By Lee Chil-yong, Chairman of Diplomacy Journal and President of Modern Imperial Craft Culture Association
Geumtae lacquerware is a craft that is completed by applying lacquer to metal materials, and it refers to Korean lacquerware, a unique cultural heritage that is mainly used in temples to prevent rust, such as tea utensils (braziers, kettles, teacups, etc.), as well as decorations and fittings.
Geumtaechil master Kim Jeong-joong's workshop is located in a nondescript house on the side of a sloping road in Choeup-dong, Jingu-gu, Busan. His workshop is also a place of great historical significance.
As the old name of the place near the workshop was Geochilsanguk, which was later renamed Chilsan-dong, Chilsan-ri, Geochilsan-gun, and there is still Chilsan-dong today, it is worth studying whether Busan is the main producer of lacquer and the origin of lacquerware on the Korean Peninsula.
Kim Jeong-joong had his own conviction in choosing Geumtae lacquerware as the main genre of lacquerware after learning the art of lacquerware from the master of lacquerware, creative artist Lee Sung-woon.
He started with a vague idea, "There are many iron artifacts from the tombs of the old Gaya in Dongnae, Busan, and they fill museums, so our ancestors must have lacquered the iron to prevent it from rusting," and now he has become an expert in Geumtae lacquerware and is the only one in Korea.
Geumtae lacquerware is a difficult art form that few people dare to master, as it is more laborious and tricky than the lacquerware method of making general lacquer crafts.
Geumtaechil master Kim Jeong-joong is a lacquer maniac. Or perhaps a lacquer man. On one wall of his workshop are 20-centimeter-long pieces of lacquer wood. Of course, all the water he drinks is lacquer water.
The cushion he sits on while working is also lacquered, as are the boards he lays on to rest his eyes after working late into the night.
His long experience has taught him that when others are tired and exhausted, they go to a sauna or a jjimjilbang, but he doesn't need to go there.
He says that if you stay in the lacquer room with the cushions and boards, you will not feel tired and will be well.
He already has a plan in place to prove his experience and clarify the mystery of lacquer.
When he died, he signed a contract to donate his body to Pusan National University Hospital, but with one condition.
'The body must be dissected to reveal which parts are bad and which are good,' he said. Who would dare to oppose to the idea of calling him the Geumtaechil master?
He believes that he must be crazy to prove the mystery of lacquer and pass it down from generation to generation.
On the first floor of his workshop is his own lacquer refining machine. Japanese lacquer with excellent refining technology is too expensive, so he designed and installed his own refining machine, bought raw lacquer, and refined it to suit his own use.
"The administration of traditional culture in Busan needs to change drastically. I don't understand why in the same traditional culture field, entertainment (performances, gugak, play, etc.), dozens of intangible cultural assets are designated, and there are halls and transmission centers, but in the field of crafts, only three or four people are designated, and there is not a single transmission center or transmission facility.
Busan is a city of tradition with old temples, national treasures, and treasures scattered throughout, but because it neglects and ignores the craft sector, artisans migrate to neighboring areas (Ulsan, Gyeongnam, and Gyeongbuk). The reality is that Busan is becoming a desolate city.
In the case of najeon lacquerware, the transmission of najeon (mother-of-pearl) should have been essential, as there are already relics of 'Dongnae Pachong' from a long time ago, and lacquer is also taught at Silla University, but there are no lacquerware industries for graduates to work in, so wasteful talents are not being utilized, and some najeon artisans who have only walked the outside road.
The Busan Najeon Lacquerware Preservation Society, which was created by a group of lacquer masters, remains the only trace, and the lacquer artists' exclusive hall, which is widely known not only in Japan but also in Korea, is also a Busan person who successfully completed the restoration of Arthurwon in Tokyo, Japan, but is currently active in Seoul after leaving Busan, as shown by the indifference of the traditional culture administration of Busan City.
The other day at the Busan City Council, Kim Gil-yong, the chairman of the Education Committee, spoke and pointed out the reality of traditional crafts in Busan one by one, giving examples, so I have some hope."
His words are unmistakable. He's right. When I visited Busan in 2010, I found that there are many craftsmen with decades of experience in the Busan area, such as bullhwa, dancheong, woodcarving, joinery, masonry, Buddhist altarpieces (closet, yunjangdae, etc.), ceramics, embroidery, knotting, kite flying, carved boards, etc.
Despite receiving good responses from domestic and foreign tourists who visited the Busan International Film Festival, as well as Japanese and Chinese tourists, the relevant organizations were too stingy to systematically pass on, and commercialize it as a tourism product, so it was thought that lacquer artist Kim Jong-joong's complain was a natural choice.
Kim Jeong-joong was born in 1951 in Geoje, Gyeongnam, the second son of Kim Yong-joo, a carpenter, and Go Woo-ah, and joined the lacquerware industry at the age of 18. He has been working on his own for more than 40 years, but opportunities such as becoming a master and being designated as an intangible cultural asset have always eluded him.
However, he has never been disappointed and has accumulated numerous careers along the way. He has served as an examiner for the National Technical Qualification Examination, a judge and chairman of the Skill Competition, won special awards and bronze medals at the National Folk Crafts Competition, and was awarded a special prize and a bronze medal at the National Folk Crafts Competition.
He also tinted jidangpan and bangdung from the Hwang Suro Joseon Dynasty Court Painting Exhibition in the exhibition 'In Search of the Flower Culture of the Joseon Dynasty', which was exhibited at the 2004 World Museum Congress at Deoksugung Palace.
His gold lacquer works and functions have been widely recognized, and in 1990, he received certificates for traditional najeon lacquerware works from Song Bang-woong, the late Shim Boo-gil, Song Chu-man, Cheon Sang-won, Kim Deok-yong, and others of the Korea Najeon Lacquerware Protection Association as important intangible cultural assets, and he is also proud of the lacquer Buddha altar completed with the low-painting process, which was completed by the best craftsmen in each field in Busan.
It is ironic that his active work is greatly recognized and utilized both at home and abroad, such as being invited to exhibit at the 'Special Exhibition of Korean Najeon and Lacquerware' at the National Folklore Museum in Rome, Italy, organized by the Cultural Heritage Administration in 2010, but is not recognized by the city of Busan, where he lives.
His brother Kim Kwan-joong has established an independent workshop as a najeon master, his son Cheol-kyu (32) is following in his father's footsteps as a najeon lacquerware artisan, and his wife Yoon Man-yeon, a mild-mannered and wise woman, is a typical family man who comes into the studio to work with him whenever she has time.
Kim Jeong-joong's family is widely known as a family of filial piety, and his mother, Mrs. Koh Woo-ah, was awarded the Mayor's Award on the Busan Citizen's Day in 1983, and later the Minister of Culture and Arts Award on the Hwahong Cultural Property Festival.
Kim Jeong-joong's wife, Yoon Man-yeon, has also always been polite and helpful to her family and elders, and it was heartwarming to hear him say that even though Kim Jong-joong's income is small and they are living a tight life, they are quietly supporting him without saying a single word of disapproval.
