Art & Places: Jangseung, South Korea
Posted on | June 28, 2012 | 27 Comments
When my husband and I visited Korean Folk Village on our last day in South Korea, these totem poles greeted us. Lucky for me, I visited National Folk Museum of Korea a day before that and knew that it is called Jangseung.
Jangseung totem poles, Korean Folk Village.
Couple Jangseung looking down at me. National Folk Museum of Korea.
Jangseung is regarded as one of the earliest examples of non-figurative art, in which a human face is carved on a wooden pole (tree trunk). Jangseung has the face of traditional Korean military officer with angry eyes, snaggle teeth and a hat on top of the pole and inscription down at the middle. Inscription bears the meaning of ‘Great General Under Heaven’ for male and as for female ‘Female General Under Earth’. These wooden totem poles, erected in groups or pairs at the entrance of Buddhist temples or villages, were worshipped as village guardians or deities with magical power that drives out demons. Jangseung also indicated as the border between neigboring villages.
The history of Jangseung is dated back more than 2000 years ago. Once considered as deity, it is mostly decorative piece now and commonly placed at the gates of large places to indicate entrances.
Jangseung is considered organic works of art and generally expected to last about a hundred years due to nature’s harsh elements.
I found one interesting blog post about Jangseung by Nick Elwood in his blog: A Korean Compendium. His blog post: Fascinating Physogs – A Tour of Some Korean Totem Poles explores the many types of Jangseung .Go read it.
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27 Responses to “Art & Places: Jangseung, South Korea”
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Kind of unique art and wooden carved. Korea as always never fail to make the whole world impress about their uniqueness.
Yes it is. But Korean ones are a bit simple. Would love to see totem poles around the world.
Mana lagi ada, Kak? Hawaii?
Hmm, New Zealand? – Mauri people, kan?
Wah, Male General is under heaven!
Female General is under Earth!
Heaven and Earth! Jauhnya bezaaaaaaa! lol
Manalah k.Em dapat semua info ni ye. Bila saya tengok ukiran tu, saya tak tau apa nak cerita dan kongsi dengan orang lain. Pandai k.em cari maklumat
Alamak! Kak Emi nak letak bibliography tapi lupa pulak hehe. Kena search dan banyak membaca. Di Folk Museum ada baca infonya, Kak Emi snap gambar dan simpan untuk reference juga.
kak emi boleh jadi historian gak ni. kami diajar
menulis fakta sejarah berdasarkan sumber.
jadi mesti letak bibliografi.
totem looks scary. even main game yg ada byk totem pon dah feeling2 penakot hahaha
BUT i admit totem is one of unique art!
unik sangat!
Unik!
Yes!
woods all over!
tapi ni kalau letak kat umah malam-malam boleh seriau nih.
kalau letak depan umah, mesti pencuri takut. hehehe
Terus pengsan hahaha
kalau perasan ukiran wajah kat kayu tu, ramai artis-artis lukis karakter dengan rupa camtu kan.
sebenarnya kebanyakan art diinspirasi dari objek sejarah.
Betul tu.
Ya la kan? Similar.
gambar kedua tu siap ada rambut pacak kan. manusia purba pun suka rambut pacak ye. hehe
Haah kan? hehehe
Cantik!
But a bit simple compare to those from Hawaii. I rasa lah!