The
term Jangsingu refers to various objects worn for ornamental purposes. In Korea,
the original purpose of these ormaments was not only to enhance physical beauty
but also to bring good luck and to drive out evil. The ornaments were also symbols
reflecting the social status of the wearer. The history of these objects dates
back to ancient times.
Tubular-shaped jade and necklaces made of animal bones were discovered among
historical remains dating back to the Neolithic Age, and numerous relics from
the Three Kingdoms period (57 B.C-A.D 668) include exquisitely detailed ornaments
made of gold, silver and gilt bronze.
The most representative Korean ornaments include headdresses and hair accessories,
necklaces, earrings, chest pieces, bracelets, court hats, ring, and pendants.
Primitive hairpins and combs made of animal bones are some of the hair ornaments
that date from prehistoric times.
Hair
ornaments from the third and fourth centuries were more delicate and splendid,
and include combs, rod hairpins, and clasps used to hold hair together. Combs
discovered inside the ancient tombs of the Silla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D. 935)
were all made of lacquered wood, and the teeth were fairly thin and long. A
hair clasp discovered inside the tombs of King Muryeong(r. 501-523) of Baekje
resembles an elegant bird in flight with a head part followed by three long
branches detailed to look like the billowing tails of a bird. Hairpins from
the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) are even more delicate and exquisite in their
details, with a Chinese phoenix or rooster heads carved on the head parts.
 | An ornamental comb decorated with golden flowers, Unified Silla period. |
Another
object from the Goryeo Dynasty is the topknot hairpin, which was used by men
to hold their topknots in place. In addition to this practical purposes, it
also served as an ornamental piece. Magnificent gold topknot hairpins from the
Goryeo Dynasty came in various shapes and sizes.
During
the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) a national policy was declared imposing limits
on the use of personal ornaments. Tight restraints on the use of gold and silver
brought about a deterioration in the artistic value of the ornaments produced
during this period and in the quality of craftsmanship in general. However,
as a result, the production of ornaments using materials other than gold and
silver flourished, and their use became widely popularized .
During the Joseon Dynasty, the use of rod hairpins was severely restricted,
with social status dictating the use of different materials and shapes. Women
of the royal court and high society wore rod pins made of gold, silver, pearls,
jade, andcoral, while those of lesser status were limited to ones made of wood,
horn, nickel alloy, and brass.
The
head shapes of the rod pins were also different according to social status.
The queen and women of the royal court and high society wore pins shaped in
the images of dragons and Chinese phoenixes, while common folk were allowed
only plain pins or those shaped like mushrooms. The head shapes and materials
of the pins also varied according to the season.
 | Magnificent topknot hairpins in various shapes and sizes. |  | Cheopjis shaped like a phoenix (above) and a frog (below) worn by women in the royal court during the Joseon Dynasty. |
Several
new shapes of ceremonial hair decorations including the cheopji and tteoljam,
as well as hair picks and daenggi (ribbons) emerged during the Joseon Dynasty.
The cheopji, is a type of hairpin that women wore with ceremonial dress to enhance
their beauty. It came in the shape of a phoenix or a frog. The phoenix-shaped
pin was reserved for the queen's exclusive use, and the frog-shaped pin was
for common folk. Tteoljam was worn by women of high society on ceremonial occasions.
It came in round, square, and butterfly shapes and a variety of other forms.
The pieces were lavishly decorated with cloisonne, pearls, and other precious
gems.
Hair picks refer to all the ornamental pieces worn in chignons other than the
rod pins. These include plain picks with pointed ends and practical ones that
could be used as ear picks and also for parting one's hair. Chrysanthemums,
lotus, apricot blossoms, and butterflies were some of the more popular shapes,
and the picks were decorated with coral, jade, precious stones, cloisonne, and
pearls. A daenggi (hair ribbon) was a piece of gold-inlaid cloth that was used
to hold a woman's hair in a braid. The ribbons came in a variety of shapes and
sizes.
Along with these hair decorations, Koreans traditionally favored the use of
earrings as ornamental pieces. The use of earrings also dates back to prehistoric
ages, and they became more lavish and detailed with time. Earrings from the
prehistoric ages included those made from animal bones or curved jade. Relics
from ancient remains clearly indicate that even during this early period, Korean
earrings came in a variety of shapes.
In
particular, it is interesting to note that during the Three Kingdoms period
(57 B.C.-A.D 668), earrings were popualr with both men and women. Earrings from
that period can be divided into three groups according to their shapes: a single
loop, a loop attached to the post, and those with multiple loops with lavish
decorations dangling from one of them.
Materials
used for earrings included gold, silver, and gilt bronze, with gold being the
most popular. Among the relics of the Goryeo Dynasty are pure gold earrings.
Some are simple in design with three connected loops, while others are decorated
with round beads. While the use of earrings wasn't as popular during the Joseon
Dynasty, the period is noteworthy in that it brought about a revolutinary change
in the way earrings were worn. Until then, earrings were worn by piercing a
person's earlobes and inserting the posts but it was now possible to simply
clasp them on the helices. Sometimes five-colored tassels were used to complement
the simple ornamentation of the earrings. These types of earrings were reserved
for ceremonial purposes and were not for everyday use.
The
use of necklaces in Korea dates back to prehistoric times. During that period
they were constructed from a variety of materials including animal teeth, bones,
tubular jade, and jade stones. From the third to the seventh centuries, the
use of necklaces grew more popular. The shapes became more diverse as well,
and necklaces were worn as a single strand or in multiple (two, three, four,
or six) strands. The more popular materials were gold and jade.
Chest ornaments are objects worn on the chest for decorative purposes and differ
from necklaces according to their lengths. During prehistoric times, primitive
chest ornaments were made by drilling holes into sea shells and connecting them
with a piece of string.
Chest ornaments of the Silla Kingdom became much more lavish and exquisite in
detail. In particular, the chest ornament discovered inside the Geumnyeongchong
(Tomb of the Golden Bell) is spectacular in its beauty and is lavishly decorated
with 152 glass beads. Another piece found inside Hwangnamdaechong (The Great
tomb at Hwangnam) is also exquisitely decorated with gold, silver, glass and
jade.
One article of ornamentation that was widely popular throughout the history
of Korea is the bracelet, whose use dates back to ancient times. Early bracelets
were primitive, made from sea shells, but with time the use of a variety of
materials such as bronze, jade, and glass became more widespread. Bracelets,
along with earrings and rings were the most popular ornaments during the Three
Kingdoms period. The discovery of numerous bracelets in relics from this period
attests to this fact, and most of these were made from jade, glass and metal.
The finger ring was another popular piece of ornamentation throughout the history
of Korea. As early as in prehistoric times, Koreans are known to have used rings
for decorative purposes. A ring made from a piece of bronze plate was dug up
from an ancient tomb dating back to prehistoric times, which testifies to its
early use.
From
the Silla Kingdom, numerous silver rings have been discovered, and the lavish
and exquisite details on these pieces clearly attest to the high quality of
craftsmanship of this period.
Representative rings of the Goryeo Dynasty are a gold ring decorated with agate
and another with green gemstones. Others include a pure gold ring with an embossed
arabesque pattern, a silver ring with jagged design, a silver ring with exquisite
engravings, and a plain copper ring without any ornamental design.
During the Joseon Dynasty, rings were the most popular ornaments along with
pendants. The materials used to make these rings were also diverse; they include
gold, silver, cloisonne, jade, agate, amber, green jade, pearl, and bronze.
Court
hats and crowns were worn by the king and government officials. In addition
to their ornamental purposes, they served to represent the wearer's social status.
The higher a person's position, the more lavish the hat. During the Three Kingdoms
(Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla) period, each kingdom with its different social
structure developed its unique style of court hat. Among those of Goguryeo,
the most outstanding is the gold court hat created in the image of a burning
flame. This gold hat was constructed by attaching nine ornaments, each shaped
to resemble a burning flame, on a gilt bronze plate. Two identical ornaments
were then attached to either side of the hat for additional decoration. A gold
court hat excavated in Hwaseong-ri in Daedong-gun boasts a frontal ornamental
piece resembling a half-moon. |  | | Gold court hat's jangsingu, Gaekje. |
|
A gold court crown discovered in an ancient tomb in the Bannam area of Naju dates back to the Baekje Kingdom. This crown is decorated with lavish ornaments on the broad front band and on each side. The most impressive crowns of Baekje are the ones discovered among the relics inside the tomb of King Muryeong. The decorations on these crowns, presumed to have been worn by the king and queen, were cut from thin gold plates and created in the images of glowing haloes.
Among the most widely known crowns of Silla is one with five ornaments attached to a narrow band. Additional decorations on the three main ornaments on the front and on each of the sides resemble tiny twigs branching out of a tree, thereby creating cascading images of small mountains. During the Goryeo Dynasty, crown styles were deeply influenced by the Chinese: Myeollyugwan was a square, flat crown with dangling strings of small precious stones that was worn by the king with formal attire; Wonyugwan was a dark, silk hat with a jade ornament worn by the king when meeting his court; Bokdu was a formal hat worn by those who had passed the highest civil service examination when receiving their appointments; and, Samo was a round, black silk hat worn by civil and military officials, and is donned these days by the groom in a traditional wedding ceremony. Court hats similar to those worn by the Chinese were still popular during the Joseon Dynasty. It was not until mid-Joseon that the gat, a uniquely Korean hat woven from horse-hair, emerged. Jade buttons and decorative egret shapes and strings were attached to the gat for ornamental purposes. Women's hats also grew more lavish as jewels were attached to flower hats and bridal tiaras, rendering them more appropriate for special ceremonies.
 | Pendant |  | Various ornamental daggers used for decoration and self-defense. |
The most representative item of personal ornamentation from the Joseon Dynasty is the pendant. Pendants, worn by women on the outer bows or inner bows of their
blouses or on their skirts, were very popular during this period. Materials
included metals such as gold, silver and bronze and gemstones such as white
jade, green jade, agate, red jade, blue stones, pure jade, rough diamond, and
malachite. The use of precious stones and shells including amber, coral, pearl,
and tortoise shell was also common. The pendants also came in a variety of designs
with some resembling animals such as bats, turtles, butterflies, ducks, goldfish,
cicadas, and terrapins while others were shaped like plants including peppers,
eggplants, clusters of grapes, acorns, and walnuts. Often the shapes were taken
from objects that were part of everyday life, and some pendants resemble bottles,
pouches, bells, gourds, drums, hourglass drums, and spectacle cases.
Another personal item women carried was the ornamental dagger. These were used for decorative purposes as well as for self-defense. The cylindrical dagger and others shaped like the letter "Z", squares, and octagons are only a few of the variety of shapes representative of this period.
