JB Life March 2017

ARTS
By ANJEE DISANTO
JB Life Co-Editor
When you get acquainted with any traditional
Korean form of art, it quickly becomes
apparent that there is more than meets the
eye. Even simple details have meaning and symbolism,
and processes that seem straightforward may be
incredibly, endearingly complicated.
Such is also the case with Korean woodblock printing.
This art form is the focus of the new Wanpanbon
Culture Center in Jeonju’s Hanok Village, and Coordinator
Seungbin Jo is a treasure trove of knowledge on
this practice that he is eager to spread.
One of the first bits of knowledge necessary to understand
Korean woodblock printing is that the woodblocks
are not used like stamps. There’s a good chance
that when you envision the process, you imagine working
with a wooden plate coated with ink and pressed
onto paper. Actually, in the printing of Korean pages,
it’s the opposite: the woodblock is typically coated with
fine ink, after which hanji is pressed and rubbed on top
to receive the impression. This actually produces two
pages – since the paper cannot be printed on both sides,
a double-wide page is produced and then folded in half
to make a front-back page.
Here are just a few of the many other details that go
into the thinking behind Korean woodblock printing
and book production:
● Traditional books from other Asian cultures are also
bound with string, but often using only four holes: Korean
printed books used five. This number is highly
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symbolic in Korean culture, reflecting five elements of
life and personality.
● The ink used for printing with Korean woodblocks,
often pine sap-based, is specially designed for that type
of block. After using the woodblock the first time, the
entire piece is covered in the black ink, which serves
as a laminate to protect it from then on. Western inks
would actually ruin the woodblock!
● Even the brushes are specially designed for certain
tasks. The brush to spread the ink uses pig hair, coarse
and stiff enough to get the goo into all the nooks and
crannies of complex letters. The brush used to press
the hanji onto the woodblock itself, though, is a combination
of human hair and wax, making just the right
pressure to create the needed impression.
● Not all woodblocks are even meant to be used with
ink. Some are carved with complex patterns and symbols
intended to create the texture of book covers. With
these, designs are rubbed onto a thicker paper or material
to create an embossing effect. (The Wanpanbon
Center has several examples of both the woodblocks
and covers involved in this process.)
● The quality of hanji for this process has to be very
high, sometimes 20 or 30 thousand won per piece. Imagine
this when multiplied into a finished 220-page
book!
WHY.
The question many people might initially have is
“why.” Why do this, now, today, when we can simply
print something out on the computer?
“That’s the most difficult question to answer,” Jo responds.
“But I think what we did in the past shows
us who we are. It’s the best way to move to the future.
These kind of things that are not used today are
still very important and this kind of effort can make
us keep our knowledge and move into another way
of doing it. I think it’s very important to inherit the
tradition of what we’ve been doing and let the world
know about our past.”
Then, why in Jeonju?
The Wanpanbon Culture Center belongs to Jeonju’s
city government and opened on January 1st this
year, focused on making woodblocks and printed
books in the ways of old. (Before this, much of the
group’s work happened via the Woodblock Culture
Experience Center down the street, which still holds
classes in woodblock printing.) The name itself contains
a valuable bit of history. In the time of the Joseon
Dynasty, Jeonju was one of three major hubs of
the production of woodblock-printed books, and the
popular books from this location were called wanpanbon.
Many of them were novels that sprang from
the desire to read Korean stories that had only been
oral before, while in other regions prints were made
largely of historical and important Chinese texts.
With its history in mind, the new center focuses
on the entire process as it existed in old days, from
cutting the wood, to making the boards, engraving
them, choosing the paper, and printing a final product.
Specifically, these days their work involves reproducing
important books from the age of woodblock
printing. This is partially so that people can
see the history of how these works were made. Also,
while many historic woodblocks still exist, there is
rarely a complete set to represent a book. The center
seeks to fill in the gaps and produce full print-capable
sets.
Up until last year, the group behind the center was
working on a story book called “The History of the
Three Kingdoms,” created in the Joseon Dynasty.
The three different countries or kingdoms are still
considered as one foundation for the Korean culture.
Gumi County in Gyeongsan Province – the place
where the text originated – wanted to reproduce all
the woodblocks related to the story as part of the history
of a local temple. Thus, the group and seven
gaksu (woodblock engravers) set out on the daunting
two-year voyage of making and printing this historic
volume. Wanbanpon’s director, Esan Ahn Junyoung,
was himself one of the engravers, while the group
behind the center was asked to do the actual printing
of the book. The process required 110 woodblocks
on both sides, Seungbin explained. About a year of
the work was required just for engraving them, with
another two months just for the actual printing part.
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