Hanji Tour to Korea ....

Many people have been asking what did you do on your Hanji tour to Korea,? Well, the answer is lots of different activities and here's just some of the ones that stood out.

Mr Kim's House - Andong

Firstly we had a focus for our short visit which was to learn as much as we could about our craft, to visit different hanji artists, to see how the paper is made by hand and to learn through having a lesson on how the locals work with the paper. We were based very close to Insadong and therefore we were able to browse the many Hanji supply shops as well as the Arts and Crafts shops in the district. During our time there we visited the Andong paper factory and had a 3 hour lesson and saw how the paper was made firsthand.

Secondly we incorporated time in the program to sample the culture of the Korean people and this we did by taking a conducted tour to one of the temples and to a couple of Palaces in Seoul to see the changing of the guard ceremony and to visit some museums, in particular the Embroidery, Folk Art and National Museums. We went to see 'Nanta', a highly successful and typically Korean Musical show and we sampled vegetarianTemple cooking whilst visiting Sanchon restaurant in Insadong. It included a beautiful cultural show of dancing and drumming. We also did an overnight trip down to Andong to stay in a traditional Korean house on the floor with a yo and the toilet miles away in cold weather - I think we're getting too old for that, but at least we experienced it !!.

Reflections

Lastly we tasted the cuisine of the country and enjoyed many great meals at local restaurants eating, Bibimbap, Panjeon, Chapchai, Mundoo and various recipes using fish eg. smoked, with a spicy sauce and steamed.

Juliet, Mr Kim & Anna

Andong Mask puppets

Buddhist Temple, Seoul

Roof lines

Comments

Lotus symbol in Korean culture .....

In traditional Korean Hanji art you can see many different designs of plants, animals, letters and insects. I'm sure you've wondered what they all symbolise as they are repeated so often and in many different ways. In this post I just want to take a brief look at the lotus plant and what it symbolises for the Korean people. I've used this design on a few articles but I never really knew the full meaning of what it represented until I started doing some research for my book. Even though many of us aren't Korean we can still use these designs and in so doing, translate a deeper meaning to our articles. Here are a just a few of my favourites from the easiest to the more difficult to cut out. The lotus flower symbolises creation, birth, liveability and reproduction and therefore it's one of the most important symbols in both Korean culture a...

The Buddhist symbol, Hanji & Korean culture ....

When selecting designs for my Hanji pieces I tend to make stylistic choices as to what will look best on each piece but the Korean designs all have very deep symbolic meanings. None more than the Buddhist swastika (manja) design. ‘Manja’ (만, Man is “卍” and 만자, Manja literally means “letter Man”) is also called Srivatsalksana in Sanskrit. It is one of the thirty-two (32) marks of excellence of the Buddha and is said to exist on his hands, feet, hair and waist. For those of us in the West this is often confused with the German Nazi swastika symbol but in fact it's been around for about three thousand years. The swastika is an equilateral cross with arms bent at right angles and all in the same direction, usually to the right, or clockwise. It's a symbol of prosperity and good fortune and it originally represented the revolving sun, fire, or life. The word swastik...

HANJI TRIVIA - Punjabi 'Hanji' .......

When researching about Hanji I've come across many sites that relate to the word 'hanji' being used in Punjabi, one of the Indian languages. There's a band called 'Cornershop' that made a CD in 1997 called, "When I was Born for the Seventh Time' and at the beginning of the song, which I believe was originally sung in Punjabi, they use the word Hanji. In Punjabi both 'han' and 'ji' mean yes. When talking informally to a person they use 'han' but if speaking to an elder or a person with a superior status then they put the two words together and say 'hanji'. You just never know when this word might be used ......

Hanji Happenings

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