Mother-of-Pearl and Jangdo Revived by the K-Culture Boom

Craftsman Lee Yeong-ok collects discarded mother-of-pearl cabinets, doors, and chests to use in research on traditional techniques.

This is part of an effort to preserve artisans' skills that modern technology struggles to imitate, such as the peacock feather depictions on old mother-of-pearl cabinets, and to protect the value of these cabinets as cultural heritage.

They make mother-of-pearl works by keeping to traditional methods, and they say the sense of accomplishment when a piece is finished is what drives them through the hard work.

Only the flat parts of the mother-of-pearl are harvested. To keep the thin pieces from cracking, 100 sheets are stacked and cut to the design in a meticulous process.

Completing a single mother-of-pearl piece takes thousands of hand movements, which illustrates the high value of mother-of-pearl craft.

Participants say that trying it themselves helped them understand the high price and labor-intensive process of mother-of-pearl craft, and made them feel the true value of traditional art.

Park Jong-gun, a jangdo maker in Gwangyang, South Jeolla, runs the family business in its third generation, making traditional silver jangdo. He carries out all 177 processes by hand.

He keeps to the old method of heating iron with a traditional bellows. He completes the work by hammering the metal without the help of modern equipment, through a stubbornly old-fashioned process.

Shaping the blade's edge and back thickness with precision alone takes three full hours. It is not just hammering; both the width and thickness of the blade must be considered.

Working in front of hot charcoal is extremely grueling. The maker perfects the blade's finish while battling the fire.

Park Jong-gun, the jangdo maker, and his two sons form a family of three generations working together to keep the jangdo tradition alive. The sons passed the training-scholar course and are certified successors who cleared the exam.

They go beyond simple admiration and carry a sense of mission to pass the tradition on. They are walking the path of jangdo making across generations.

Park Jong-gun took over his father's determination, who had been making jangdo since age 11, and made preserving tradition his life's value. He warns more against tradition being forgotten than against economic hardship, and stresses a non-greedy attitude, saying that 'emptying oneself is the artisan's philosophy.'

More than economic hardship, he guards against tradition fading, and quietly walks this path, continuing the determination of his father, who made jangdo from age 11.

Park Jong-gun uses a traditional tool called the 'hwal-bi' to drill holes in the scabbard.

The hwal-bi is shaped like a bow and is used for the demanding task of drilling precise straight holes. It shows the artisan's stubborn insistence on traditional tools over machines to protect the wisdom of ancestors.

Jangdo making uses a traditional technique of heating pine resin and using it as an adhesive.

This method lets the blade alone be easily replaced when worn, while the scabbard and handle remain intact. It requires careful attention because of the risk of burns.

It works on the principle that sand particles strike the surface and grind it away. Skilled experience in adjusting the sand ratio and the drop height is the key.