Foreign Art in Korea

Here's the second installment from the Museum of Korea, this time concentrating on non-Korean art.

A Japanese armor. Of course, the Japanese are well-known in Korea for their belligerence, as Korea is Japan's closest neighbor - and suffered many Japanese invasions (and an outright takeover).

Some objects found from a 14th Century Chinese shipwreck just off the southwest coast of Korea. The ship had been sailing from Ningbo to Fukuoka, with the cargo bound for Kyoto.

Indian Krishna worship drawings.

A Vietnamese altar for ancestor worship.
Note the Chinese characters; Vietnam used the Chinese writing system, until the French arrived in the 19th Century and Roman alphabet was adopted.

South Korea fought with the US and South Vietnam during the Vietnam War, but enjoys good relations with the Socialist Republic of Vietnam today.

Vietnamese pottery. Older ones resembled their Chinese counterparts a lot, but these 16-19th Century examples show very unique designs.

A Thai Buddha.

A Burmese screen.

This is not Asian; this is an ancient Greek helmet. There is a story as to how it got to Korea!

At the Berlin Summer Olympics in 1936, the winner of men's marathon was to be awarded this helmet. The winner, as it turned out, was Sohn Kee-chung (1912-2002) of Korea (though at that time, Korea was a Japanese colony, so he was officially known as Kitei Son of Japan). He refused to salute the Japanese flag at the awards ceremony, and a Korean paper was banned for blotting the Japanese flag out from his uniform. Sohn was forced to leave this helmet in Germany in the aftermath - until 1986, when he was able to reclaim it. He donated the helmet to the museum in 1994.

An 11th Century mirror with Khitan writing on it. Khitan was a kingdom to the north of Korea at that time, and had frequent border skirmishes. Korean General Seo Hui, who is my direct ancestor, negotiated peace with the Khitans, after which trade blossomed, as evidenced by this Khitan object in Korea.

More artwork coming up...