• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.52 no.2
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• pp.142-171
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• 2019

The dragon is an imaginary animal that appears in the legends and myths of the Orient and the West. While dragons have mostly been portrayed as aggressive and as bad omens in the West, in the Orient, as they symbolize the emperor or have an auspicious meaning, dragons signify a positive meaning. In addition, as the dragon symbolizes the emperor and its type has been diversified considering it as a divine object that controls water, people have tried to express it as a figure. The records related to dragons in the Goryeo dynasty appeared with diverse topics in 'History of Goryeo' and are generally contents related to founding myths, rituals for rain, and Shinii (神異), etc. The founding myth emphasizes the legality of the Goryeo dynasty through the dragon, and this influenced the formation of the dragon's descendants. In addition, the ability to control water, which is a characteristic of the dragon, was symbolized as an earth dragon related to the rainmaking ritual, i.e., wishing for rain during times of drought. Since the dragon was the symbol of the royal family, the use of the dragon by common people was strictly restricted. Furthermore, the association of a bronze dragon mirror with the royal family is hard to be excluded. The type and quantity of bronze double dragon mirrors discovered to have existed during the Goryeo dynasty is great, and the production and the distribution of bronze mirrors with double dragons seem to have been more active compared to other bronze mirrors, as bronze mirrors with double dragons produced during Goryeo and bronze mirrors originating in China were mixed. Therefore, in this article, the characteristics of diverse bronze mirrors from the 10th century to the 14th century in China were examined. It seems that the master craftsmen who produced bronze mirrors with double dragons during the Goryeo dynasty were influenced by Chinese composition patterns when making the mirrors. Because there were many cases where a bronze mirror's country of origin could not easily be determined, in order to identify the differences between bronze double dragon mirrors produced during the Goryeo dynasty and bronze mirrors produced in China, meticulous analysis was required. Thus, to ascertain that Goryeo mirrors were not imitations of bronze mirrors with double dragons originating in China but produced independently, the mirrors were examined using the bronze double dragon mirror type classification system existing in our country. Bronze mirrors with double dragons are classified into three types: Type I, which has the style of the Yao dynasty, includes the greatest proportion; however, despite there being only a small quantity for comparison, Types II and III were selected for the analysis of the bronze mirrors with double dragons made in Goryeo because they have unique composition patterns. As mentioned above, distinguishing bronze mirrors made during Goryeo from bronze mirrors made in China is challenging because Goryeo bronze mirrors were made under the influence of China. Among them, since the manufacturing place of the bronze mirrors with double dragons found at the nine-story stone pagoda in Woljeongsa Temple in Pyeongchang is questionable and the composition pattern of the bronze mirror is hard to find on bronze mirrors with double dragons made in China, the manufacturing place of those bronze mirrors were examined. These bronze mirrors with double dragons were considered as bronze mirrors with double dragons made during the Goryeo dynasty adopting the Yao dynasty style composition pattern as aspects of the composition pattern belonged to Type I, and the detailed combination of patterns is hard to find in mirrors produced in China.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.59 no.6
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• pp.29-40
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• 2009

On April 28th of 2006, a set of Buddha's reliquary was excavated from the pagoda in n Nacsan Temple. According to the record, the relics were put in the pagoda in the 18th year of King SookJong in the Chosun Dynasty (1692). The present paper examines ten pieces of wrapping clothes covering reliquary found in the pagoda. They are especially precious data in the history of textiles because they were blocked off from outside and was preserved in good condition with vivid colors still remaining after more than 300 years. Of the ten pieces of wrapping cloth, five were double-layered and the other five were single-layered. They include 15 pieces of silk fabric but, excluding repeated use of the same silk fabric, the total of 11 pieces of silk fabric were examined. All 11 kinds of silk fabric were patterned, 9 of which were Satin and the other 2 were Twill. Of the 9 Satin pieces, 8 pieces were 5-end satin which had the ground of 5-end warp satin with the figure of 5-end weft satin. The remaining 1 Satin piece were more splendid with prominent figures by using warp and weft of different colors. The 2 Twill pieces used twill weave-the ground was 3-end warp twill and the figures were 5-end weft twill. Both of the Twill pieces were weaved with character patterns, partly using wrapped gold thread as supplementary weft. The patterns of 11 pieces of silk fabric include flower, dragon/phoenix, cloud, and geometric patterns. Five were flower patterns, three were dragon/phoenix patterns, two were geometric pattern, and one was cloud pattern. In addition, various treasure patterns, character patterns were utilized as supplementary patterns. The flower and phoenix patterns reflect characteristics of the textiles of the 17th century whereas check pattern and cloud pattern were very unique.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.57 no.6 s.115
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• pp.87-100
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• 2007

In the Joseon Dynasty, a Court Ladies' full dress was Slanted by the Ming Dynasty. Since the Ming Dynasty had declined, a Court Ladies' full dress, Jeok-ui began to be made by the Joseon Dynasty. It was based on the Chinese Court Ladies' full dress, Desam, but it became Joseon's own style, which was different from the Chinese one. The formula of Jeok-ui was completed in the time of King Yongjo. Since then, Jeok-ui for big ceremonies was called Bub-bok. It was recorded on the Regular rule of Sang-uiwon. The color of Jeok-ui was departmentalized for the wearer; red one for the Queen, bluish black one for the Crown Princess, and purple one for the Queen mother. There were some differences between Jeok-ui for feasts and for big ceremonies. In the case of Jeok-ui for big ceremonies, the pattern of Hyung-bae for the Queen was a dragon with five claws, and for the Crown Princess, a dragon with four claws. On the other hand, in the case of Jeok-ui for feasts, the pattern of Hyung-bae was phoenixes for the Queen, Crown Princess and the Queen mother. The number of embroidered round badges, which were attached to Jeok-ui, was 51 for big ceremonies, and 36 for feasts. The skirt for big ceremonies was a Jeonang-ut-chima with dragons pattern for the Queen, and phoenixes for the Crown Princess. The Queen's skirt for feasts was a Jeonang-ut-chima with phoenixes pattern, and the Queen mother's also. The Crown Princess' was a double skirt with phoenixes pattern. The pearls were not decorated on the shoes for big ceremonies, but shoes for feasts had six big pearls fer decoration. When the royal woman wore Jeok-ui for big ceremonies, it was prepared for Kyu, Pe-ok and belt with jade. But those were not necessary for Jeok-ui for feasts.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.59 no.9
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• pp.87-96
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• 2009

Dangui is a formal dress of the wives of high officers and royalty in Chosun Dynasty and it was worn as a day dress in palace and a semi-ceremonial dress in upper-class households. Among the remains of Dangui a double-layered Dangui was found in which two sets of Dangui were combined to be worn as a single piece. The double-layered Dangui consists of an Over-Dangui and an Under-Dangui. The results of the examination of the remains for the Over-Dangui are as follows. As lone as the colors of the remains are identifiable, all of the Over-Dangui were green, whereas the Under-Dangui and lining materials were red. The textile was mostly in woven silk with pattern and it was frequently decorated with golden wefts or foils. A breast embroidery with phoenix and a dragon embroidery were also found. Such Dangui was worn mostly by the high members of the king's palace including the queen, crown princess, bastard princess, and monarch. There were two exceptions of wearing Dangui outside the king's palace. A simple Under-Dangui was made to enable a comfort fit of the two sets of Dangui and the suture was partially sewn. With three doth strings and cuffs, two pieces of Dangui were eventually assembled into one piece of clothing. Differences between the remains and the documents were also found in regards to textile and wearers of Dangui.