National Museum of Korea

The last time I visited the National Museum of Korea, it was in the former Japanese Administration building on the north side of Kwanghwamun, so my visit to the new museum today was special. I've always liked museums. I have a vivid imagination and enjoy trying to imagine the people who made and used the items on display. The new museum is huge and the exhibits are generally well-laid out and well-lit. It has some good educational components. It's always interesting to see rusty old tools, but it is nice to have information that shows how the tools were used.

With the museum laid out as it is, you can walk through the exhibits and see the progression from stone age to iron age. I found it fascinating. It was easy to see how each development in metal would allow for better war, better agricultural, and better life (Well, okay, that last one may be debatable.)

Many of the exhibits have English labels and information, although the English does not always match the Korean. For instance, in the sign at the pagoda pictured on the left, the English text doesn't say anything about the Japanese stealing this pagoda, but the Korean version does. Still, I learned a lot and had a good time. The museum is large enough and interesting enough that I will go back regularly to wander around. The grounds are also nicely set out.

I also learned that the style of celadon bowl below is Korean and not necessarily Japanese (although I'd hate to get into an argument about it). Quite a few years ago, some Korean students took me out for dinner in Insadong and, while we were walking around after dinner, they decided that they wanted to buy me some pottery because they knew that I had a ceramic fetish. When I chose a shallow, celadon tea bowl similar to the one pictured, they were not really happy because they said it was a Japanese style bowl. Well, here's the proof - National Treasure 115. They needn't have felt bad.


































The most disturbing exhibit was this one in the China exhibit. The implements that are lit in the picture on the left are jade plugs that are used on corpses. If you look at the drawing, you can see that the lower plug needed some delicacy in insertion. The diagram shows you exactly where.







































Because I had seen the National Museum in it's old setting in the former Japanese Administration building, I decided I needed to research the move since I wasn't here when they tore it down. Minsoo Kang at the Global Korean Network of Los Angeles has an excellent article on debate and the final resolution.