[KS] Revisiting GARDENS in Korea

[Michael Pettid]

Hello Frank, 

I am not sure my own studies would lead me to conclude the same as the "Koreana" article.  What I have found is that the aesthetic of the ChosOn period in regards to gardens/ courtyard/ madang is that the incorporation of nature--especially what was there--was really important in the overall construction of a house/ garden.  Certainly there were stamped-down spots for doing mundane tasks like drying peppers or the like, but there was also the idea that the home opened to the madang.  The flow of that to the house was really an important part of the overall feel for a home.  Vegetable gardens seem to have been present in upper status homes--and near to the cooking areas--so I would guess that all manner of vegetables were  cultivated near the home in the homes of lower status groups.  Fruit trees were also prominent.  

I think most telling is the construction of the premodern house: the openness of the maru (wooden porches) to the madang seem to indicate a very close relation to the house and the madang.  Stamped down areas with nary a pebble do not really play to this particular aesthetic in my opinion.  

Just my thoughts.

Michael

Michael J. Pettid
Professor of Premodern Korean Studies
Department of Asian and Asian American Studies
Director, Translation, Research and Instruction Program
Binghamton University
607.777.3862







On Saturday, October 19, 2013 5:13 PM, Frank Hoffmann <hoffmann at koreanstudies.com> wrote:
 
Oh hey, is someone reading our list? Seems so to me, or just … f i n a 
l l y … a turn of thought and approach?:
You sure recall the interesting debate we had on Korean gardens several 
months back. I was just looking for a completely different topic and 
accidentally ended up at the index page of the tourist magazine 
_Koreana_, probably the latest issue (Autumn 2013). It's special 
feature is "Yards and Gardens" and I was positively surprised at what I 
read at the beginning of the first article in there, by Han Kyung-koo, 
a cultural anthropologist at SNU:

http://koreana.or.kr/ebook/viewer.asp?fcs_mid=0000999&viewer=undefined&page=0

Q U O T E :
"Traditionally, when Koreans build their homes, they did not make any 
specific effort to cultivate the elaborate gardens for which their 
neighbors, the Chinese and the Japanese, are known. This was of course 
true for the common people, but even the wealthy and powerful generally 
did not plant anything in the front yards of their homes, however 
grand. They tamped down the earth and kept their yards clean and free 
of even the smallest pebble or blade of grass. [… NOTE about a few 
*exceptions* like Soswaewŏn…] Most Koreans seemed to keep their yards 
neat and tidy rather than maintaining large, attractive gardens."

You see where to the journey goes from this quote already.
The articles title is therefore: "Yards rather than Gardens"

Twenty years late, but thanks anyway -- nice to see.

……….

Unrelated: I have reason to believe that my message with subject line 
"SOCIALIST SURREALISM" was not received by most subscribers, probably 
because some terms in there did trigger our computers to decide that it 
is inappropriate. (Computers are always a little behind, one must 
know.) Here is the posting in the archives: 
http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/2013-October/010644.html

Best,
Frank

--------------------------------------
Frank Hoffmann
http://koreanstudies.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://koreanstudies.com/pipermail/koreanstudies_koreanstudies.com/attachments/20131019/4c7aa938/attachment.html>