Updated: Sun, 2006-09-10 20:39
Korea -- the country that gave rise to celadon, under-floor heating, effective rocket launchers, ironclad warships, and Japan.
All of which, everyone agrees, have been great blessings.
Updated: Tue, 2006-12-12 22:23
There are three hwacha replicas on view in Seoul -- two at the war memorial, and one at the Deoksugung palace.
The Deoksugung hwacha and one of the memorial hwachas are set up to fire singijeong (rocket arrows). These replicas both actually work. There's also a non-working but rarer bolt-firing hwacha at the memorial.
Photos are big but appear small on the page... so the page may take a while to load.
The Deoksugung Hwacha
The Deoksugung hwacha in it's natural habitat.
Updated: Sun, 2006-12-03 00:29
This page aims to describe the basic 'rules' of dancheong decoration and to show how they work together. It also enumerates quite a few dancheong-related terms.
This beautiful modern dancheong proves that the old arts are not forgotten.
Updated: Sun, 2006-12-03 00:26
This page contains a few notes designed to give a picture of the history and organization of dancheong painting.
Evolution of Dancheong Patterns
Three Kingdoms Period
Dancheong, or the decorative elements that were to evolve into dancheong, generally appear to have reached Korea from the north. In other words, dancheong is not a Silla or peninsular invention so much as the continuation of a northeast or central Asian tradition. It is in Goguryeo tomb paintings, therefore, that the earliest record of the patterns that evolved into dancheong can be found.
Updated: Tue, 2006-11-21 17:54
What is Dancheong?
Dancheong is the traditional Korean style of painting wooden buildings. It's one of the great decorative traditions and (in my opinion) seriously overlooked outside Korea -- hence there's a lack of English-language information on the web. The most conspicuous and feature of dancheong is the richly decorated eaves, although the word itself refers to the painting of the whole building.What's it for?
Dancheong is considered to serve the following purposes:
Updated: Thu, 2006-09-21 08:58
The trouble with my other hwacha model is that it's too complicated to be useful for creating icons. And there certainly aren't enough icons of hwacha in the world. So, these models sacrifice accuracy but are intended to look good is small-sized images.
The trouble with my other hwacha model is that it's too complicated to be useful for creating icons. And there certainly aren't enough icons of hwacha in the world. So, these models sacrifice accuracy but are intended to look good is small-sized images.
Updated: Tue, 2006-09-19 23:02
Dancheong Photos
This page contains some fairly unsorted and disorganized photos of dancheong decoration in Korea.
Updated: Fri, 2006-08-25 11:23
This page contains some
Updated: Fri, 2006-08-25 11:22
A hwacha is a multiple rocket launcher from the 15th century, and also a symbol of ingenuity and resourcefulness and, optionally, Korean independance. It looks like this:
Hwacha replica in action