munyong’s Tomb，Gongju，Chungchongnam － do，L

43． 2x38x20cm，Gongju National Museum Collection

Many lacquer － wares were found in the ancienttomb sides as to Howoochong，Cheonmachong，Hwang-namdaechong，etc． in Gyeongju of Silla ( 356 ～ 935 ) ．They were lacquer drawings describing with red lacqueron black lacquer background or using black on redbackground ( Plate 7 － 1，Plate 7 － 2，Plate 8，Plate 9) ．To look closely into the lacquer drawings，it is found thattouches of brush were vividly left when featuring an ob-ject through color paintings of red or yellow．

Plate 7 － 1 Plate 7 － 2Plate 7 － 1 Pieces of Lacquerware，Old Silla，Hwangnamdae － chong

Tomb，Kyongju City，Kyongsangbuk － do，Kyongju National Museum Col-

lection

Plate 7 － 2 Detail ( Plate 7 － 1)

Plate 8 Plate 9Plate 8 Pieces of Lacquerware，Hwangnamdae － chong Tomb，Kyongju

City，Old Silla

Plate 9 Pieces of Lacquerware，Hwangnamdae － chong Tomb，Gyeo-

ngju City，Old Silla

United Silla period ( 統一新羅，668 ～ 935 ) – Atthe Anapji area in Gyeongju，a number of life utensils( Plate 10 － 1，Plate 10 － 2，Plate 10 － 3) were found，insome of which Pyeongtal ( 平脱) technique，cutting met-al foil in the form of the pattern design to attach it onthe lacquer surface，was used ( Plate 11 － 1，Plate 11 －2，Plate 11 － 3) ．

Plate 10 － 1 Plate 10 － 2 Plate 10 － 3Plate 10 － 1 Lacquerware，Unified Silla，8 － 9th C，Excavated from

Anapji Pond，Gyeongju



Plate 11 － 1 Plate 11 － 2 Plate 11 － 3Plate 11 － 1 Lacquered Decoration Inlaid with Siver，Unified Silla，8 －

9th C． Excavated from Anapji Pond，Gyeongju National Museum Collection



23


Besides this，it is notable that the technique andthe pattern used in Mirror Inlaid with Mother － of －Pearl ( plate14 － 1，14 － 2 ) excavated in Gaya districtare similar to those used in Mirror Inlaid with Mother －of － Pearl from Shosoin( 正倉院) in Nara，Japan．

Tortoise Shell Comb and batches of jewelries arti-facts ( 8 ～10 A． D． ) ，owned by Ho － Am Art Museum inKorea were embellished with tortoise shell，sapphire，goldthread，etc． The comb is a hair embellishment，on whichflower patterns were drawn with gold thread with inlayingof sapphire ( Plate12 －1，12 － 2) ． On some of the jewel-ries are found gold painting Decoration sophisticatedlydepicting veins of leaves ( Plate13 －1，13 －2) ．

Plate 12 － 1 Plate 12 － 2Plate 12 － 1 Ornamental Comb，Unified Silla，8 － 9th C． 9． 8cm long，

Hoam Collection，Seoul

Plate 12 － 2 Caption ( plate 12 － 1)

Plate 13 － 1 Plate 13 － 2Plate 13 － 1 Ornament，Unified Silla，8 － 9th C． 9． 8cm long，Hoam

Collection，Seoul


For 18． 6cm － diameter － sized Mirror Inlaid withMother － of － Pearl ( 螺鈿銅鏡) ( Plate 14) ，known tohave been found in the district of Gaya in Gyeongsang-namdo province area of Korea，similar methods with theones used in Japanese Mirror Inlaid with Mother － of －Peal; using of Mother － of － Pearl and amber to drawpatterns and dispatching particles of turquoise on thebackground，were used． The patterns are Two dramaticlions and flowers．

Plate 14 Mirror Inlaid with Mother － of － pearl，8 － 10 th

C． C18． 6cm，Excavated from Gaya Gyeongsang － do region，

South Korea

In Japanese Shosoin( 正倉院) ，there are six luxuri-ous and large mirrors，and their sizes approximates with39． 5cm，26． 8cm，27． 3cm and 29． 8cm，of which thesimilar sized mirrors have never been found in the main-land China． A mirror of the 8th century found in Xian ofChina has，in comparison with the one from the Gayadistrict，coarse design and is immature，being in about24cm diameter． A technique called Bokchaesaek ( 伏彩

色) ，where red( dark red，orange or yellow) pigment isvarnished on the backside of amber and Mother － of －Pearl inlaying technique found on Mirror Inlaid withMother － of － Pearl appears also on the transparent shellof tortoise of the 11 ～ 12th century Goryeo Mother － of －Pearl as applied; Lacquered Case Inlaid with Mother －of － Pearl and Turtle Shell ( Plate 15，Goryeo period，

12th centry，owned by Taimadera，Nara Japan ) ，Lac-quered with mother － of － pearl and tortoiseshell inlayand brass wires ( Plate 16，Cosmetic case，Goryeo peri-od，12th centry，owned by The Metropolitan Museum ofArt) ，etc．3． 3 Goryeo Dynasty

During Goryeo( 高麗) Dynasty ( 918 ～ 1392 年) ，

highly spiritualized great artworks were produced basedon Buddhism，among which are Mother － of － Pearl，cel-adon，Buddhist paintings and Illuminated Manuscript( gold and silver on indigo － dyed mulberry paper ) ．Mother － of － Pearl Inlay showed elevated spiritualityand techniques in reflection of Buddhism culture ofGoryeo Dynasty． Such sophisticated and gorgeous ap-

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Vol． 31 No． 3Sep． 2012

pearance is catching the eyes of the world in recentyears． About 20 items，totaling the chartered and the ex-cavated are being transmitted．

Leased artifacts from abroad ― There are 8 leaseditems with inclusion of Lacquered Sutra Box Inlaid withMother － of － pearl owned by Japan’s Mori family( Plate 17 － 1，17 － 2，17 － 3，17 － 4 ) and LacqueredCase Inlaid with Mother － of － Pearl and Turtle Shell( Plate 15，Goryeo period，12th centry，Taimadera，NaraJapan ) ． From America and Europe，five boxes areleased．

Plate 15 Plate 16Plate 15 Lacquered Case Inlaid with Mother － of － pearl and Tortoises-

hell，Goryo，12th C．，H 4． 5cm C12． 4cm，Taima － dera( Japan)

Plate 16 Lacquered Case( incense container) inlaid with Mother － of

－ pearl and Tortoiseshell，Goryo，12th C．，H 4． 1cm，W 10． 2cm，Metropoli-

tan Museum of Art，New York

Plate 17 － 1 Plate 17 － 2Plate 17 － 1 Lacquered Sutra Box Inlaid with Mother － of － Pearl，

Goryeo period，12th C．


Plate 17 － 3 Plate 17 － 4Plate 17 － 3 Top of Lid ( Plate 17 － 1)

Plate 17 －4 Koryo Sutra Box X － Radiograph Top of Lid ( Plate 17 －1)

Leased artifacts from the domestic area ― Lac-uered Whish Handle Inlaid with Mother － ofpearl andTortoiseshell，Lacquered Case Inlaid with Mother － of －pearl and Turtle Shell，Lacquered oil bottle Inlaid withMother － of － Pearl and Turtle Shell were leased fromthe National Museum of Korea．

Other artifacts from excavation sites include Lac-quered incense Box with mother － of － pearl，Tortoises-hell and gold painting Decoration of flowers，tree，andwaterfowl ( Plate 18 － 1，Plate 18 － 2，Plate 18 － 3 )

( Box) ． The Box is known to have been found from theGoryeo ancient tomb in Gaesung( 開城) ，and the founditems are remained as broken particles due to the war．The size of the box cover is 29． 1 × 18． 8 × 11． 3cm，thatof the body part is 25． 8 × 17． 6 × 10． 3cm and theheight of the tray is 2． 3cm． Because there were 28 in-cense remained in the tray，the tray is called IncenseTray． The full countenance of the tray appears in『Jo-seongojeokdobov( 朝鮮古跡圖譜) 』，and vegetation andwaterfowl design which is hardly found in other GoryeoMother － of － pearl Inlays concurs with mother － of －pearl and golden description technique for the sophisti-cated description on the cover and the body． The trayseems to be the oldest among existing Goryeo Mother －of － pearl Inlays，and the main part of vegetation andwaterfowl design is similar to the pattern of Blue BronzeSilver Inlay from the 11th to 12th century but even moresophisticated and picturesque，seemingly produced in 11～ 12th century．

Plate 18 － 1 Lacquered incense Box with mother － of －

pearl，Tortoiseshell and gold painting Decoration of flowers，

tree，and waterfowl，Goryeo，11 － 12 th C．，National Museum

of Korea Collection

Goryeo lacquered sutra box inlaid with mother － of－ pearl ― Presently existing Lacquered Sutra Box In-

43


laid with Mother － of － pearl are 1 a belonging of Japan’s Mori family ( Plate 18 － 1，Tokyo National MuseumCollection) ，the boxes in 2 Japanese private collection，3Tokugawa Art Museum，Nagoya，4the British Museum，

London，5 Amsterdam National Museum collection，6 theMuseum of Fine Arts，Boston，7Tokyo National Museum，

8 Kitamura Art Museum，Koyto and 9 newly discoveredGoryeo dynasty sutra box in mother － of － pearl inlay asa Japanese Private Collection． The background of thesesutra boxes having been made during Goryeo dynasty isthat the Dynasty had Buddhism to be the spirit of de-fense，trying to overcome difficulties in the country whilefighting against Chinese Yo( ) ，Geum( 金) ，Won( 元)

Dinasties． Buddhism culture kept flourishing to the de-gree that Koreana tripitaka was completed in 1236 after15 years of the construction period，notwithstanding theundergoing of Japanese invasion． In 1272，in response toa request from a queen，a studio for mother － of － pearlinlaid boxes manufacture was installed for the mass pro-duction of the boxes． According to《Goryeosa》〈Sikh-waji ( 食貨志) 〉，in Jungsangseo ( 中尚署) which wasa workshop to produce craftworks run by the govern-ment，works needed to maneuver lacquer craftworks weredivided into several duties; hwa － up ( 畵業) ，somok-jang ( 小木匠) ，chiljang ( 漆匠) ，yeonmajang ( 磨匠)

najeonjang ( 螺鈿匠 ) ． When 《Goryeodaejanggyeong( 高麗大藏經) 》was published，there might have beenthe needs for the mass production of a number of mother－ of － pearl inlaid lacquered sutra boxes( 螺鈿經箱) tostore the sacred books ( 經冊) ． The production of alarge number of boxes was possible with the help ofthese craftsmen，and the practice is proved by the pres-ently existing Goryeo lacquer sutra box inlaid with moth-er － of － pearl．

Plate 18 － 2 Detail ( Plate 18 － 1 ) Plate 18 － 3 In-

cense of Lacquered incense Box( Plate 18 － 1)

Characteristics of methods used in Goryeo lacquercraft seen through 1Lacquered Sutra Box Inlaid withMother － of － pearl belong to Japan’s Mori family，Toky-o National Museum Collection ( Plate 17 － 1，17 － 2，17－ 3，17 － 4) are as follows． The wood grain pattern re-vealed by X － radiographs suggests that the wood usedin construction was pine． The box is reinforced with

hemp threads ( ) over the exterior surface． Thick-ness of cloth goes up to the degree that 18 － 20 strandsare found in one square centimeter，and it is attached inparallel on the wooden background． The results of shellcutting experiments indicated that shell inlays were cutwith a knife． The shell used to be ear shell( Haliotis spsuch as Kamtschatkana) ． It is thick at 0． 2 － 0． 3 mm．Turtleshell uses to form small square shapes and parts ofthe flower stamens． On the back side of the peeled offmother － of － pearl was remains of fish glue．

These are backed with vermillion pigment whichenhances the colour of the turtleshell． In addition toshell inlays two types of metal inlays are used and detailof their analysis given in the main text． There are singlelines made from pewter and twisted double wires madefrom brass．

Goryeo lacquer boxes as to 2 ～ 7，six items andsome particles，take the largest portion amongst everylacquer craftworks made during Goryeo Dynasty． Tor-toiseshell and insect wax are not used for production butthere are methodological similarities which are placingflower design at the center of diamond backgroundframe，weaving of yellow brazen threads，bone ashgroumd，etc． Lately，particles of this box kind were foundaround in Heze 荷澤( 荷澤) ．3． 4 Joseon Dynasty

During Joseon ( 朝鮮) Dynasty ( 1392 ～ 1910 ) ，

confusion philosophy was an essence of the politicalpractices，and it influenced the social atmosphere whereintegrity，diligence and modesty were valued as impor-tant virtues． Sophisticated arabesque design of Goryeochanged into simple arabesque patterns and there appearpictorial patterns as well as simple patterns in an air offolk paintings． As a new technique，method of striking

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and souring was invented and it becomes popular to usethe techniques in innovative and creative ways． A tech-nique to express stretching arabesque patterns was espe-cially influential to develop lacquer craft patterns andtechniques in Momoyama age ( 1574 － 1600) to the ear-ly Edo period ( 1603 － 1876) ． Also，tortoiseshell methodwhich is found in Goryeo mother － of － pearl inlaid lac-quer forms the main pattern． A technique to use metalthread decreased in its use，and thicker metal lines startto partly appear．

The early Joseon ( 14 ～ 16th century ) ― The verysmall number of products from the early Joseon remains．A Phoenix Box possessed by Koln Eastern Asia Art Mu-seum，Germany is assumed to be from the reflected timeperiod ( Plate 19 － 1) ． On the cover of the box was elab-orated with wired metal lines ( photo 19 － 2 ) ． Hornspainted in red were alternatively attached with mother －of － pearl inlay to add to the visual effects．

Plate 19 － 1 Plate 19 － 2Plate 19 － 1) Box with design of phoenixes in mother － of － pearl in-

lay． Joseon 14 － 15th C，W． 28． 5cm，H． 16． 4，D． 19． 7cm，Koln Eastern A-

sia Art Museum

Plate 19 － 2) Detail of Box with design of phoenixes in mother － of －

pearl inlay ( Plate 19 － 1)

Also，a method of hair － line engraving appears onthe mother － of － pearl inlay design． Extra patterns arefound to be similar with the ones on Goryeo mother － of－ pearl inlaid lacquer sutra box ( Plate17 － 11Lacquered Sutra Box Inlaid with Mother － of － pearlbelong to Japan’s Mori family，Tokyo National MuseumCollection) ．

A tortoiseshell box presumed to be from the 16 ～17th century ( Plate 20 － 1 ) maintains to consume theforms and the production method used in Goryeo sutrabox，presenting vigorously and simply patterned design．

These kinds of mother － of － pearl inlaid boxes remainin Japan and are called Ginseng Box． The name is as-sumed to have come from the facts that ginseng as a spe-cial product in the early Joseon Dynasty was containedin the lacquer boxes to be gifted via envoys． Arabesquepatterns which appear on the ginseng boxes arouses sim-ilar air of magnanimity with the ones appear on 15 ～ 16th

century’s grayish blue powdered celadon． It is especial-ly important given that bone ash ground which used tobe utilized from United Silla period to Goryeo Dynasty isfound on Foundation layer of this box ( Plate 20 － 2) ．


Plate 20 － 1 Lacquered Box Inlaid with Mother － of － pearl and Ter-

toiseshell，Joseon 16 － 17thC ，H 19． 4 cm L 32． 1 cm W 20． 9cm，National

Folk Museum of Korea Collection

Plate 20 － 2 Cross － section analysis of Foundation layer of Lacquered

Box Inlaid with Mother － of － pearl and Tertoiseshell ( Plate 20 － 1)

The mid Joseon ( 17 ～ 18th century) ― Undergoingthe early to mid Joseon，novel mother － of － pearl inlaytechniques are developed and the patterns become big-ger，of which the flowers and the leaves patterns trans-forms into realistic forms． Branches in arabesque pat-terns used to be made of metal changed into linearly at-tached mother － of － pearl foil，expressed as stretchinglines． With the invention of a method of hair － line en-graving，rainbow effects were added on the mother － of －pearl inlay，further enhancing visual impression． An arti-fact from this period is Lacquered Clothing Box Inlaidwith Mother － of － Pearl，which belongs to the NationalMuseum of Tokyo ( Plate 21 － 1，21 － 2) ．

Simple and modern sprout designs and flower pat-terns in flowerage arabesque alternatively appear to viv-idly and elegantly elaborate the whole part of the box． Asfor the artworks that highlighted the stellar mother － of －pearl through the use of hair － line engraving，it is as-

63


sumed to go down to the 16th century but can also comeup as of from the 17th century in which the arabesquewas constituted with composure．


Plate 21 － 1) Lacquered Clothing Box Inlaid with Mother － of － pearl，

Joseon 16th C H 14． 5 L 65． 0 W 39． 0cm，Tokyo National Mueum collection

Plate 21 － 2) Detail of Lacquered Clothing Box Inlaid with Mother －

of － pearl ( Plate 21 － 1)

At the turn to the late Joseon from the mid Joseonperiod，drawing picturesque grape or Sagunja ( 四君子)

( plum，orchid，chrysanthemum and bamboo tree ) de-signs appear as well as symbolic pattern called Gilsang-mun( 吉祥紋) to wish for flourishing of the next genera-tion ( Plate 22 － 1，Plate 22 － 2，Plate 22 － 3) ． Cut － outtechnique and thin － slicing techniques are used to de-scribe the grape and its stem． For the layers that werenot lacquered，dust from the earth was used instead ofbone powder，which signals the periodic change． Thesedrawing － like expressions as to grape pattern，etc． aresimilar with the realism patterns on iron or white andblue inlaid porcelain．

Plate 22 － 1 Lacquered Clothing Box Inlaid with Moth-

er － of － pearl，Joseon 18 － 19thH 14． 5 L 65 W 39，National

Folk Museum of Korea Collection

Lacquer craft at the moment was majorly possessedby noble class ( Yangban) ，one example of which is awooden lacquer coffin of a dead person from Yangban

class．The late Joseon( early 19 ～ 20th century) ― Moun-

tain and water design，geometric pattern，ten creaturesdesign symbolizing longevity and commoner － like folkpainting pattern appear in this period． Thickness of earshell gets thinner，and a method of hair － line engravingis used together to describe the details of the pattern．For the geometric design or mountain and water design，

new thin － slicing technique using thin lines of mother －of － pearl is used． Also，tortoiseshell is used for the inde-pendent main pattern such as a dragon or a phoenix，be-ing juxtaposed with metal line decorations．


Plate 22 － 2 Detail of Lacquered Clothing Box Inlaid with Mother － of

－ pearl ( Plate 22 － 1)

Plate 22 － 3 Cross － section analysis Lacquered Clothing Box Inlaid

with Mother － of － pearl ( Plate 22 － 1)

In the late Joseon，mother － of － pearl consumergroup was expanded to commoners with appearance ofnew techniques such as thin － slicing technique，cut －out technique and method of hair － line engraving． Inaddition，mass production became more and more availa-ble in concurrence of a change in technique wheremother － of － pearl is foiled on wooden background andcharcoal powder mixed foundation is applied to be lac-quered．

An example of mother － of － pearl in the late Jo-seon is Mother － of － Pearl Inlaid Quiver ( Plate 23 － 1，

23 － 2) ． 12 tablets of paulownia surrounds around mak-ing a shape of a column，on which charcoal sketches aredone and mother － of － pearl is attached． From the anal-ysis on the cross － section of lacquer layer，it is shownthat the dust layer is changed into charcoal powder layer( Plate 23 － 3) ．

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Vol． 31 No． 3Sep． 2012

Plate 23 － 1 Lacquered Quiver Inlaid with Mother － of

－ pearl，Joseon 19 th L 98． 3cm C 8． 0cm，National Folk Muse-

um of Korea Collection

Plate 23 － 2 Plate 23 － 3Plate 23 － 2 Detail of Lacquered Quiver Inlaid with Mother － of －

pearl( Plate 23 － 1)

Plate 23 － 3 Cross － section analysis of Lacquered Quiver Inlaid with

Mother － of － pearl( Plate 23 － 1)

The mostly remaining mother － of － pearl pillowcovers are wooden，on which mother － of － pearl foil isattached，put on both sides of the pillow so that detach-ment would be possible for washing． Tiger Design PillowCover ( Plate 24 － 1 ) in an air of folk paintings andPhoenix Design Pillow Cover ( Plate 25 ) where whitebronze edge surrounds the phoenix design are alsofound． Cross section of lacquer layer in these pillow cov-er kinds has also the proof of charcoal powder layer( Plate 24 － 2) ． A characteristic of this charcoal layer isthat it is mixed with fish glue and lacquered，makingblack lacquer of which the color never fades away．

Plate 24 － 1 Plate 24 － 2Plate 24 － 1 Lacquered Pillow － end Plaque Inlaid with Mother － of －

pearl，Joseon 19 － 20th C ，L 98． 3cm C 8． 0cm，National Folk Museum of

Korea Collection

Plate 24 － 2 Cross － section analysis of Lacquered Pillow － end Plaque

Inlaid with Mother － of － pearl( Plate 24 － 1)

Typical technique used in the late Josen is as fol-lows ． First of all，on wooden background ( Plate 26 －1) ，the design is sketched with India ink，maintaining

vividness of touches of a brush ( Plate 26 － 2 ) ． Mother－ of － pearl is attached with fish glue ( Plate 26 － 3 ) ，

and mixture of previously mentioned charcoal soot pow-der and fish glue fills the mother － of － pearl as a prima-ry painting process ( Plate 26 － 4) ． After it is dried，thesurface is grinded with whetstone to be flat ( Plate 26 －5) and lacquered ( Plate 26 － 6 ) ． Once dried，lacquerlayer on the mother － of － pearl is scratched with a razorto be wiped out ( Plate 26 － 7) and the work is conclu-ded with polishing and shining and engraving ( Plate 26－ 8) ．

Plate 25 Lacquered Pillow － end Plaque Inlaid with

Mother － of － pearl，Joseon 19 － 20 th C ，L 98． 3cm C 8． 0cm，

National Folk Museum of Korea Collection

Plate26 － 1 Wood( pine) Plate26 － 2 drawing a picture

Plate26 － 3 Fixing shell pieces Plate 26 － 4 Applying foundation

Plate 26 － 5 Polishing the surface Plate 26 － 6 Applying the lacquer

83


Plate 26 － 7 Plate 26 － 8Plate 26 － 7 removing the surface lacquer on mother － of － pearl

Plate 26 － 8 Polishing，Shining and Engraving

Craftworks in the late Joseon were modestly madewith simple techniques such as engraving with a craftknife，cutting with a saw and intaglio engraving． Howev-er，during the Japanese colonization，complicated skillswere utilized in a way that were used for Japanese lac-quer craftworks． Mother － of － pearl inlaid lacquer craft-works during the colonized period are strictly producedin such a way that the machinery manufacturing processperforms，making them excessively sophisticated． Inshort，simple and natural atmosphere seen from the craft-works in the late Joseon period becomes no longerfound．

4 Conclusion

As for Korean lacquer，those of Taecheon ( 泰川)

Mt． in northern area and of Wonju( 原州) Mt． in south-ern area are famous for their good quality． However，onlysmall amount of high qualified lacquer is produced inKorea，being more expensive than those from Japan． Asa result，dependence on imported Chinese lacquer is in-creasing．

The oldest lacquer heritage artifact dates back toB． C． 3，and lacquer － ware artifacts excavated from theB． C． 1st century heritage site in Dahori of Gyeongsang-namdo province show how Korean style is different fromthe one of the ancient Han’s Lolang Period． Also，it isrecognizable that the under layer of black lacquer wasmade through the particles of soot layer．

In the 8th Century，lacquer － ware of United Silla u-ses the technique that luxurious gemstones embellish thelacquered background． Later then，during the periods of

Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties，mother － of － pearl inlaytechnique becomes the mainly used technique in produ-cing lacquer － ware． Mother － of － pearl inlays of Goryeoare high － qualified，sophisticated and elegant in reflec-tion of Buddhism culture of Goryeo Dynasty，while theidiom of the artworks of Joseon Dynasty appears simpleand folkloric，concurring with the enlargement of patternand appearance of folk painting design． Along with thedesigns，method of striking and scouring occurs，resul-ting in popularization of vigorous and innovative styles ofmother － of － pearl inlay techniques．

Uninvestigated exact dates of the ancient lacquer －ware heritage artifacts and the influential relationshipswith the techniques of Chinese lacquer － ware might beenlightened through the future scientific analysis on EastAsian lacquer － ware．

◎ Bibliography

［1］『高麗史』，Asian Studies Research Institution of Yonsei Uni-

versity，Seoul Gyeong － inmunhwasa，1981

［2］六角紫水( Rokaku Shisui) ，『東洋漆工史』，東京雄山閣，

1932

［3］岡田譲( Okada Jo) ，『東洋漆工史の研究』，東京: 中央公

論美術出版，1978

［4］河田貞( kawadaSadamu) ·高橋隆博( TakahashiTakahiro) ，

『高麗李朝の螺鈿』，東京: 毎日新聞社，1981

［5］荒川浩和( Arakawa Hirokazu) ，「高麗螺鈿の考察」，『螺

鈿』，京都: 同朋舎，1985

［6］『特別展東洋の漆工芸』，東京国立博物館刊，1977

［7］“Joseongojeokdobo”( 朝鮮古跡圖譜) ，The Japanese Govern-

ment － General of Korea，Vol． 9，1929

［8］“Products of Joseon”( 朝鮮の物産) ，The Japanese Govern-

ment － General of Korea，1927

［9］李瓓姫 ( Nanhee Lee) ，“A study of a black － lacquer Koryo

dynasty incense box with mother － of – pearl inlay and gold

painting”，The Academy of Lacquer Research 26，December，

2003 Japan

［10］李瓓姫 ( Nanhee Lee) ，“A study of a newly discovered Ko-

ryo dynasty sutra box with a pomegranate and arabesque de-

sign in mother － of – pearl”，The Academy of Lacquer Re-

search 33，November，2010 Japan

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Vol． 31 No． 3Sep． 2012

madre perla

Documents

korean lacquer sap

korean lacquer art technique

thesekorean lacquer

korean lacquer craft

varnished lacquer howeverfrom

high qualified lacquer

pearl of korean lacuqer

goryodynasty mother