*This is the third part in our series, “Gat, traditional headgear in Korea.”

Gannil—gat craftsmanship and variations

The process of gat making

Gat are horsehair hats that consist of two basic elements: the daewu or crown and the yangtae or brim. Although originally made of thinly sliced bamboo strands, the daewu, also sometimes called a moja, was later replaced with a horsehair crown called a chongmoja. Craftsmen of the chongmoja and the yangtae are, respectively, known as chongmoja-jang, or crown-makers, and as yangtae-jang, or brim-makers. Their products are brought together and assembled by an ipja-jang, the craftsman who completes the hat by adding various accessories. A chongmoja is woven with the fine strands of hair from a horse’s mane or tail, which the yangtae is made by weaving together bamboo strands into a disk shape with a hole in the center. Using simple tools and materials, the process of completing a gat, as well as manufacturing its components, is a delicate and meticulous task.



1. Making the Chongmoja

1) Materials and tools

The chongmoja is made of ultra-fine horsehair strands. When making the crown of a hat, long strands of horsehair are used for the warp, while oxtail hair is used for the weft, which is less limited in terms of length. Horsehair is collected by horse tenders from two-year-old horses with approximately 50 centimeter-long hair. Extracting 600 grams of horsehair requires the tail hair of three horses. Strands of horsehair collected on Jeju Island come in different color, thicknesses and sheens, from which only the most highest-quality of specimens are chosen.

Only a few tools are needed to make a crown, including the ilgol, the golgeori, the chongsabal, the chongbaneul and the meokgol.

The ilgol (chongmojagol) refers to a cylindrical hat block made of wood with a wide base. The hollow inside of the block is set on a hat block stand, which makes it easier to weave the strands together. The surface of the block top, called the cheonbak in the Jeju dialect, is coated with thick fish glue. The glue is melted to fix a horsehair plait knot into place, which then forms the start point of the crown.

The golgeori (jugaepan) refers to a hat block stand with a rounded tip that allows the block to spin when strands of horsehair or bamboo are woven into a cylindrical crown.

The chongbaneul (banongdae, soeggeul) refers to a 15 centimeters-long iron needle. The bottom tip of the needle is shaped like a thin hook, used to weave horsehair strands on the hat block. The round tip of the needle is used to cut off excess strands of horsehair from the weave.

The chongsabal refers to a bowl which is used to immerse the horsehair in water in order to preserve its elasticity.

The meokgol refers to a hat block used when boiling a completed horsehair crown.

2) The process of making a chongmoja

The crown-making process begins by selecting high-quality horsehair.

The saengibangseok

The making of a crown begins by tying a knot at the center of the crown top, called the saengibangseok. The process of weaving the crown tip is as follows: eight strands of horsehair are folded in half to make a bundle of 16 strands; a know it tied with four bundles to form a warp of 64 strands; four strands are tied together at the top with a simple knot and two strands are braided into one thread; three rows, or dollimjul, are woven together with the braided threads; and, the weave is placed onto the glue-coasted hat block to start the weft-and-warp weaving process, a technique called cheonbak tteugi.


Cheonbak tteugi

Cheonbak tteugi is the process of weaving ten rows with two braids made out of four strands, followed by space-weaving with a braid of four strands. The jeorimjul, a weft of four strands, is interwoven with two strands of warp and cross over a strand of warp.

Space-weaving leaves gaps between warp strands, so it is necessary to place supplementary warps in between the warps for four rounds over the course of weaving. During the first and second rounds of weaving, a supplementary warp is placed in between every warp. In the third round, a supplementary warp is added between every two warps. In the fourth round, one is added between every three warps. The body of the crown is woven by using a weft of braided strands.

Momjul

The woven lines around the crown body are called the momjul. Prior to interlacing strands around the crown body, the supplementary warps, called the neuiching, are added between every three warps. After four lines are woven, the supplementary warps are pulled together and flattened. The momjul are woven in clutches of four rows each. The crown tip features about 100 rows of wefts, while the body has more than 200 rows.

Momjul ttegi

Momjul ttegi is the process of spacing the wefts evenly apart by separating the four rows of the weft into two.

After evenly spacing the wefts around the body, the entirety of the crown tip is soaked with water and then lightly flattened. The body of the hat is then tapped up to separate the crown from the block. Loose supplementary warps are trimmed from the edge of the crown and turned inward for ink-coating.

On the Block

The woven crown is placed on a block called a meokgol and is dipped in water and boiled for about 30 minutes. This solidifies the shape of the crown. The boiled crown is then dried in the shade and coated with thick black ink, later to be separated from the block.



2. Making the Yangtae

1) Materials and Tools

The yangtae is a brim made of bamboo. The brim is manufactured by cutting and splitting the culms of quality bamboo, to make bamboo strips of fine strands. The woven strips are placed on the brim-making board, with which the fine strands are twined to make the brim. The method of weaving the dollimjul is the same as that of making the dollimjul of a horsehair crown. A particular characteristic of the brim is the bitdae, a sliver of bamboo that is stuck diagonally between the naldae and the jeouldae, that is, the warp and weft strips. It has a unique structure and method of production.

The majority of the bamboo used to make the brim consists of giant timber bamboo, or green bamboo, and brown bamboo, a type of yellowish bamboo which has bamboo “flour” inside of it. Brown bamboo is over two hand-spans in length and generally comes from Damyang in South Jeolla Province or from Jinju in South Geongsang Province.

Tools for making the brim include the mureupjjang, a knife, a whetstone, a bitdaekeul, a yangtaepani, a teng-e-gudeok, a meoreoksoe, a gochiltdae, a banongdae, a ssalyeokeumsil and a meoreok. As in the case of making the horsehair crown, the brim can also be made using only a few tools.

The mureupjjang

The mureupjjang is a tool used when the brim-maker places bamboo strands on their knees and strips off the layers of bamboo strands. It is used by attaching cotton strings onto leather.

The knife and whetstone

A knife and a whetstone are widely used during the geolmok, the preparation of bamboo strips and strands: cutting, trimming and peeling off the bamboo and then rubbing and separating them into strands of bamboo. The knife has a flat blade with a blunt tip.

The bitdaekeul

The bitdaekeul is a wooden stick with blades at the end, placed in the shape of “人”, or 인. This stick is used to strip off bamboo to produce trimmed slivers, including the bitdae and the saldae, by letting them through the opening.

The yangtaepani

The yangtaepani, or yukji or yangpan, is a brim-making board: a round wood block made of cherry or zelkova wood. Its center has a small round wooden block, called the eok, attached to it and in the center of the eok there is a square opening, the eokgomang. The eok holds the warp in place while working on the ssalyeokkeum.

The teng-e-gudeok

The teng-e-gudeok is a bamboo basket over which the yangteapani is rested. It is an application of the gudeok-making method, indigenous to Jeju Island. It is equipped with a partition in the middle, creating a space to hold tools and materials used while making the brim.

The gochitdae

The gochitdae is a slender piece of split bamboo. This tool adjusts the direction of the meoreok when sticking on the bitdae.

The banongdae

The banongdae is an iron implement generally used when weaving the weft in between the warp, as with a horsehair crown.

The salyeokkeumsil

The ssalyeokkeumsil refers to cotton thread used when braiding bamboo splits. Two threads are weaved alternately crossing each other.

The meoreok

The meoreok is a bamboo tool designed to help insert the bitdae. It makes a space between the warps and wefts. The meoreok is manufactured by trimming a piece of bamboo on one side to create a curve. The front is pointy and the end is split horizontally to enable the bitdae to be stuck.

2) The process of making the yangtae

The making of a brim begins with the preparation of the bamboo. Thick bamboo of three- to four-years in age, and over 10 centimeters in diameter, are chosen and then the nodes of the bamboo are cut, halved lengthwise by a knife, and again split into eight to ten slivers. The outer and inner parts of those slivers are then separated, the outer parts placed into a caldron and boiled, to be later taken out and dried in the sun. This process is called the basunda.

The geolmok refers to the preparation of the bamboo strips and strands used for the work of the saldae, the dollimjul and the bitdae in the process of making the brim. First of all, the boiled outer slivers are soaked in water and then thinly stripped. This process is called the irunda in Jeju dialect.

For the strands to be used for the saldae, the ends of the outer layers of bamboo are split by a knife at regular intervals. This process is called the jaeginda.

The process of making the bamboo strands for the joeuldae uses outer strips of bamboo thinly scraped off like a sheet of paper. The craftsman splits the end section of a few bamboo slivers off with the thinness of a single piece of hair and crushes them against the knife. This is called the dalunda.

The strands are rubbed against the knife, splitting them into individual pieces. This process is called the daejukinda. These strands are pressed and rubbed against the knees several times to arrange them neatly.

To produce the bamboo strands for the use of the saldai and the bitdae, they are hacked a few times with the bitdaekle to adjust their thinness: flatter for the saldae and rounder for the bitdae.


The ssalyeokeum is a regional term derived from the tendency of the Jeju dialect to pronounce the term sal more strongly than it is pronounced in dialects on the peninsula. It refers to the work of alternating two strands of cotton to interlace with the saldae, the warp. The texture of the brim depends on the thickness of the tread used in the work. When the bamboo strands and cotton have been twined to a sufficient length, their fitness for eok is measured. If adequate, the leftover cotton threads are twisted from the first saldae to the 10th and 15th saldae to a round shape and put into the eok. Then, the saldae plaits are put onto the yangpan and pressed by an iron, the jideulsoe.

The work of weaving the saldae and the joeuldae, corresponding to the warp and weft, respectively, is called the maewang jatgi. The process begins from the jingmit brim to the menggeut brim. The first row is woven by using fine strands of bamboo. This method is called the jimil, meaning “extremely thin”. By the 30th row, the fine bamboo strands are used and, after that, the weaving is continued with thicker strands.

The number of weaving joeuldaes determines the quality of the brim. A brim with over 98 rows is of high-quality while those with below 95 rows are considered to be of lesser quality.

The word of adding the bitdae is to insert the bitdae obliquely, forming a diagonal line by using the meoreok with a square formed by the naldae and the joeuldae, when the weaving of the joeuldae is done and turned over. The number of bitdae is always the same as the number of joeuldae. After applying the fish glue to the completed brim, it is left to dry.

*This series of article has been made possible through the cooperation of the National Research Institute of Cultural Heritage. (Source: Intangible Cultural Heritage of Korea)