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Culture

Material

Manufacturing Technique

Date Made

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Date Collected

Date Owned

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Narrative

Collected by J. H. Morris while he was chief engineer for Seoul Railway, Korea.

Iconographic Meaning

The clothes of these women show that they are of the ordinary class. The brighter colours worn by the woman wearing the pink jacket “Jo-go-ri” suggests that she is younger.

Description

Figures representing two women sitting on the ground facing each other on a flat backing of white paper. Made of cloth lightly padded to give a three-dimensional effect having each portion made of a separate piece of cloth with painted details. There is a grey rectangular cube in a brown frame in between them, on which, there is a brown roller wound with light red-pink cloth. Each woman is holding two yellow paper sticks. Both women have faces made of white silk. Their black hair is in a low bun. The woman on the right is wearing a short light red-pink blouse, and blue-green skirt. The woman on the left is wearing a light green blouse, and a blue skirt. Two pieces of white flannel hemmed in light red-pink silk with a loop of the same at the top are sewn to the paper backing.

Specific Techniques

The clothing was stitched around the edge and then a layer was added inside the clothing. Each section was separately applied and pasted in place. The details were finely painted.

History Of Use

The women depicted are from the late 19th to early 20th centuries, and are ironing clothes. After being washed in a stream, the clothes are dried and then wound on a wooden roller or folded on a cloth and beaten with sticks by one or two women until smooth and shiny. Such figures were made during the time when Korea was first open to the outside world (after the mid 1890s), probably as gifts to present to missionaries or other visitors from foreign countries. Flat dolls like these were very popular during the period 1910-20. Before that time, shamans made dolls that they sold to their clients, as images of those the clients wanted to exorcise. Simple dolls were made of straw for children to play with. After Korea opened, people began to see dolls as artistic objects. They were made in workshops by masters, using authentic fabrics whenever possible, as their purpose was to introduce foreigners to Korean society.
Women smoothed the wrinkles out of flat strong cloths that that been washed by beating them on a stone table inside the house. This also gave them opportunities to talk together. This work was called “Da-dum-i-jil”, and it produced a characteristic traditional sound.