Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Korea National Museum

One of my friends decided that we needed to go do something on the weekend. She decreed that I'd been in my apartment for too long, and we were going to go to the Korea National Museum. I'd never been, so I decided that maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea. It was really nice to get out of the apartment, but I was definitely exhausted after we left. We didn't even see most of the museum either. It's so huge. We started in the special collections, so there was a mix of different things.

There was this really lovely archway of bamboo leading up to the main entrance of the museum. 

I don't think that the building actually had a dome, but from the inside it looked a lot like a floating dome, which was pretty cool. 



These are the end caps for traditional tile roofs. I love these things. I think they're so beautiful. I have an ever-growing collection of pictures from various palaces and museums around the city. 

This next part is dedicated to all of the great faces that were around the museum. I don't know what all of them mean, but there were certainly lots of interesting ones to choose from!




Can't you imagine this one making a great salt and pepper shaker set??


I can understand the man looking surprised, but I really want to know what they were looking at to make the donkey look that surprised. 



The warrior is very serious. His faithful steed apparently has other ideas for the day. 


This was a pair of earrings from one of the early dynasties. I can't imagine having a hole in my ear big enough for these things to fit in. If they were along the line of a clip on earring, I can only imagine how much that would hurt. I'm definitely not ever complaining about earrings again!

I used to have a little tea set that looked kinda like this! It was actually labeled as a "child's house play set". I guess there are some things that transcend cultural boundaries. Love. Laughter. Playing house as a little girl....

I don't remember what this one was either, but I thought that it was absolutely lovely. I really enjoyed the colors and the lighting. It was very dramatic!

Some of the pottery was absolutely exquisite. 

I love the color and the detail. 

Some of it was just cute. I guess even hundreds of years ago, there was a booming industry for things that served no practical purpose other than being cute. 

I don't remember what this is, but it was really small. I think it was only about 3 inches across. It was so amazingly detailed though!


These are traditional signature stamps. People still use these stamps today. They register their stamp with the government, and it counts as an official seal. Which is cool. Unless you're a foreigner who doesn't have a cool official seal. And you're trying to sign documents. But instead of a nice line to sign your name, there's a little box for your seal. It gets interesting. I've thought about getting a seal made, but my name has so many syllables when it is written out in Korean, I don't think it would fit. So my legal signature has been reduced to even more of an illegible scrawl than it was before. 

The next part of the museum had a lot of beautiful paintings and calligraphy in it. 


There was this giant rock, but I'm not entirely sure where it came from, or what it said. But it was really pretty, with the light and dark contrast. 

When you first saw this picture, what did you think it was? A torture device? The original "As Seen on TV Lawn Aerator"? Believe it or not, this was a typical pair of shoes. Just a normal pair of shoes. Not soccer cleats. Just shoes. They were so big that they were too big for even my foot. I want to know what happened to all of the shoes that are this size? How did they shrink so much??

This wasn't part of the museum, it just made me laugh. We were walking though these amazing exhibits, and this mom and her little girl were sitting there. Both of them were wearing headphones. Both of them were playing on their own smart phone devices. This is actually a pretty common scene around Seoul. It's just the first time I've had my camera on me when I've seen it. 

We saw this as we were walking back out. It doesn't matter how many times I've seen it before, I'm always fascinated by the juxtaposition of old and new in this city. Palaces that are thousands of years old sit next to cranes that are building skyscrapers. It's amazing. 

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