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Narrative

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

Description

Figure representing a person on a flat backing of white paper. Front view is depicted of the figure which is made of cloth lightly padded to give a three-dimensional effect having each portion made of a separate piece of cloth with painted details. Hands are made of paper. Face is made of white silk. Figure's left hand is holding a plain folded fan. Wearing a light brown straight-sided hat with a flat crown, and a wide brim, a calf-length robe of grey silk tied at the upper right front with a ribbon of the same, loose grey trousers, light brown linen leggings, and low straw sandals. Two pieces of white flannel with light red-pink silk thread with a loop of the same at the top are sewn to the paper backing.

History Of Use

Figure represents Korean man of upper class of late 19th to early 20th centuries. Silk coat was worn outdoors. Straw hat may indicate that the man was betrothed but not yet married, as married men wore black hats. Boy's hair was worn in a braid, but combed on betrothal into a topknot, with a horsehair band around the head. The traditional fan with curved sides was used only by the upper classes. 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.
Everyone in Korea was expected to wear mourning at the time of a national funeral, such as the time when a queen was murdered by the Japanese. Such clothing would be worn whenever people went outdoors. As men went out more than women did, their mourning clothes were of better quality cloth. The person’s social class was not apparent in such clothing. Rural men would wear the traditional Korean hat “Gat” and a long, white coat “Doo-ru-ma-gui”.

Iconographic Meaning

The fact that the man’s clothing and accessories are all white or natural coloured cloth and that he is wearing straw sandals represents the fact that he is in mourning. For mourning the death of a family member, people wore clothing of coarser fabric, whereas at times of national mourning they wore clothing of finer material.