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※ The actual region of the content is selected.Just like tailored clothes fit like a glove, the Joseon gentry made cases that fit their books perfectly. These bookcases could hold up to twenty books, and could be portable, or stacked in a room and used as a bookshelf. In other words, modular furniture that’s all the rage now existed way back in Joseon times. The actor Brad Pitt visited Korea a few years ago and commented on how modern the furniture from hundreds of years ago could be, and kept repeating, “Amazing.”
There’s a special place in Seoul where visitors can explore the hidden facets of Joseon living. This is the Korea Furniture Museum located in Seongbuk-dong. CNN called it the most beautiful museum in Seoul. World-class guests and visitors to Korea, such as Xi Jinping, the President of the People's Republic of China, have paid this place a visit. It takes up about 6,600 m² of land, where ten traditional hanok, including buildings like the palace hall, pantry, and gentleman’s house stand. Here, visitors can see the hanok style of living and over five hundred pieces of wood furniture. The director of the museum, Jeong Mi Suk, has been collecting these precious artifacts since the 60s. There are over twenty-five hundred items in the collection.
Gungjip, which is visible immediately from the entrance, was built using the pillars and slate roof tiles that used to be part of Changgyeonggung Palace. The palace was downgraded into a garden by the Japanese occupiers and consequently dissembled in the 1960s and 70s. The front yard of the gentleman’s home sparkles with precious pebbles. This building came from Suyuri. From within the window, views to Namsan Mountain and Hanyang Fortress Wall unfold. This was a conscious choice our ancestors made, building a low outer wall for going to plant trees in the yard that allowed for breathtaking views just outside.
In the basement of the building, an exhibition hall reveals itself like a secret compartment, filled with wooden furniture categorized by use. The wood furniture breathes life into the wood where the natural grain has been preserved.
The rice chest is built using hanok methods without nails or glue, but is put together in pieces like blocks. This is why it is a microcosm of hanok architecture. Low tables have vastly different forms depending on the region they came from and theiruse. Dozens of the most exemplary pieces are on display. Koreans planted paulownia trees when a girl was born into the family to prepare for the eventuality of her marriage, when she would leave the family she was born into and travel to join her husband’s family, bearing hand-made gifts wrapped in a paulownia chest. The old stories told by old furniture will sweep you away to another place in time.