The prince and the heroine:

Hodong and Nakrang

Korea, 32 AD: the peninsula is divided in Three Kingdoms of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. King Daemusin (대해주류왕, 大解朱留王, ”Great Holy Warrior King”, 18-44) of Northern Goguryeo Kingdom, after resisted back

the Chinese invasion attempt, sent his sixteen years old son prince Hodong (호동왕자) to conquer the Chinese commandery (郡, jùn) Lelang and its capital city Nakrang-guyok (樂浪, 락랑) which is at the present time a district of Pyongyang. Nevertheless Nakrang’s resistance is very strong also because of the help of magic drum Ja Myung Go (자명고, 自鳴鼓) which wakes up the city and encourages soldiers to defence. All these occurrences are reported in Samguk Sagi (삼국사기, 三國史記, “History of the Three Kingdoms”) completed in 1145 by Kim Busik (김부식, 金富軾).

While the war is in a stalemate, a sudden and burning passion is born between young prince Hodong and the beautiful princess of Nakrang (낙랑공주). Prince Hodong, advised by his father king Daemusin, asks Nakrang to tear the drum Ja Myung Go and she, driven by loves’s boldness, obeys her lover and the city falls into enemy’s hands. And so the king of Nakrang Choiree orders the killing of her daughter because of her betrayal. Betrayal against her homeland and father but not against her beloved Hodong who is victorious in the battle but who is in very truth a big loser.

This story is up till now well-known in Korea, above all for the female spirit of Nakrang, so much faithful to Hodong as to betray her own father and homeland. Even if this legend is known as “Prince Hodong’s tale”, actually the real main character is the strong and fearless Nakrang. Quite the opposite, Hodong seems to place his love and Nakrang herself after his father Daemusin and prince Hodong obeys his father’s lust for conquest.

Recently the TV drama ”Princess Ja Myung” (자명고, Ja Myung Go) broadcasted in 2009 by SBS has been dedicated to princess Nakrang’s story with actors Jung Ryeo-won (정려원, 鄭麗媛) in princess’ Nakrang role and Jung Kyung Ho (정경호) in Hodong’s role.

Ballet “Prince Hodong” by Korea National Ballet (대한민국 국립발레단) has been inspired by the story reported in Samguk Sagi as well. The ballet was originally created in 1988 by Sung-nam Lim (임성남), first artistic director of Korean National Ballet. “Prince Hodong” is an internationally successful staging which blends together Western and Far Eastern theatrical traditions. In this performance we can see some parts of classical ballet and lots of references to Korean traditional dances. For example the dance of Nakrang together with her ladies-in-waiting is like a piece of salpuri (살풀이) and the scene in which the princess is wrapped in a written handscroll reminds of buchaechum (부채춤), the traditional Korean fan dance.

Nakrang continues to be a symbol also for present-day Korean woman, who is passionate and forceful even if now she is more a businesswoman than a romantic lover.

Floriano Terrano

higashishinbun@aol.com

(자명고, Ja Myung Go, SBS drama music performed by Baek Ji Young, 백지영 www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEO9LLeeUAI)

The Dragon’s claw

The most famous companies

and logos of Korea in the world

Since 70s to 90s of twentieth century the Miracle on the Han River happens in Korea (한강의 기적, Hangangeui Kijeok). Economy of Korean peninsula booms and Korea joins the streak of Four Asian Tigers or Asian Dragons together with

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore (아시아의 네 마리 용, 亞洲四小龍). Economic miracle begins during the government of Park Chung-hee (박정희, 朴正熙 1917 – 1979) who ruled since 1963 to 1979 and 1998 Seoul Olympics are the miracle’s peak. The entire world in that occasion could know the power and liveliness of Korean economy based on chaebol (재벌, “monopoly, business family”) business conglomerates which are similar to Japanese zaibatsu (財閥). As it is usual in Far Eastern conglomerates, chaebol deal with many fields, from electronics to automotive, from construction to finance, from chemistry to food and shipbuilding. Korean shipyards are until nowadays the engine of Korean economy. Korea is leader for the value of produced ships and it was the biggest producer of ships since 2004 until when China recently surpassed it. The most important chaebol have branches exclusively involved in shipbuilding like Hyundai Heavy Industries, Samsung Heavy Industries, the former Daewoo Heavy Industries. STX (STX그룹) is an

industrial giant specialized in shipbuilding only and it owns also shipyards around the world, Europe included. Samsung (삼성그룹, 三星, “Three Stars”) is one of the most famous Korean brands in the world. Samsung was founded in 1938 in Daegu by Lee Byung-chull (이병철, 李秉喆, 1910 – 1987) and at the beginning it was a trading company in food, insurance and retail business. At the end of 60s Samsung begins its adventure in electronics and nowadays it is a giant of world economy with a turnover like the 12% of Korean GDP. Its products range over a wide variety of subjects, from household appliances to mobile phones, from computers to televisions, LCD screens and air conditioners. Samsung has also a construction branch called Samseong Mulsan (삼성물산) which was involved in the erection of some of the highest skyscrapers of the world like

Taipei 101 in Taiwan and Petronas Towers in Malaysia. In automotive field, Samsung Motor was almost entirely sold to Renault which owns the 80%. Samsung logo is today a blue oval with the company name in white letters nevertheless the old logos showed the three stars of the name Samsung. The other giant of Korean electronics is LG Electronics (LG전자). LG was founded in 1958 from the union of the companies Lucky dealing with housewares and Goldstar dealing with appliances. The name LG derived from the initials L and G of two companies even if now LG is read as the motto “Life’s Good” and its logo is a red circle with L and G letters which form a stylized smiling face. Automotive industry is the other pillar of Korean economy. Daewoo (대우, 大宇, “Great Universe”) was one of the biggest producers of motor vehicles of the world. After 1997 Asian financial crisis it was sold to American General Motors. Hyundai (현대, 現代, “Modernity”), founded in 1947 in Ulsan, was in the beginning a construction company and then started to deal with electronics, finance and

above all automotive. Its logo is an italic H circumscribed in a silver oval. Hyundai acquired Kia Motors (기아자동차 주식회사, 起亞自動車株式會社, “Rising out of Asia”) in 1998 and its name became Hyundai Kia Automotive Group (현대자동차 그룹). Nowadays it is the fourth world's leading producer of motor vehicles and the second in Asia after Japanese Toyota. Hanjin (한진, 韓進, “Progress of Korea”), founded in 1945, is one of world’s leaders of logistics and oceanfreight and it owns many ships and containers. Its logo is a light blue circle with an inscribed round H which slightly resembles the shape of Korean national symbol taegeuk (태극, 太極). Korean Air Lines (대한항공, 大韓航空), the flag carrier founded in 1962, is in Hanjin group too and its red and blue logo is very similar to taegeuk as well. The only Korean competitor of Korean Air is Asiana Airlines (아시아나 항공, 아시아나 航空), founded in 1988, which connects Korea with many destinations above all in Far East. Lotte (롯데그룹, Japanese 株式会社ロッテ) is a leading company in food and confectionery both in Korea and in Japan and Asia. It was founded in 1948 in Tokyo by Shin Kyuk-Ho (신격호, 辛格浩) also known as Shigemitsu Takeo (重光 武雄)

with Japanese name. Lotte's ginseng-flavoured chewing gums are famous not only in Far East. Lotte’s logo is a red circle with a L divided into three vertical wavy in lower part segments. The biggest and oldest Korea’s department store is Shinsegae (신세계, 新世界, “New World”), which was originally the Korean branch of Japanese department store Mitsukoshi (株式会社三越) opened in 1930 in Gyeongseong (경성, 京城, “Capital City”), old name of Seoul during the Japanese rule. Shinsegae’s logo is a red flower with seven petals. Seven is one of the lucky numbers in Korea like in China and Japan. The “claw” of Korean companies operating in many fields are widespread across the world and they bring Korea from East to all foreign countries.

Floriano Terrano

higashishinbun@aol.com

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Strength that sprouts from grace

Woman in Korean history

Courage, beauty, genius

Woman’s role in Korea nowadays is the fruit of strong and tenacious Korean female nature. From dawn of history in Korea there are some emblematic female figures which are examples of courage, devotion, beauty and genius even in a society generally not much open to women. Confucianism – Korea’s main religion together with Buddhism - is normally not favourably disposed towards women. Instead Shamanism gives more importance to women and mudang (무당, hanja 巫堂) shaman is generally female. In some villages of the southern island of Jeju-do there are matriarchal societies leaded by haenyo (해녀, 海女, “sea women”), very skilled fisherwomen of seafood in the cold waters of the island. They are the real heads of the family and they let their husbands do housework. Queen Seondeok of Silla (선덕여왕, 善德女王, 632-647) shines in the end of Three Kingdoms period (57 BC – 668 AD). Samguk Yusa (삼국유사, 三國遺事, “Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms”, completed in 1280) - the historical work by Buddhist monk Il-yeon (일연, 一然,1206-1289) - tells that Seondeok promoted the building of the astronomical observatory Cheomseongdae (첨성대, “stars-gazing tower”) near the capital Gyeongju. Seondeok commissioned also one of the largest Korean buildings ever built, the nine-story wooden pagoda of Hwangryongsa (황룡사, “Golden/Yellow Dragon Temple” or “Imperial Dragon Temple”) nowadays collapsed. Both Samguk Yusa and Samguk Sagi (삼국사기, 三國史記 “Historical Record of the Three Kingdoms”, completed in 1145) by Kim Bu-sik (김부식, 金富軾, 1075 – 1151) tell of an anecdote about Seondeok’s cleverness: when Chinese Emperor Tang Taizong (唐太宗, 626 – 649) gave young princess Seondeok’s father Jinpeyong a case of peony seeds and a painting representing the peony flowers, she looking at the painting said that peonies were without doubt wonderful flowers but lacking in fragrance, since neither butterflies nor bees were depicted on the flowers. In 2009 MBC television produced a serial dedicated to Queen Seondeok performed by actress Lee Yo-Won (이요원, 李瑤媛). Kisaeng (기생) – female entertainers of royal court and of nobility yangban (양반) – were women endowed with great culture, artistic talent and extraordinary beauty. First kisaeng appeared probably at the beginning of Goryeo period (918 - 1392) or maybe before in Unified Silla period (668 - 935) even if their earliest mention is at the beginning of 11th century. Art of kisaeng was the fruit of a strict and careful school education which lasted no less than 3 years and the entertainers had to know not only music, dance and poetry but also embroidery and medicine. Seoul excelled in number of kisaeng whereas Pyongyang shined at beauty and ability of entertainers. Kisaeng lived in common houses in the central districts of cities, often close to marketplaces. Career of kisaeng peaked normally when they were 16 or 17 years old and it declined yet when they were 25 years old. The age limit for kisaeng was 50 years although very few of them worked until this age. Normally they were members of lowest caste of commoners cheonmin (천민) even if their manners were refined and delicate since they related always to nobility. Kisaeng’s daughters were groomed for being entertainers as well and as Japan’s geisha who had a patron called danna kisaeng had strong relationship with gibu who aided them economically too. As Japanese geisha also kisaeng were source of inspiration for writers and painters who sang of their artistic skills and portrayed their beauty. The main character of Chunhyangga (춘향가) - a pansori written in 1870 by Shin Jae-hyo (신재효, 申在孝,1817 - 84) – is in fact a kisaeng and painter Hyewon (혜원, 蕙園, 1778 – 1813 ca.) in his famous Portrait of a Beauty (미인도, 美人圖) depicts just a kisaeng. Nevertheless there is a big difference between geisha and kisaeng. In Japan female entertainers are never involved in political affairs instead in Korea they are often implicated in important events due to their profession. For example kisaeng were offered to Chinese ambassadors as presents during their visits to Korea. Kisaeng themselves were the first to mess with foreign generals of occupying armies in wartime. During Japanese invasions of Korea also known as Imjin War (임진왜란, 壬辰倭亂, “Japanese Invasion of the Imjin Year”, 1592 - 1598) kisaeng Nongae (논개, 論介) distinguished herself by her devotion to Korea. In 1593 she embraced Japanese general Keyamura Rokusuke (毛谷村 六助) and together with him cast herself into the river Nam which flows under the pavilion Chokseongnu in Jinju, in the South of Korean peninsula. Every may the Nongae Festival is held in her honour and in Jinju castle there is still the “rock of righteousness” Uiam (의암, 義巖) from where Nongae jumped down to save her country from Japanese invaders. Some kisaeng are very famous also nowadays for their artistic skills and beauty. Yi Mae-chang (이매창, 李梅窓, 1573-1610) was very skilful at playing geomungo (거문고), the string instrument of Korean tradition very similar to Chinese gunqin and to Japanese koto. The most famous is without dubt Hwang Jin-i (황진이, 黃眞伊, 1520 ca. – 1560 ca.). Her figure inspired many contemporary novels, like that of North-Korean writer Hong Sok-jung (홍석중, 洪錫中), and a successful drama produced by KBS in 2006 and performed by actress Ha Jiwon (하지원, 河智媛) who played the character of beautiful Jin-i. Bright Moon Myeongwol (명월, 明月) – the name of Hwang Jin-i as a kisaeng – wrote many breathtaking sijo poems which make her one of major poets of Far East. Her verses are almost always about love and they are often full of melancholy for her lover who has left or is away or for night waiting for beloved’s arrival. Here is one of her most significant sijo: 동짓달 기나긴 밤을 한 허리를 버혀 내어 / 춘풍 니불 아래 서리서리 넣었다가 / 어론님 오신 날 밤이어든 굽이굽이 펴리라 – Oh that I might cut in two to waistline the long midwinter night / that I might roll it up and put it under the warm quilt of spring breeze / and I will unroll it in the night when my beloved arrives. In another sijo Jin-i plays on her pen-name Bright Moon and she asks her lover to spend the night with her: […]일도창해(一到滄海)하면 다시 오기 어려우니 / 명월(明月)이 만공산(滿空山)할 제 쉬어간들 어떠리 - […] when you will venture out to sea it will be hard to go back / the bright moon is over the bare mountain, how about remaining here to rest? Gracefulness and refinement of these verses are only one side of Korean woman’s soul. Passion for lover is often the mirror of love for homeland. In fact in Korea there are lots of examples of female patriotism. Empress Myeongseong also known as Queen Min (명성황후, 明成皇后, 1873 - 1895) would have formed an alliance between Korea and Russia to hold back Japanese influence on Korean peninsula. For this reason on the 8th of October 1895 she was killed by some killers hired by Japanese lieutenant general Miura Gorō (三浦 梧楼, 1847 - 1926) in the Okhoru pavilion (옥호루, 玉壺樓) of Gyeongbokgung palace. This episode is known as Eulmi Incident (을미사변, 乙未事變) in Korean history. Twenty-five years later student Yu Kwan-sun (유관순, 柳寬順,1902 - 1920) protested against Japanese occupation in Tapgol Park of Seoul (탑골 공원, 塔골公園, “Pagoda Park”) waving Korean flag during the days of Samil Movement (삼일 운동, 三一運動, “March First Movement”) and for this reason she was arrested and then killed. Empress Sunjeong (순정효황후, 純貞孝皇后, 1894 - 1966) – spouse of Korea’s last emperor Sunjong Yunghui (순종 융희제, 純宗 隆熙帝, 1907 – 1910) – withstood violence of North Korea to the last during Korean War (1950 – 1953) and she escaped to Busan on foot when she had no option but to leave Changdeok Palace. Achievements of woman’s condition in Korean society became very important above all after 1948 thanks to equality regarding state and laws and after 1985 thanks to Equal Employment Act which set parity between men and women in working world. Very significant achievements which recently made percentage of female employment very high in Korea. However these successes are the fruit of brave and graceful character of women of The Land of the Morning Calm and they could have been impossible without the noble example of heroines of the past.

Floriano Terrano

higashishinbun@aol.com

(Hwang Jin-i KBS drama music performed by Choi Hie-jin, 최혜진 www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHoPyE59nys&feature=related)

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Japon mon amour

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How France discovered Japan

and spread Japonisme through the world

«These simple Japanese people live in nature as they were flowers themselves ». We read these words in a touched letter by Van Gogh to his brother Théo. It was in 1888 and the coloured palette of the artist was lighted up by the sun of Provence so much far from Japanese sun, the Rising Sun which at that time was beginning to set in open and “conquered” Japan where trade and traders from the West ran about. Van Gogh didn’t ever go to Japan. Also, Bracquemond, Manet, Monet, Degas didn’t go to Japan even if they were the first people in the mid-19th century to be suffering from that illness with no recovery now called Japonisme in art. Nevertheless distance is a mutual condition of man not of artist and above all for Impressionists.
Since some years before the end of sakoku (鎖国, "locked country") – the isolationism of Japan during Edo-Tokugawa period (1603 - 1867) – the first Japanese ukiyo-e (浮世絵, “pictures of the floating world") woodblock prints began to circulate in Paris. These prints were some of the most important detonators of coloured explosion of Impressionism both for portraits and for landscape paintings. Japanese art was immediate and refined in the eyes of Impressionists and it was profoundly and totally suitable for their painting style. Artists and patrons of Impressionism were the first collectors of Japanese prints and crafts objects. Japanese prints which Monet began to collect since 1871 in his house of Giverny constitute nowadays one of the most significant collections of Japan art. In works by Monet there are so many references to Japan. He had been above all enchanted by marvellous and dreamlike red humpback Japanese bridges called in Japanese taikobashi (太鼓橋, “drum bridge”) or poetically tsukibashi (月橋, “moon bridge”). In the garden of Giverny there is a green Japanese bridge which is not red as Japanese bridges are. This bridge is like an apparition which develops and changes in half-light in Monet’s last paintings.
Anyway France’s love for Japan is not only concerning art and Japanese prints but it’s also about literature, music and cinema and it originated many profound and reciprocal influences among Japanese and French artists. This mutual love between France and Japan concerns even food, fashion, language.
France loves Japan a lot. One of the biggest manga café in the world is placed in Paris. French people are in fact the main readers of manga comics after Japanese people. Japonisme is still alive and it turns to new models with the same old emotion.
Japan loves France as well. A perfect copy of Monet’s garden in his house in Giverny was built at Kitagawa, a small village of Shikoku Island…and to think that French artist got inspired just by traditional Japanese gardens to make his own garden! Tokyo Tower (東京タワー) in Japan’s capital is modeled after Eiffel Tower and it is almost a coloured copy made in Japan six meters higher than the French model.
Musical Impressionism by Claude Debussy partially took its cue from Japanese pentatonic music. On the cover of the 1905 edition of La Mer there is in fact the image of The Great Wave off Kanagawa (神奈川沖浪裏, Kanagawa Oki Nami Ura, 1829–32) by Katsushika Hokusai (葛飾北斎, 1760 - 1849), a copy of which is also in Monet’s house in Giverny. Recently in Japan renowned singer and actor Miwa Akihiro (美輪明宏) performed many chansons in Japanese like for example "Non, je ne regrette rien" by immortal Edith Piaf.
Takada Kenzō (高田賢三) – the most important Japanese fashion designer and author of perfumes –moved to Paris when he was very young and opened his first boutique Jungle Jap there in 1970. After all Paris and Provence are among the main dream places of romantic Japanese people. Just the same Japanese tourists who don’t know at all to look a little at themselves while they gape at Impressionist paintings.

Floriano Terrano

higashishinbun@aol.com

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(Me Que Me Que performed by Miwa Akihiro www.youtube.com/watch?v=GsqqXmx4qLQ)

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Yamato Nadeshiko

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The image of woman in Japan
between the real and ideal

A while ago in Japan there was this way of saying: hana wa sakuragi, hito wa bushi (花は桜木人は武士, "cherry blossom among flowers, samurai among men"). Therefore ideal man was samurai. However,nowadays samurai do not exist anymore. What about ideal woman, then? Japanese woman was Yamato Nadeshiko (大和撫子, “Japanese Dianthus superbus”), a very delicate and snow-white flower with silk-like petals. As this flower which grows even on the mountains, woman should be delicate yet powerful, beautiful yet humble, faithful and wise. She should be Good Wife, Wise Mother (良妻賢母, ryōsai-kenbo) according to the words of philosopher Nakamura Masanao (中村 正直, 1832 - 1891). Is this dream woman still alive in Japan nowadays?

They say Japan is a male chauvinist country. It's quite so if we look at Japan from the outside. Nevertheless if we look inside we will discover a different reality that is woman has been the heart of Japanese culture and she is like that still now. Japanese woman has influenced religion, literature and art of Japan with her delicate and fascinating figure. Female beauty is well described by main Japanese writers up to novelists of twentieth century. Some of female main characters of modern Japanese literature are Kyoko of The inn of "hina" dolls (雛の宿, 1953) by Mishima Yukio - mysterious and evanescent as an hinamatsuri doll - the woman who "lends" her one arm to a man all through the night as an idol worship in One Arm (片腕, 1933) by Kawabata Yasunari, the disquieting and desperate woman of Sand woman (砂の女, 1962) by Abe Kōbō.

Anyway women portrayed in passages of the books by Tanizaki Jun'ichirō represent the most profound image of unattainable and disquieting mystery of female soul. Sadistic Fumiko of Fumiko's feet (富美子の足, 1919), whimsical and seductive Naomi of A Fool's Love (痴人の愛, 1924), the mother figure of Longing for Mother (母を恋ふる記, 1919) who is charming as a luring nocturnal fox. All Tanizaki women are beautiful and thinly cruel to their lover. They are downright megami (女神), Shinto goddess to be worshiped.

Many ukiyo-e artists depicted bijinga (美人畫), pictures of ideal beauties who were often women of brothels of Yoshiwara quarter in Edo. Kitagawa Utamaro is perhaps the artist who pursued more than others the ideal of female beauty. In his well-known woodblock print Beauty in front of mirror in close-up we can see the neck hairline (項, unaji) which is one of women's most attractive body parts. Kimono wraps the female body up and it uncovers nape and feet only. Bijinga themes are continued nowadays by photographer Hoshino Komaro (星野 小麿) who gets inspired by geisha and their body parts in his works like Ukiyo-e Kuzushi (浮世絵くずし, 1984).

Geisha generally make up nape in a W shape. Nape should be “similar to the shape of the moon” and “smooth as a pearl” according to Bijo sanjūnisō (美女三十二相, “The 32 Distinguishing Marks of Beautiful Woman”) by Hasegawa Settei (1819 – 1882), a printed work which depicts the 32 characteristics of ideal female body. Thirty-three is the same number of Lakkhaṇa (三十二相, sanjūnisō), the physical characteristics of the Buddha. Therefore female beauty is compared to divinity.

The idea of female beauty as divine essence underlies Tanizaki's works. In the novel Diary of a Mad Old Man (瘋癲老人日記, 1961-62) old Tokusuke is so attracted to his daughter-in-law Satsuko as to wish to have her footprints carved on his gravestone as the sacred footprints of the Buddha (仏足石, bussokuseki) in Yakushiji Temple at Nara. There are many fine passages in Tanizaki's books about female feet beauty. For example in The Floating Bridge of Dreams (夢浮橋, 1959) goldfishes come closer to woman's feet nearly to kiss them.
According to Bijo sanjūnisō ideal foot shoud have “the back like a snow heap” i. e. small and snow-white. Kuki Shūzō too in his book The Structure of "Iki" (「いき」の構造, 1930) affirms that nape and feet are the main body parts of female beauty since these parts only shine trough kimono. The most elegant and mysterious beauty is the hidden or veiled one and not the bare and exposed one according to aesthetic principle of iki (粋, translatable “style, purity, essence”). This is the classic seduction of Japanese woman. That's why geisha used to make up nape and to be barefoot even in hard winter. Their feet should show the same bright whiteness and delicacy as the snow stomped by their geta sandals. That’s also why female dancers of Nihon Buyō (日本舞踊) – Japanese most ancient dance which has been invented by Shinto goddess Ame-no-Uzume-no-Mikoto (天宇受売命, 天鈿女命) as the Kojiki tells us – dance barefoot without tabi socks and beat rhythm with bare feet.
Whiteness of skin is considered the main characteristic of female beauty since the Heian period (794 - 1185). Japanese women used many substances to get the ideal snow-white skin (色白, irojiro). The most important cosmetics were a rice flour-based white face powder and uguisu no fun (うぐいすの粉, “Japanese Bush Warbler feces”) that is a peculiar material made of guano of Japanese nightingale uguisu which was used as make-up remover too. Light-skinned face clashes in a beautiful way with flaming red lipstick on lips and above all whiteness clashes with black-coloured teeth (お歯黒, ohaguro, "black teeth") which were fashionable among married women since Heian period or perhaps before it until Meiji period (1868 – 1912). Ohaguro was made from tannic powder of gallnuts and kanemizu (かねみず) obtained by fermenting iron filings in an acidic mixture of tea, vinegar and rice wine. Ohaguro made open mouth more charming since it seemed more profound and dark. Nowadays ohaguro almost disappeared in Japan though it still lingers in some parts of South China and of Southeast Asia.
Anyway ideal woman is always far removed from reality, she is an unattainable abstraction. Nowadays as Japanese man lost his proud and brave samurai soul, Japanese woman is not Yamato Nadeshiko anymore. Her typical white colour gave place to other colours up to the recent desecrating fashion of ganguro (顔黒, “Black Face”) who make their skin tanned and their hair blonde or orange. Ganguro girls would like to show their deep detachment from tradition and from the past with black skin colour.
Faded are now the days of pure beauty and of flower woman. Nevertheless there is still a silent and mysterious charm in Japanese womanhood. Something that Japanese young women hide under western style clothing and exaggerated make-up. There is still the "spell of a woman" as the title of the song Onna no Jūmon (女の呪文) by singer Kaji Meiko (梶 芽衣子). She played as actress in many yakuza movies produced by Toei (東映株式会社) in the 1970s. In these films she plays the impenetrable character of a forceful and tremendous woman though tender-hearted. As tradition can't die out, nadeshiko flower of Yamato is still alive with its petals just a bit withered away.

Floriano Terrano

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higashishinbun@aol.com

大和撫子

日本女性の理想と現実

「花は桜木、人は武士」（花と言えば桜、人と言えば武士）と言われるように、かつては、理想的な日本人と言えば武士（侍）であった。しかし侍はもういない。それでは日本女性はどうか。日本女性と言えば、絹のような花弁を持つ繊細で純白な花・大和撫子であった。山間部でもしっかりと根を下ろして育つ大和撫子のように、日本女性は強く美しく、同時に謙虚で貞節、賢くあるべきであった。つまり、哲学者・中村正直の言葉を借りると、「良妻賢母」である。では、この日本女性像は今の日本でも見られるのだろうか？
日本は男性社会だと言われている。日本を外から見れば確かにそう思うかもしれない。しかし内側に入っていくと、外から見るのとはまた違う現実があることに気付く。日本文化の中心にいたのは常に女性であったし、今でもそうだ。繊細で魅力的な日本女性こそが、日本の宗教や文学、芸術に影響を与えてきたのだ。 文豪の作品から20世紀の小説家の作品まで、日本文学では女性の美しさが繰り返し描かれてきた。現代文学で描かれている代表的な女性としては、三島由紀夫作『雛の宿』（1953年）に出てくる、どこか雛人形のように神秘的で儚い女性や、川端康成作『片腕』（1933年）に出てくる、自分の片腕を崇拝する男に一夜だけ片腕を「貸し与える」女性、更には安部公房作『砂の女』（1962年）の、打ちひしがれながらも他人を不安にさせる寡婦などが挙げられる。
一方、谷崎潤一郎が描いてきたのは、どこか他人を不安にさせるような神秘性を持った女性で、それは辿り着くことができない女性の心の奥底を象徴する存在でもある。『富美子の足』（1919年）のサディスティックな富美子や、『痴人の愛』（1942年）の気まぐれで、人を誘惑する直美、『母を恋ふる記』（1919年）に出てくる、人の心を奪うという夜の狐のような魅惑的な母親などがそうである。谷崎の作品に登場するあらゆる女性は、美しいが自分の愛人に対してひどく残酷である。彼女らはまさしく崇拝の対象である女神なのだ。
また、多くの浮世絵の絵師たちが「美人畫」を描いてきた。美人画には理想的な女性が描かれており、そのモデルとなったのは江戸の遊郭吉原の女であることが多い。浮世絵師の中でも特に、理想的な女性像を追求したのが喜多川歌麿であった。歌麿の『鏡美人』に描かれている女性は、着物で身体全体を覆いながらも首すじ（項）と足を顕わに人目にさらしている。これは、女性の身体のうち最も魅力的だと見なされていた項を強調するためである。 写真家である星野小麿は、この美人画のテーマを現代に引き継ぎ、芸者の身体から着想を得た『浮世絵くずし』のような作品を生み出している。かつて芸者は逆さ富士の形に項を描いていた。長谷川雪堤の『美女三十二相』に見られる「月のような」「真珠のように滑らかな」項である。『美女三十二相』は特徴的な女性の身体を描いた三十二枚の美人画であるが、この32という数字は、仏陀（悟りを得る人）に成り得る人の人体的特徴を32にまとめた「仏の三十二相」と同数である。女性美が人智を超えた仏の特徴に準えられているのだ。
『瘋癲老人日記』（1961-62年）で、谷崎は女性美を神のように崇めている。主人公の督助は、息子の嫁・颯子の性的な魅力に惹かれるあまり、自分の墓にまるで奈良の薬師寺の仏足石のように颯子の足型を刻み込もうとする。このように谷崎の作品では、女性の足首の美しさが強調されている。例えば『夢浮橋』（1959年）では、金魚が女性の足首にキスをするように纏わりついてくる。ここで描かれている足首は、『美女三十二相』が言う「降り積もった雪のようになめらかな曲線」を持つ、小柄で純粋無垢な、いわば理想的な足首である。
『「いき」の構造』で九鬼周造は、着物で覆われず剥き出しになる項と足首こそが女性の身体で最も重要だと明言している。この「いき」の美学的規範によると、最も洗練され最も神秘的な美とは、隠された美、何かで覆われた美であり、剥き出しで見ることのできる美ではないという。これは日本女性の伝統的な魅力でもある。だから芸者は項に白粉を塗り、寒さの厳しい冬でも素足でいるのだ。芸者の足は、彼女らが下駄で踏む雪のように、白く輝き繊細であった。そしてまた、日本最古の踊りである日本舞踊―『古事記』によると天のうずめの命（天宇受売命、 天鈿女命）の踊りから派生したとされている―の踊り手たちは、足袋も履かずに素足で踊り、裸足でリズムをとっている。
平安時代（794-1185）以降、肌の白さは女性の美にとって最も重要だと見なされていた。日本女性は、理想的な純白さ（色白）を得るために様々なものを用いてきた。最も有名なのは、米粉から作る白粉や、鶯の鳥糞から作り化粧にも使われた、うぐいすの粉である。顔の白さは、紅を塗った唇の赤さと、そして何よりもお歯黒を付けた葉の黒さと絶妙なコントラストになっている。お歯黒は明治時代（1868-1912）まで残っていた既婚女性の間の風習で、開いた口をより深く黒く、魅力的に見せるものであった。今や日本では誰もしなくなったが、中国や南アジア、東南アジアの一部の地域では現在でもお歯黒の風習が残っている。
しかし実際は、理想の女性像は常に現実から遠い存在であり、到達できない幻想でもあった。現代の日本男性が誇り高く勇敢なサムライの魂を失ったように、日本女性はもはや大和撫子ではないのかもしれない。日本女性を象徴していた色白も、最近流行りの日焼けの色やや金髪、ガングロのオレンジ染みた色など、他の色に取って代わられている。ガングロ女性は肌を黒くすることで、日本の伝統と過去に別れを告げているのかもしれない。
今や、純粋な美しさと花のような女性の時代からは遠ざかってしまった。しかし日本女性が持つ女性らしさは、神秘的で物静かな魅力を今でも秘めている。日本の若い女性は、西洋の服装と大げさな化粧の下に、何かを隠し持っているのだ。今でも「魔法のような女性の魅力」というものがある。梶芽衣子の歌う『女の呪文』などは、タイトルからまさにそうである。梶芽衣子は1970年代の東映ヤクザ映画によく出演していたが、そこでは、強く残酷ではあるが、慈しみ溢れる心を持った女性を演じていた。
伝統が死に絶えないように、大和の国の花・撫子は、花弁がちょっと萎れてはいるものの今でも生き続けているのだ。

フロリアーノ・テッラーノ

higashishinbun@aol.com

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(Images 3 and 7 copyright by Hoshino Komaro
www.komarohoshino.nichigei-s.com)

(Onna no Jūmon by Kaji Meiko www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjJjKUlLVa4&feature=related)

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The screen canvas

The video art by Paik Nam June

Paik Nam June (백남준, hanja 白南準, Seoul, 1932 – Miami, 2006) is known as the father of video art the subjects of which are screens and images. Television is used by Paik as a sculpture to admire and his compositions often hark back to classical art by using ancient works like Buddha wooden statues or bronze horses.
At the beginning Paik studies classical music as a pianist and after that - before at University of Tokyo and then in Germany – he deepens his study of contemporary music and his interest in visual arts begins. Even if art will be his main path, music will be always central in the work by Korean artist. His first solo exhibition Exposition of Music - Electronic Television in Germany in 1963 is regarded as the birth certificate of video art. From that moment on the TV screen - in every shape and dimension – will be the main distinguish element of works by Paik.
After his German experience Paik moves to New York in 1964 where he finds the suitable background for his experimental art. In 1965 he begins to look around and record the world and everyday life by his portable video recording device Sony Portapak. In the same year he creates the installation art TV Magnet in which a magnet on a television seems to attract the visual waves of the screen.
In New York he meets the American cellist Charlotte Moorman (1933- 1991) with whom he puts on three famous music and screen images performances: Opera Sextronique in 1966 in which Moorman played the cello bare breast and for this reason both the artists were arrested, TV Bra for Living Sculpture in 1969 in which cellist played wearing a bra composed of two small TV screens broadcasting images and TV Cello in 1971 in which Moorman played a cello made of three TV screens with transparent cases placed one upon another.
From that moment on the television in his works becomes more than before a symbol of culture massification and consumerism and of contrast between contemporary society and tradition. In his installations art since 1970s television are often linked with traditional art elements like ancient statues.
In his work Tv Buddha made in 1974 there is a Meditating Buddha statue in lotus position in front of a television which broadcasts his image as a mirror. We can interpretate this work in many ways: from irony to awareness of how small screen can debunk everything even religion. There are references to Buddhism in other works like the following installations art Tv Buddha, the series Zen for Tv begun in 1963 in which one light line crosses the dark screen as a calligraphy painting or the work Reclining Buddha made in 1994, in which a Laying Buddha statue is supported by two televisions which broadcast the image of a seductive naked woman reclining as the Buddha.
Paik uses television as an element of artistic creation. In 1963 he declared yet that he used cathode ray tube as painter’s canvas.
The sculpture Pre-Bell-Man placed in front of Museum für Kommunikation of Frankfurt am Main is composed of a man with body made up of televisions and radio sets on a bronze horse’s back. The contrast between the TV-man and the horse is immense. The man made up of screens recurs often in the following works by Paik, like Beuys Voice made in 1990 in which a TV-man wears an hat.
On the occasion of 1988 Seoul Olympics Paik assembles The More the Better, a work composed of 1003 monitors on overlapping cylinders as a more than 17 meters high birthday cake in the Ramp Core of National Museum of Contemporary Art of Seoul. During inauguration ceremony of this work Paik wore a white hanbok and at the feet of the big TV cake there were some drummers of Korean drum janggu. In this occasion tradition and modernity of Korea were showed together creating an image of an irreconcilable break. Big installations art which form images recur in following years like in American Flag (1985-1996) and Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii (1995) in which many monitors make up American flag and American states respectively.
TV takes everyday life shape and space more and more in his latest works and it turns into other objects of human existence like the bed made up of screens in TV Bed (1972-1991) or the aquarium-screen of TV Fish series begun in 1975.
Paik Nam June elevates television and electronics to art and his works show a classic style though in a profound contrast with tradition. Paik interprets art using technological materials and his works still continue yearning for mystery which is the key to reading the genuine work of art. His works are not provocative but they are a meditation on contemporary society, on its paradoxes, its hyperboles, its lying myths. They are also a celebration of beauty which can bud from contemporary technology.

Floriano Terrano

higashishinbun@aol.com

브라운관의 캔버스

백남준의 비디오 아트

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비디오 아트의 아버지로 유명한 백남준(1932년 서울에서 태생 – 2006년 마이애미에서 사망)은 예술의 소제를 비디오와 영상물로 선택했었다. 텔레비전의 비디오 영상은 백남준을 통해서 뛰어난 일종의 조각예술의 형태로 탄생되었고 일반적으로 그 창작품들은 고전예술에서 재 탄생된 것으로 불상이나 청동말상과 같은 것이다.
그는 처음에는 피아니스트로서 클래식 음악을 가까이 한다. 그래서 일본의 도쿄, 독일로 건너가서 동시대 음악에 대한 공부를 하고 점차 시각예술을 가까이 하게 된다. 비록 그가 시각 예술에서 최고의 거장이 될 것이지만 음악은 한국예술 작품에 기본적으로 항상 남아있게 된다.
그의 첫 번째 개인 전시회는 1963년 독일에서 “음악의 전시-전자 텔레비전”이라는 타이틀로 시행됐으며 비디오 아트의 탄생을 예고했다. 그 때부터 텔레비전의 모든 종류의 형태와 크기는 백남준의 작품에서 지속적인 소제가 된다.
독일에서 있었던 전시회의 경험을 바탕으로 1964년 백남준은 미국 뉴욕으로 거주지를 이전한다. 그는 뉴욕이 그의 실험적인 예술세계에 합당하다고 생각했기 때문이다. 1965년에는 소니 포타팩 (Sony Portapak)의 이동 텔레카메라로 세계의 모습을 담기 시작하고, 그를 중심으로 이루어지는 일상생활을 담기 시작한다. 같은 해 자석 TV가 탄생되는데, 이는 텔레비전 화면 위로 자석을 놓음으로써, 이는 꼭 화면 속에 있는 영상을 밖으로 끌어당기는 것 같은 착각을 보여준다.
한편, 뉴욕에서는 미국의 첼로연주자 샬럿 무어먼(1933- 1991)과 역사적인 만남이 이루어지고 뮤직 퍼포먼스와 비디어 영상에 관한 가장 유명한 작품 들 중 세 작품을 그녀와 함께하게 된다. 1966년의 “오페라 섹스트로니크” 에서 모먼은 가슴을 누드로 한 채 첼로 연주를 시도하다가 두명의 예술가는 동시에 경찰에 체포 되기도 하였다. 그리고 1969년 “살아있는 조각을 위한 TV 브라” 에서 모먼은 두 개의 작은 영상 스크린으로 만들어진 브래지어를 입은 채 연주를 했고 스크린을 통해서는 영상물이 반영되었다. 1971년에는”TV 첼로”를 연주했는데 이는 첼로 위에 투명 케이스 모양의 영상TV세 개가 설치된 작품이다.
이때부터 그의 작품에서 텔레비전은 처음보다 더 더욱 문화와 소비의 대중매체의 상징이 되고 현대 사회와 전통 사이의 대조를 확실히 구분하는 획이 되기도 한다. 한편, 1970년부터 텔레비전은 종종 고대의 조각상과 같은 전통 예술의 형태로 만드는데 이용되어 지기 시작한다.
1974년 “TV 부처” 라는 작품에서는 불상은 연꽃의 자세로 명상하고 있고 그 앞에는 TV가 있다.
TV는 마치 거울처럼 불상의 이미지를 반영한다. 이 작품에서는 굉장히 복합적인 감정이 느껴지는데 부처의 명상하는 모습에서는 풍자에서 깨달음에 이르기까지 다양한 감정을 느낄 수 있다. 텔레비전이라는 매체가 어떻게 그 신성을 박탈시키는지를 여실히 보여준다. 다시 말해 종교 그 자체의 신성을 박탈시키기도 한다. 불교는 그의 다른 작품들에서도 이용되는데 TV 부처에 이어서 만든 작품들을 보면 알 것이다. 1963년 “TV를 위한 젠” 은 초기의 시리즈 작품 중 하나이다. 이 작품에서는 꼭 일종의 서체 같은 밝은 선 하나가 어두움을 관통하고 있다. 그리고 1994년의 “누워 있는 부처”라는 작품에서는 두개의 텔레비전이 누워 있는 불상을 지탱하고 그 화면 속 에서는 신성한 포즈를 한 미성속한 여인의 영상물이 반영된다.
백남준에게 있어서 TV는 무엇보다 예술을 창안하기 위한 요소이다. 1963년에 이미 캔버스지 대신에 CRT의 모니터를 사용을 확신했다. 독일 “프랑크푸르트의 커뮤니케이션 박물관” 의 입구에 세워진 “프리-벨-맨” 이라는 조각상에서 우리는 텔레비전과 라디오로 몸이 만들어진 사람을 만날 수 있는데 이는 청동으로 된 말을 올라타고 있다. 텔레비전 모양의 사람과 말의 대조성은 굉장히 크다. 이 모양의 사람은 백남준의 다음 작품에서도 종종 볼 수 있다. 1990년 “보이스/보이스” 라는 작품에서 모자를 눌러 쓴 같은 모양의 텔레비전 사람을 발견할 수 있다.
1988년 서울올림픽을 맞아 그는 “다다익선” 이라는 작품을 선보였다. 1003개의 비디오 모니터를 이용한 작품으로 이는 생일 케잌 같은 모양으로 실린더가 위쪽으로 싸여가는 모양으로 17미터 보다 더 높은 크기로 서울 국립현대미술관에 전시되어 있다. 백남준은 작품의 기념 행사 동안 그는 하얀색의 한복을 입었었고 이 거대한 작품 앞에는 한국의 전통북인 장구 고수들이 있었다. 한국의 전통과 현대는 돌이킬 수 없는 파괴 모습을 담은 영상으로 표현되었다. 이처럼 대형 비디오를 통한 설치예술의 작품들은 계속에서 그의 후속 작품들에서 보여진다. “미국국기” (1985-1996) 그리고 “전자 초고속도로” 와 같은 작품들이다. 1995년의 “미국대륙, 알레스카, 하와이” 라는 작품에서는 수많은 TV모니터가 미국기와 각각의 미국의 주를 표현했다.
그의 최근 작품 중 에서 그는 텔레비전을 이용하여 사람의 존재를 구성하는 사물들을 변화 시키는 등 텔레비전은 일상생활의 공간을 더 크게 더 다양한 형태로 표현한다. 1972-1991년 작 “TV 침대”의 브라운관으로 된 침대나 1975년에 시작된 “TV 물고기” 작품 시리즈의 수중 브라운관 같은 것이다.
백남준은 텔레비전과 전자를 예술의 주류로 편입시켰다. 그의 작품은 전형적인 고전적인 스타일을 가지고 있지만 전통적인 것과는 커다란 차이를 보인다. 그는 사실상 예술을 현대의 기술 매체를 통해 해석하고 그의 예술 작품은 여전히 수수께끼 같은 열망을 보여준다. 그리고 이러한 열망은 진정한 예술의 창조성을 보여주는 것이기도 하다. 그의 작품의 일반적 해석으로서는 선동적이라기 보다는 현재 사회의 모습을 역설적이고 과장적으로 표현하거나 현대의 거짓 신화적인 인물에 대해 다시 한번 조명해 보도록 한다. 또한 그의 작품은 현대 테크놀로지를 통해 탄생될 수 있는 예술의 아름다움을 찬양한 것이기도 하다.

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플로리아노 테르라노

higashishinbun@aol.com

번역: 정근영 jgyoung0252@gmail.com

(www.paikstudios.com)

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On the occasion of

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Like the flow of the river

Photographic journey through history

and the ordinary of Shōwa Japan (1926-1989)

Emperor Hirohito ascends the throne in 1926: Shōwa period begins and lasts up to his death in 1989. The "period of enlightened peace" is a very long time of splendour and misery, of war and peace, of wealth and poverty, from which nowadays Japan derives. Photography is an account of history and the ordinary of Shōwa Japan. Both photography by great masters, by reporters and by anonymous hands of which we will never know names.
Photography portrays emperor Hirohito during different moments and it follows the excruciating changes of society as a truth mirror: the portrait in full solemn Heian period dress (794 -1185) in throne ascending day, the decorous pose as loser by victorious MacArthur's side in their first meeting day in 1945, the last pictures which let show the melancholy of final days.
The entire Shōwa Japan parades in front of photographers' lenses: the post-war years, American invasion, break up of believes of whole nation, irreversible change of society, recovery and richness. News photographers who pick people as subjects like Tanuma Takeyoshi (田沼 武能) and Hayashi Tadahiko (林 忠彦) or photographers who follow the way of fine art photography - apparently divorced from reality but everyday life-soaked - like Tōmatsu Shōmei (東松 照明) and Moriyama Daidō (森山 大道).
Reality and imagination join indissolubly together in the life of writer Mishima Yukio, symbol of the contrast between Japan's wish for tradition and its inescapable need for modernity. Photographs which portray Mishima after his death can be confused with those before: in a picture of 1966 he is portrayed as Saint Sebastian martyr - an aesthetic subject that he holds dear – by Shinoyama Kishin (篠山 紀信).
A symbolic place marks the flow of time in the rushing course of decades: Nihonbashi bridge in Tokyo. It is the heart of Japan and of capital city and it is the point from which all the main arterial streets start. Photographs show its life between destruction and revival of Tokyo in history up to 1960s when an expressway built just over the Japan Bridge obscured the celebrated view of Mount Fuji.
All these photographs bring the life of Shōwa Japan back to our eyes regardless of their subjects. They bring back the life made of instants of a time which flowed away like the flow of the river as the title of the most famous song by Queen of Shōwa Misora Hibari.

Floriano Terrano

higashishinbun@aol.com

川の流れのように

写真で旅する昭和（１９２６－１９８９）の歴史と日常

１９２６年、裕仁が天皇になると改元され昭和時代が始まり裕仁死去の１９８９年までの６２年間、昭和時代が続いた。昭和は歴史上でも最も長く続いた時代でありそれは、輝きと悲哀、戦争と平和、富と貧困の時代であった。この時から現在の日本が生まれた。写真にはこの時代の歴史や日々の日常生活が映し出されており有名な写真家が撮影した写真、報道写真家が撮影した写真、そして一般の人が撮影した写真の全てから昭和を見ることが出来る。
昭和天皇の写真は数多く残されており、これらの写真から日本社会がどのように変化していったかを鏡の様に真実を映し出している。よって昭和天皇の写真には多くのバリエーションがあり、天皇に即位した日に撮られた写真は平安時代（７９４－１１８５）の服装で荘厳に満ちた肖像である。１９４５年、敗戦国の国家元首となった時にアメリカの最高司令官であったマッカーサーとの初会談の写真。そして後半の写真は昭和天皇が御歳をめされたものでその表情はとても悲哀に満ちているようだ。
戦後の日本、アメリカ人の侵入、日本国民の自信の廃退、社会の後退できない変化、経済と富の回復、これらの昭和の日本を写真家達はレンズを通して写した。田沼武能や林忠彦といった写真家達は主に日常の生活をする人々を対象に撮っていた。また東松照明や森山大道といったように芸術性に富んだ写真を撮る写真家もいた。彼らの写真は現実離れしている様だが実は生活や社会と強く繋がっている。
作家、故・三島由紀夫の生涯は現実であり不実であった。三島は昭和と共に歩み日本の敗戦を機に近代化への変化を余儀なくされた時代に対立し孤立した作家である。三島の写真には例えば自決事件を起こす４年前の１９６６年、三島自身が聖セバスティアンに扮し写真家の篠山紀信撮影による「聖セバスティアンの殉教」の様に彼の生と死の姿が混同してしまう。
東京の日本橋は日本のそして東京の中心に位置しており、ここから主要な道が築かれている。写真には１９６０年代までの破壊と再生の間で生きてきた東京の日本橋を見ることが出来る。日本橋の上に高架道路が建設された時、今までの素晴らしい富士山の景色は隠れてしまった。これら全ての写真からは川の流れのように流れ行った昭和時代、また昭和の歌姫である美空ひばりの最も有名な曲『川の流れのように』は私たちを昭和の時代へ連れ戻してくれる。

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フロリアーノ・テッラーノ
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higashishinbun@aol.com

(www.mostre.fondazione-crmo.it/index-moriyama-english.asp)

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Korean nature beauty in verses

The paintings in poetry

by Yun Seondo

Paintings in poetry. These are the visual verses by Yun Seondo (윤선도, hanja 尹善道, 1587–1671), the most important Korean poet of Joseon Korea (1392 – 1897) and one of the masters of Korean literature. His poems paint Korean nature beauty in perpetual passage of seasons. Yun’s poetic form is sijo (시조, “time rhythm”) made of three lines of lyrical subject in which there is a solid and profound reference to real and symbolic elements of nature. Shortness makes sijo be very penetrating as other poetic forms of Far East for example Japanese haiku.
Sijo developed in last years of Goryeo kingdom (918 – 1392) and it probably was an oral poetry then written out by Confucian monks around XI century and it reaches its climax during Joseon period in the same years of Yun Seondo. Sijo was originally set to music and it had a Confucian or Taoist religious subject.
Yun Seondo writes innovative and very original verses although he refers to classical sijo. His style is pictorial. His poems show misty landscapes and rivers of Korea like a shan shui painting (山水, “mountain-water”). Natural elements are depicted by few neat strokes as a calligrapher and painter’s brushstrokes. Few strokes which sketch out the landscape that our imagination completes. Lonely mountain (고산, Kosan) and Old Man of the Sea (해옹, Haeong) – pennames used often by Yun Seondo – evoke his profound link with nature. In his verses nature is depicted in its real and symbolic beauty. One of his most famous poems is Songs on Five Friends (오우가, hanja 五友歌, Owuga) composed in 1642 during his exile in Haenam (해남군, “South sea county”) in south-western Korean peninsula: 내 벗이 몇인가하 ᄒᆞ니 수석과 송죽이라 / 동산의 ᄃᆞᆯ오르니 긔더옥 반갑고야 / 두어라 이다ᄉᆞᆺ밧긔 또더ᄒᆞ야 머엇ᄒᆞ리 - You ask how many friends I have ? Water and stone, bamboo and pine / The moon rising over the eastern hill is a joyful companion / Besides these five friends, what other pleasure should I ask ? This sijo is apparently simple though its symbolism calls to mind Chinese classical tradition. In these verses there is the presence of moon which is very important in Far East art and literature and there is also the quotation of pine and bamboo, two of “Three Friends in Winter” (岁寒三友) together with plum. These plants which brave the cold winter - pine by its sturdiness and mightiness, bamboo by its flexibility and strength and plum by its strong beauty - symbolize aplomb of wise man even during misfortune. Yun Seondo indirectly refers to his incident as exiled from court for long. “Three Friends in Winter” are beloved subjects in Chinese, Korean and Japanese panting as the painting by Chinese master Zhao Mengjian (趙孟堅, 1199 -1264/67) held at National Palace Museum of Taipei.

The masterpiece of Yun is Four Seasons of a Fisherman (어부사시사, hanja 漁父四時詞, Eobusasisa), written in 1651, made of forty sijo and divided into four groups of ten poems, one for each season. Variation of seasons’ colours and landscapes is seen by an hermit fisherman’s eyes (漁父, the occupational fisherman is in fact written with characters 漁夫) and seasons’ time is beaten by his boat. It seems that Yun Seondo has been inspired by painting to write this work too. Landscapes during four seasons are subject of many paintings and in these works a fisherman is often depicted as in Solitary angler on the wintry lake by Ma Yuan (马远, c. 1160/65 – 1225) which is the first example of this kind of painting. In this work held at Tokyo National Museum we see a lonely stationary boat in the cold stillness of a winter lake. In Chinese classical poetry fisherman symbolizes wisdom and simplicity of a way of living which ties to nature. Four Seasons of a Fisherman are not only pictorial poems, they are even “sounding” thanks to onomatopoeia. The sound of anchor chain and of oars is expressed by refrain chigukch'ong, chigukch'ong, oshwa ! (지국총 지국총 어사와) after lines one and three of every sijo. These words give rhythm to all the poem. Fisherman lives in nature and all natural elements seem to show themselves during his fishing. It seems that nature itself takes part in his fishing for example when moon comes back home together with fisherman in the seventh sijo of spring.
In Yun Seondo sijo nature is always depicted as a part of the life and it is admired through its dramatic beauty. Nature is never drawn as something faraway from human beings. In his poems we can discover the profound root of Korean culture, a culture which expresses calm and disquieting enchantment of nature through art and literature.
This is why reading of Yun Seondo moves and surprises even nowadays.

Floriano Terrano

higashishinbun@aol.com

윤선도 시인의 시와 그림

고산 윤선도 선생은 조선시대(1392~1897) 중기에 태어나 조선조 시조문학을 장식한 대시인(大詩人)이다. 초장, 중장, 종장으로 구성되는 3장의 정형시로 계절마다 변하는 자연의 아름다움을 표현한 윤선도 선생의 시조는 훗날 일본의 하이쿠(Haiku : 17 음절로 구성된 일본의 전통 단시)의 탄생에도 영향을 주기도 하였다.
‘시조’는 고려(918~1392) 중엽에 발생한 한국 전통시 양식 중의 하나이며 윤선도 선생이 태어난 조선시대에 집중적으로 향유되었던 문학이다.
옛 방식을 따르지 않고 독자적이고 획기적인 창의성을 발휘하여 지은 윤선도 선생의 시조는 한 폭의 풍경화처럼 자연의 경관을 아름답게 묘사하고 있다. 자연을 사랑했던 윤선도 선생의 호는 고산(외로운 산) 또는 해웅(바다의 노인)으로서 1642년 해남군 유배생활 당시에 지은 ‘오우가’라는 시조 <내 벗이 몇인가하 ᄒᆞ니 수석과 송죽이라 / 동산의 ᄃᆞᆯ오르니 긔더옥 반갑고야 / 두어라 이다ᄉᆞᆺ밧긔 또더ᄒᆞ야 머엇ᄒᆞ리 (나의 벗이 몇이나 있느냐 헤아려 보니 물과 돌과 소나무, 대나무다. 게다가 동쪽 산에 달이 밝게 떠오르니 그것은 더욱 반가운 일이로구나. 그만 두자, 이 다섯 가지면 그만이지 이 밖에 다른 것이 더 있은들 무엇하겠는가?)> 에서는 동양문화에서 가장 중요한 의미를 가지는 ‘달’과 강한 절개를 나타내는 ‘소나무’ 그리고 침착하고 곧은 의지를 나타내는 ‘대나무’를 친구로서 형상화하여 이들에 대한 짙은 애정을 드러내고 있다.
봄, 여름, 가을, 겨울로 나뉘어 각각 10수씩 모두 40수로 되어있는 ‘어부사시사’는 윤선도 선생의 1651년 작품으로서 어부의 시각에서 바라본 사계절을 아름답게 묘사하고 있다. 사계절 중 특히 겨울 바다의 ‘어부’를 외로운 느낌으로 표현한 일본이나 자연에 의지하며 살아가는 것으로 표현한 중국의 문학과는 달리 윤선도 선생은 자연과 하나되어 살아가는 ‘어부’의 생활을 노래하였다. 이는 봄을 노래한 ‘춘사’ 7절에서 ‘달과 함께 귀가하는’ 모습을 표현한 것에서도 찾을 수 있다. 또한 ‘지국총 지국총 어사와’라는 형상화된 의성어를 각 절마다 후렴구로 사용하여 노 젓는 소리와 어부들의 흥겨움을 나타냄으로서 그 상황을 선연하게 그려볼 수 있도록 표현하고 있다.
자연을 사랑하고 그것과 하나된 윤선도 선생은 작품을 통해 속세를 떠나 자연에 묻힌 삶을 묘사하고 자연의 아름다움을 찬양하였다. 순수 국어를 사용하여 자연을 제재로 한 많은 작품을 탄생시켰고, 자연을 생활화 하였으며, 자연에 접근하는 다양한 문학적 방법으로 자연의 황홀함을 표현한 한국 조선 문화의 대표자가 되었다. 오늘날 까지도 윤선도 선생의 작품은 널리 읽혀지고 놀라움을 자아내고 있다.

플로리아노 테라노

higashishinbun@aol.com