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

The designation and transmission of gannil

3. The ipja-jangs

An ipja-jang is an artisan who assembles the two parts of the hat, the crown and the brim. This craftsman completes the gat by repeatedly ironing it, applying fish glue, smearing it with ink and varnishing it with lacquer hundreds of times. In 1964, when a survey was carried out, ipja-jangs were mostly found to be working in Tongyeong and Yecheon. The manufacturing methods between the two regions were deemed different, and so the final headgear from each region were named the Tongyeong gat and the Yecheon gat. However, it is hard to tell the two apart.

Tongyeong has long been famous for traditional craftworks, such as the craft of mother-of-pearl, called najeonchilgi, sets of tableware and encased ornamental knives. Although the region failed to meet an essential prerequisite for the development of the craft because it was not the producer of materials for crafts, various crafts flourished in the area, centering on the naval command post for the three southern provinces during the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).

In addition, Yecheon has been well known for diverse craftworks, like bows for royalty, encased ornamental knives, brassware from Tongmyeong and earthenware from Ugedong and Seonbon-dong. As an important traffic center in the inland of North Gyeongsang Province, Yecheon was a place of easy access to further inland areas, including Andong, where aristocrats, the main consumers of gat, clustered together. This is the reason that household industries developed in Yecheon, which is an unusual phenomenon for an inland village. In particular, Cheongbok-dong, a neighborhood in Yecheon, also known as Doltae Village, was a gat production center in which 80 percent of households were engaged in gat-making. It is a unique handicraft village, which keeps the tradition of Yecheon gats alive, together with the town of Tongyeong.


For this reason, the first generation of ipja-jang was mainly from the Tongyeong area. Its second generation consisted of Chung Choon-mo and Park Chang-yeong, each representing Tongyeong gat and Yecheon gat, respectively. Being recognized as an ipja-jang of Tongyeong gat, Chung Choon-mo ran the Ipja Manufacturing Company, a large-scale gat workshop in Daegu, starting in 1964 and worked as a nation-wide gat wholesale dealer. IN 1974, he moved to Chungmu to be an apprentice under numerous ipja-jangs, including Kim Bong-ju and Go Jae-gu, in an earnest, systematic manner. He was designated as an official skill holder in 1991. Meanwhile, Park Chang-yeong, designated as an ipja-jang of the Yecheon gat, was born to parents whose families were both engaged in gat-making for four generations in the Yecheon area. He was trained by first generation skill holders and has been committed to gat-making in Yecheon and other regions, leading him to be recognized as an official skill holder in 2000.

Chung Choon-mo (b. 1940) came from Yecheon, North Gyeongsang Province. There was a gat workshop in his neighborhood when he, as a child, lived in Yecheon-eup. He became a friend with a younger brother of the owner of a gat workshop and used to play at the workshop. In 1958, he first learned the skills of making the horsehair hat under the guidance of Lee Jong-guk, who ran a gat workshop as a family business for three generations in Yecheon.

In 1959, Chung Choon-mo moved to Park Yeong's gat workshop in Daesin-dong, in Daegu. Although Park Yeong did not have the skills of gat-making, his considerable wealth enabled him to hire from the first generation of renowned skill holders, such as Kim Bong-ju and Go Jae-gu. Therefore, under the lead of the best, most outstanding technicians, Jeong was able to learn the skills in a systematic fashion at the workshop, the largest in the nation.


Chung Choon-mo was registered as an apprentice to ipja-jang Kim Bong-ju in 1974, after moving to Chungmu. Two years later, when Kim Bong-ju died, Jeong followed in the business of his teacher. Between 1976 and 1978, he learned the skills for making the crown as an apprentice to Go Jae-gu. By 1980, he had mastered the methods of making the brim, as well. He mastered the whole process of making a gat and could now single-handedly complete a Tongyeong gat. In total, he was an apprentice for 16 years under Kim Bong-ju, an ipja-jang skill holder, for 20 years under Go Jae-gu, a chongmoja-jang skill holder, and for 21 years under So Mun-do, a yangtae-jang. By acquiring all the techniques necessary for gat-making, including ipja skills, chongmaja skills and yangtae skills, all normally held by separate people, he came to be well equipped with a diversity of abilities and basic knowledge.

Since Chung Choon-mo learned the whole process of gat-making, encompassing chongmoja skills, yangtae skills and ipja skills, all under the tutelage of the first generation of skill holders, all of whom were Important Intangible Cultural Heritage people. He has been presenting his works at the Korea Annual Traditional Handcraft Art Exhibition since 1973. He won a participation award in his second year there, in 1974, and won the Minister of Culture and Public Information award in his third year there, in 1978. He hosted an invitational exhibition and practice demonstration at the Smithsonian American Art Museum in Washington, D.C., in 1982, and ever since he has been endeavoring to raise awareness of gat-making by giving demonstrations both at home and abroad.

Currently, Chung Choon-mo is handing down his three skill sets--that of the yangtae, the ipja and the chongmoja--to his wife, son and daughter-in-law, respectively. He is preparing to return to Yongyeong with the aim of devoting the rest of his life to the transmission and education of gat-making for the next generation. He wants to establish a gat training center, along with a gat museum. Based on the Tongyeong Yeongji Restoration Plan pursued by Tongyeong City Hall, 12 craft workshops are under construction. They used to be located behind the Sebyeonggwan, the naval command post for the three southern provinces some 400 years ago. It is expected that the significance of the gat, which Confucian scholars of the Joseon Dynasty treated as valuable as their own lives, will be revived at these newly built workshops by the efforts of the next generation of gat artisans.

Park Chang-yeong (b. 1943) was born in Yecheon-eup, Yecheon-gun, North Gyeongsang Province. His family had been involved in gat-making for four generations in Yecheon. His great-grandfather, Park Hang-gil, launched the gat-making business and his grandfather, Park Hyeong-seok (1867-1930), followed in the family business. His uncles, Park Ju-hae (1891-1949) and Park Wol-hae (1894-1959), as well as his father, Park Gyeong-hae (1900-1952), all made the horsehair hat. They settled around Yecheon and ran their own gat workshops to conduct the work of the chongmoja, the yangtae and the ipja. His uncles Park He-ju and Park Wol-hae made the hat in Cheongbuk-dong, Yecheon, and Yeongju, respectively. Meanwhile, his maternal grandfatehr, Kim Yeong-il, also ran a large gat workshop in Yecheon, in which his father and his friends, including Lee Jong-guk and Kim Do-am, as well as An Su-bong, worked together to produce the traditional hat. In short, the Park family's business flourished enough to become representative of Yecheon gat.

When Park Chang-yeong finished middle school at the age of 16, he, having been raised in an environment familiar with gat-making, came to learn the skill of gat-making under his father's guidance at his older brother Park Ho-yeong's suggestion. Unfortunately, his father passed away before he mastered the skill. He was apprenticed to his father's friend, An Subong, at his workshop. As a first task, the trainee made all the individual elements of a gat to show his competence. Ever since he was little, Park Chang-yeong was praised for his dexterity.

At the age of 18, he left An Su-bong's gat workshop and moved to Park Yeong's in Daegu, which produced and supplied gats nationwide. He started over, learning how to make a sujang-il all over again. At that time, the horsehair hat was made by dividing the labor between several official skill holders, each responsible for a separate part of the final gat. For making the sujang-il, Park Chang-yeong was paid based on the number of pieces he made each day. The gat was so rare in those days that the he could charge any amount he wanted. Making the sujang-il was a well-paid job, much better than the salary at a large company.

There were five employed artisans working at Park Yeong's gat workshop in Daegu. Park Chang-yeong worked together with Kang No-in, Lee Ong-rim, Yun Gan-ik and Choi Jong-ik. In additiona, Kim Bong-ju, Go Jae-gu, So Mun-do, Park Jeong-sil, Park Jae-ho and Chung Choon-mo all once worked there. Some of them started their own businesses and others simple ceased to work there. After working at Park Yeong's gat workshop for five years, Park returned to his hometown of Doltae Village in Cheongbok-dong, Yecheon, in April 1967 and set up his own gat workshop. At that time, there were a lot of gat workshops in Cheongbok-dong since the gat business was booming in Yecheon, with customers or dealers who wanted to order a new gat or have one repaired flocking into the region from all parts of the country.

As industrialization swept the country and the Saemaeul Movement, or the New Community Movement, shifted into high gear, the traditional hat gradually grew less and less popular. In 1978, Park Chang-yeong moved to Seoul and continued his business. However, there was no viable market for the hat. In search of a new market, he contacted the Korean Broadcasting System to see if he could supply his product to them as props to be used in historical soap operas. Since then, he has been making the horsehair hat for TV shows and movies.


Park Chang-yeong has been nominated to various positions at the Korea Annual Traditional Handcraft Art Exhibition, including: president of the Association for the Preservation of Korean Cultural Properties in 1985; administrator of the Cultural Properties Administration in 1988; and, president of the Korea Arts & Culture Education Service in 1989. He has given a seven-day gat-making demonstration at the West Japan General Exhibition Center in Kyushu in 1986. He has also held special exhibitions in Los Angeles, California, in 1988 and 1989. In 2000, he was designated as an official skill holder of Important Cultural Heritage Item No. 4. Since then, he has been more active in making and presenting a diverse range of traditional hats, including the jurip, the baekrip and the heukrip. He has also endeavored to display the delicacy and precision of gat-making at various events, including: gat donations to the Lee Young Hee Museum of Korean Culture in Manhattan, New York, in 2004; a gat exhibition, "Legacy: Looking for Beauty in Life," hosted by the Arumjigi Culture Keepers Foundation; and, a demonstration of gat-making at a ICOM-ICME Conference, "Museum and Intangible Cultural Heritage."

As part of an effort to introduce unfamiliar aspects of Korean traditional culture to northern Europe, the gat was exhibited at the Design Museum in Helsinki and the Craft Museum in Jyvaskyla, Finland, in 2011. In addition, Park has continued to study the extinct traditional techniques of gat-making by restoring the jeonrip, a hat of a military officer, that belonged to King Cheoljong (r. 1849-1863), the 25th king of the Joseon Dynasty, as well as the gat that belonged to Jeongtak, a poet who went by the penname Yakpo.

In order to make a diverse range of gats, he has sought different production techniques and methods. IN 2011, he participated in making a piece of work titled, "Shadow of a Wise Man," a collaboration between a craftsman and a designer. It was for the "Craft and Design Consulting" project, organized by the Korea Craft & Design Foundation with the aim of creating encounters between tradition and modern design. The project drew extensive public attention to a new possible usage of tradition in modern society and to the encounter between tradition and modernity.

Currently, all of his family members are inheriting his techniques, thus succeeding the family business for five generations. His sons, Park Hyeong-bak and Park Hyeong-eon, are inheriting the skill of making the ipja and his daughter-in-law, Kim Seong-a, and her mother, Kim Su-a, are also scholarship apprentices.

The designation and transmission of manggeon

The manggeon, or headgear, and tanggeon, or indoor headgear, were worn under the gat and together form the quintessence of traditional horsehair craftsmanship. This section offers a brief introduction to artisans who make manggeons and tanggeons.

Current manggeon-jang and tanggeon-jang who are skill holders or honorary skill holders. Manggeon-jangs are Important Intangible Cultural Heritage people No. 66 and tanggeon-jangs are No. 67.

A manggeon is a kind of headband that is put on prior to donning the gat, to prevent one's hair from falling down. It is woven with horsehair. It was first used in the late Goryeo and early Joseon periods.

The manggeon consists of four different parts: the dang or salchum, the top fastening band; the pyeonjaor seondan, the bottom fastening band; the ap, the forehead covering net; and, the dwi, the part that covers the back of the head. A pair of ornaments, called gwanja, are placed on the left and right sides of the manggeon to adjust its length and to show the status of the wearer. There is also another ornament, called a pungjami, on the front of the head, which functions as a gat fastener. The main material for the headband is horse tail or sometimes human hair. The human hair was considered so precious that it was used mainly when repairing a broken headband. In order to make the headband, each part is woven in order: the pyeonja, then the ap, followed by the dwi and, finally, the dang. The newly woven manggeon is then boiled to make it softer. It is then dyed and assembled.


During the Joseon era (1392-1910), manggeon-jang, artisans who make the headband, showed different levels of skill depending on region, thus the completed headband had distinctive regional characteristics. It was said that manggeon makers from Seoul were good at weaving pyeonjas, those from the Nonsan area had a specialty in weaving the back part and those from the Gimje area were adept at weaving the dang. At the end of the Joseon era, famous headband producing areas included Seoul, with a lot of manggeon consumers, and then Jeju Island and Gimje, where horsehair, the main material, was readily available. As the producer of horsehair, Jeju Island's manggeon production was particularly popular.

Seo Je-gyu from Gimhe, South Jeolla Province, was the first recognized manggeon-jang who worked as not only an artisan making the headband but also as a manggeon dealer. Im Deok-su (1905-1985) from Wanju, North Jeolla Province, was first designated as a skill holder in 1980. He was given the prime minister's award at the Korea Annual Traditional Handcraft Art Exhibition and also won prize money by submitting his pieces to the exhibition at the Lotte Department Store the following year.

There were two disciples of Im: Kim Hyeon-suk and Yang Jin-suk. Yang proceeded step by step as a teaching assistant and scholarship apprentice. She is still actively presenting her works at the Korea Annual Traditional Handcraft Art Exhibition and fostering the upcoming generation at Hanyang University. Kim, on the other hand, has ceased making manggeons.

The tradition of making manggeons on Jeju Island has been handed down by Lee Su-yeo in Samyang-dong. After the death of skill holder Im Deok-su, Lee was designated as a skill holder. Kang Jeon-hyang, a daughter of Lee Su-yeo, has learned her mother's skills and currently serves as a skill holder.

*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)