KOREAN HEADDRESSES IN THE NATIONAL MUSEUM 

 By foster H. JENINGS' 



Among the many customs peculiar to quaint Korea, the style 

 and manner of wearing the hat is probably the most noticeable. 

 Fashions there seem never to change, for many styles of hats of 

 to-day are of the same material and shape as those of the days of 

 the Ming dynasty, or of the days of Confucius. The people have 

 hats for all ranks and for all occasions — there are hats for the 

 nobility, for the gentry, for petty officers, for chair bearers, and 

 for almost every ceremony — and perhaps no nation has more cere- 

 monies than the Koreans. There are also hats w^orn when a 

 person reaches manhood, others for use during ancestral worship, 

 for passing the civil service examination, during betrothal, at mar- 

 riage, while mourning, and for making official visits to high 

 dignitaries. The hat is in fact a badge of honor and its absence 

 a sign of disgrace. 



For many years butchers were not allowed to wear hats, the 

 Buddhist religion making it a sin to take the life of any living crea- 

 ture. In 1895, however, a petition was presented to the Home De- 

 partment of the Korean government asking that public notice be 

 given throughout the eight provinces that butchers be allowed to 

 wear hats the same as other citizens and that they be free from 

 molestation. The preamble of the petition stated the grievances 

 of the butchers : how for five hundred years, although guilty of no 

 crime against their country, they had been grievously oppressed. 

 The government promptly granted the petition. Upon being notified 

 that their request had been allowed, a butcher named Pak, who 

 had prepared the petition, wrote to the country butchers informing 

 them of their approaching deliverance and warning them against 



^ The author of this paper was a young man of great talent and promise. 

 He was a skilful artist, and when a mere boy often visited the National Mu- 

 seum for the purpose of sketching and study. Through his deep interest in 

 Oriental, and especially in Korean, subjects, he became acquainted with the 

 attaches of the Korean legation, who, impressed by his usefulness, caused him 

 to be made an official of the fifth grade, in which capacity he was employed at 

 the time of his death, January 15, 1900. — W. H. 



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