A Study of Historical Costume from the Mural Tombs of Dukheungri

덕흥리(德興里) 고분벽화(古墳壁畵)의 복식사적(服飾史的) 연구(硏究)

The mural portraits of the ancient Dukheungri tombs are very important for the study of our traditional costume because the tomb contains a stone. with the in-scription of the date of its erection, 408 A.D. and the name, and official status of the buried. The costumes shown in the mural paintings will be the basis on which historical research can be made concerning costumes before and after 400 A. D. The costume in the mural paintings is classified into five different categories; You (jacket), Po (overcoat), Go (trousers), Sang (skirt), and Gwan (hat). Comparing these categories with those of other mural paintings lead us to the following conclusions. 1. The length of the You (jacket) reaches below the buttocks and the sleeves are narrow. The edges of the sleeves are decorated with stripes. The You (jacket) over-laps on the right, center, and left sides, and there are many Jikryong (V-collar) and Danryong (rounded collar) styles, but it has a similar tendency to others of the Pyongyang area which exhibit many foreign influences. In a departure from tradition. the belts on the men's You (jackets) have only 3 knots in the front, with the back having more knots than the front. The belts of the women's You (jacket) seem to have had a band or button for fastening. We must re-evaluate the assumption that the You (jacket) and Go (trousers) of the northern peoples had the common characters of a belted You (jacket) and Po (over-coat) and that the Gorum originated from the Goryo or Unified Silla dynasty. The outside of the sleeves are longer and more to the side than the inner garment (underwear) so that the sleeves of the inner garment frequently overlapped the outer dress. The above mentioned facts have lead to the discovery of the "Hansam," "Tosi" and "Geodoolgi." 2. The Po (overcoat) was used only by the upperclasses and differs from those found in other mural tombs. The Po (overcoat) of the noble on the tomb mural is centered with an overlapping Jikryong (V-collar) while the other Po (overcoats) of the upperclasses are characterized by an overlap on the left, a Danryong (rounded collar) with two types of sleeves (wide and narrow). Foreign influences and traditional influences coexist in Po (overcoat). Belts have frontal knots without exceptions. The facts that the belts on the You (jackets) are on the front and the belts on the Po (overcoats) are on the back must be reexamined. 3. Go (trousers) is usually narrow, being wider in the rear and narrower below the knees. They were used by hunters on the back of horses with similar Go (trousers) from the Noinwoowha tombs being typical of the northern peoples. 4. Sang (skirts) are pleated as commonly seen in the Goguryo murals. The size of the pleat is varied, each pleat being characteristically wider and having different colors. Same types of pleat are discovered in Central Asia and China. It is uncertain whether the pleat of Goguryo was originated in Central Asia and China or only interrelated with those of the areas. 5. There are three kinds of Gwan (hats); Nagwan, Chuck, and Heukgun. Nag-wan was worn by the dead lords and their close relations. Chuck has three cone shaped horns. Heukgun was worn by military bandmen and horsemen. There are two kinds of hair styles. The up-style was used by the upperclass people closely related to lords, and other people used the Pungimoung hair style. The hair styles of the men and women are characterized by the Pungimoung style. which is a Chinese influence, but still retain their originality. The costume has a similar tendency from those from Yaksuri mural tombs, Anak No. 2 and Anak No. 3. We need to reexamine the costumes from $4{\sim}5$ century murals according to the Dukheungri murals. The costumes of Goguryo share many common factors with those of Western Asia, Central Asia and Ancient China (Han). It seems due to the cultural exchanges among the Northern peoples, the Western and Central Asians, and the Ancient Chinese. It may have resulted from the structural identity or morphological identity of the peoples, or their common social and natural environments and life styles. It will be very valuable to study the costumes of Japan, China, and Korea to find out the common factors. It is only regretful that the study is not based on direct observations but reported information made by 77 persons, because Dukheungri is an off-limits area to us.