Traditional Korean Furniture

Book Description

The traditional furniture of Korea represents one of the great woodworking and design heritages of Asia and the world. Particularly in the last quarter century, Korean chests and furniture pieces have been highly prized by antique collectors and interior decorators everywhere. These objects' simplicity, vigor, strength, dignity, and, above all, their elegance allow them to harmonize with an amazing range of room styles and interior designs. The counterpoint of wood grain and metal-work makes them objects that capture attention and delight the eye.

Yet, mysteriously, though old Korean chests are widely owned both in North America and Europe and are available on the Oriental antique market, they are often wrongly attributed to China, or their Korean origin is otherwise ignored. Further, authentic, old pieces are now rare in Korea itself. Reproduction pieces--both well-crafted ones and those simply slapped together--are made in quantity today.

Considering the size of the Korean peninsula, the quantity and variety of traditional furniture and chest types is astonishing, especially in light of the fact that most extant antique pieces date from only the last century. Styles vary from pieces with delicate wood inlay, shell inlay in lacquer, and opulent carving, to folk pieces cheerfully displaying flaws, knot holes, and tool marks. Variations on a type are seemingly endless: with the exception of pairs of wedding boxes, one wonders if Korean woodworkers ever made two identical pieces.

Book Description

This is the first in-depth study of the extinct Koguryo language, which was once spoken in Manchuria and northern Korea. It covers the ethnolinguistic history of the Koguryo nation, philological treatment of the sources for the language, Koguryo phonology, and a complete glossary of all Archaic Koguryo and Old Koguryo words. Special attention has been given to the theory and practice of lexically-based historical-comparative linguistics. The genetic relationship of Koguryo to Japanese is shown to be secure, unlike the non-relationship of either language to Korean or `Altaic', and much light is shed on the ethnolinguistic origins of Japanese. The special phonological features of the underlying transcriptional language, the archaic northeastern Middle Chinese dialect once spoken in Korea, are also analyzed.

Readership: Anyone interested in Japanese, Korean, Chinese, historical linguistics, early East Asian history, or the comparative linguistics of East Asia and Central Eurasia. Academic libraries, research institutes, and large public libraries.

Customer Reviews:

A brilliant book on East Asian comparative linguistics.......2006-07-04

First of all, let me say that this is a brilliant book. I am a linguistics student with a Russian and English background and am interested in East Asian languages. When I heard about the debate over who "owns" the legacy of the Koguryo Kingdom, I tried to find out about their language. I found this book, which seems to be the only major linguistic study of Koguryo in existence. Beckwith gives a model account of the surviving language material and shows Koguryo is definitely related to Japanese. He also has some very interesting theoretical chapters, especially the one on word frequency and retention rates.

Beckwith bashes the Altaic theory, the Sino-Tibetan theory, and traditional Chinese reconstructions, and shows that some words were borrowed into Japanese from Old Chinese, so some people are bound to be unhappy with him. But in my honest opinion Beckwith is right. How could the Japanese, Koguryo, and Chinese have so much interaction for so long, even before the medieval borrowing period, without sharing a good number of words? All languages I ever heard of have lots of loanwords, so certainly Japanese and Koguryo have them too. Non-linguist readers ought to know that phonological change is complex and later forms include mergers of more than one earlier form, so even a regular correspondence such as Ryuukyuu d and Japanese y does not cover all occurrences. For example, Beckwith points out that the Japanese word yama "mountain" is actually attested as yama, not *dama, in third century Japanese, before the Ryuukyuu dialects or languages even existed. Beckwith explains his reconstructions and his interpretations of the transcription characters very clearly, and as far as I noticed he does not create any ad hoc forms in the book, which in my opinion is a very careful scholarly work.

I feel Beckwith is courageous to challenge so many dogmatic theories that others get hot under the collar about. I found the book exciting.

The book on Koguryo and the origins of Japanese.......2006-02-23

This is an important book. It is the first one on the Koguryo (Goguryeo) language and the relationship of Koguryo to Japanese. It is also the only serious, important book on the NON-relationship of the `Japanese-Koguryoic' languages to Korean or any other language or language family. People who are religiously devoted to amateurish mega-theories like `Altaic' will not like this book. It argues very strongly, clearly, and convincingly against their theories. I can't say it is an easy read. It is an intense, thoroughly scholarly book. But if you are interested in the origins of the Koguryo people (including their fascinating origin myth), the Koguryo language, the Japanese-Koguryoic languages, or historical-comparative linguistics in East Asia in general, this book is a must-read.

Truly not what I expected.......2005-09-04

When I came to know that this book was published last year I was very excited by the idea of a linguistic work that approaches Japanese to the Northeast part of the continent at last with truthful proofs.
At first I thought that would be a definitive proof for the link of Japanese to Altaic languages because I wrongly believed Koguryo was somehow an ancient pre-tungusic language (anyway, tungusic languages are spoken nowadays in that area).
But I got rid of this idea just beginning the reading of it, and later I discovered Beckwith being a hard anti-altaicist linguist.
That's not a problem, of course, it's just that I had recently read a book of Roy Andrew Miller who used Koguryo (saying that it was Old North Korean) to prove relationship between Korean, Japanese and Altaic (especially with the word for "garlic").
But Beckwith has made some considerably big mistakes in his comparative Japanese-Koguryo work (how could possibly "yama", mountain in Japanese, and γapma [ghapma], big mountain in Koguryo, be related? The proto-japanese word for mountain is "dama", as every y- in Japanese comes from d-, as noted in some Ryukyuan dialects), not to tell about his own inventions of readings of Chinese phonetic characters used to transcribe Koguryo, ad hoc reconstructions of Early Old Chinese words, etc.
He absolutely rejects the Altaic divergence theory and says:
"Altaic is a distant relationship theory that a century of energetic effort has failed to demonstrate successfully"
He compares Altaic theory with the Nostratic one.
About the Altaic convergence theory he says that Tibetan, Burmese, and even some dialects of Mandarin Chinese should be included in that family, while some dialects of Turkish should not, not sharing many of the widely accepted rules for a language to be Altaic.
However, he suggests many loanwords of Japanese from Old Chinese (reconstructing very improbable words) and Proto-Tibeto-Burmese, claiming those words to be ultimately of an Indoeuropean origin, showing the striking resemblances of those to PIE roots.
For example: EOC *marga - IE *marko (horse), EOC *mare - IE *mori (sea), EOC *kwer - PTB *kwar - IE *kwel (wheel), PTB *dwa - IE *dwe (two), EOC *wer - IE *wer (water), EOC *wek < PCh *ok - IE *okw (eye), EOC *kweru - IE *gwel (yellow)
He says:
"Since many of the forms discussed in this chapter also seem to be shared with Indo-European, they should be examined by a careful but open-minded scholar trained both in Indo-European comparative-historical linguistics and in East Asian languages who is not crippled by reliance on HSR (Historical Sinological Reconstruction). Unfortunately, in East Asian linguistic circles weighty theories continue to be based on assumptions involving Austronesian, Taic, or other language families, all of which are (and were) distant from the ancient homeland of Chinese civilization in the Yellow river valley."
It is not a bad book, as raw material, and as a corpus of Koguryo lexicon, and many words are clear cognates between Japanese and Koguryo, that's undeniable, but those cognates do also exist in Korean and Tungusic-Altaic languages, although Beckwith does not want to see it.
And finally, yes, this book is extremely overpriced.

Rapt in Colour: Korean Textiles and Costumes of the Chosen Dynasty

Average customer rating:

Inspiring and beautiful creations

Rapt in Colour: Korean Textiles and Costumes of the Chosen Dynasty
Huh Dong-Hwa
Manufacturer: Museum of Applied Arts and Sciences
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

History | Fashion | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Textiles & Costume | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Fashion | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

Textile Arts | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 186317074X

Customer Reviews:

Inspiring and beautiful creations.......2000-06-30

Poring over the illustrations of Korean costumes and wrapping cloths from the Choson dynasty was a pleasure for me. The photographs beautifully captured not only the colours and forms of the creations, but the sheen and texture of the materials. I liked the design of the layout and the typeography. Before the collection of illustrations there are brief essays about Korean costumes and wrapping cloths in this period. Taking care of silkworms, spinning thread, weaving cloth, sewing and embroidery were all women's tasks. In the strict Confucian era women were discouraged from any type of intellectual pursuit. By developing textiles and designs these women were able to experience the joy of creation. Their exuberance is contagious.

Creative Women of Korea: The Fifteenth Through the Twentieth Centuries (East Gate Book)

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Creative Women of Korea: The Fifteenth Through the Twentieth Centuries (East Gate Book)

Manufacturer: M.E. Sharpe
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Renaissance | Schools, Periods & Styles | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Women Writers & Feminist Theory | Books & Reading | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Women Writers | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 0765611880

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Korean Art and Design
Beth McKillop
Manufacturer: Victoria & Albert Museum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Criticism | History & Criticism | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Art | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Antiques & Collectibles | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
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ASIN: 1851771042

Wrappings of Happiness/Korean Art: A Traditional Korean Art Form

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Wrappings of Happiness/Korean Art: A Traditional Korean Art Form
Kumja Paik Kim
Manufacturer: Honolulu Academy Of Art
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Textile & Costume | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Book Description

In Korea, small cloths are used for wrapping, storing and transporting precious and ordinary objects. The intensity of their colors and patterning have earned tem a place as a unique abstract art.

Maedeup: The Art of Traditional Korean Knots (Korean Culture Series #6)

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Maedeup: The Art of Traditional Korean Knots (Korean Culture Series #6)
Hee-Jin Kim
Manufacturer: Hollym Intl
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Instructional & How-To | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Textile & Costume | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1565912322
Release Date: 2006-10-02

Product Description

Volume #6 in the Korean Culture Series. The history of making and using knots in Korea dates back to prehistoric times, when people first began farming and forming settlements. In the aftermath of devastating social turmoil in the first half of the 20th century, maedeup was quickly becoming a dying art. Kim, Hee-jin embarked on a quest to learn the techniques of creating traditional maedeup, and dahoe, or knots and cords, from the last surviving artisans of the craft. After studying the various techniques with the masters, Kim organized and developed them into the art of Korean traditional ornamental knot-making, known as maedeup.

Traditional Korean Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)

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decent

Traditional Korean Designs (Dover Pictorial Archive Series)
Madeleine Orban-Szontagh
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Decorative Arts | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Design & Decorative Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Crafts & Hobbies | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

All 4-for-3 Deals | 4-for-3 Books Store | Stores | Books
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ASIN: 048626646X

Book Description

142 bold black-and-white line drawings inspired by authentic Korean arts and crafts dating from the 1st through the 19th centuries, ranging from full- and half-page motifs to borders, panels, medallions, and all-over patterns, and from abstract forms to realistic depictions of costumed figures, birds, flowers, and landscapes. Royalty-free.

Customer Reviews:

decent.......2007-01-25

142 designs all in black and white. Most are too small and busy for goldwork embroidery although some are fine if enlarged. Each design has details of origin and date and what purpose it was used for.

Average customer rating:

Korean Spirit in Creativity & Design
Yeunsook Lee
Manufacturer: Yonsei University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Home Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 8971416467

Product Description

"An experimental book to inspire organic thinking and creativity" with sections on design for: urban planning, architecture, home interiors, products, graphics and fashion.

Amazon.com

A must for any fan, this annotated collection of more than 800 strips, from the late '60s to 1995, includes comments from Trudeau and many of his satirical targets. From its beginnings in the Yale University student paper, Doonesbury quickly spread through newspapers in the U.S. and across the world, and the strip is currently featured in more than 1400 publications. Its strength has always been its nimble response to the ever-changing landscape of American culture, and even though many of the events in this volume have passed into history, or even obscurity, the humor is as fresh as ever.

For almost three decades, Trudeau has offered a refreshingly satirical take on everything from Watergate to Zippergate while following the ups and downs of a cast of characters that have become as well-loved as any in literature. The comments from newspapers, politicians and other that surround the strips reproduced in Flashbacks serve a dual purpose. They provide a context for readers who may not have been born when Nixon was president, and they amply demonstrate the enormous impact of Doonesbury on the American political landscape. It's funny too! --Simon Leake

Customer Reviews:

"What a long strange strip it's been.".......2005-12-05

The only way to enjoy the Doonesbury strip is to be in it for the long haul.When I first got into it many years ago,I started to hunt for the books that came out on a fairly regular basis,Now I have most of them in my collection.Keeping the characters sorted out definately takes an effort.Though not any artist,I have drawn (copied vs traced) most of them and one day maybe I'll mount them all as a collage.I told my wife that I might hang it over the fireplace in the living room.She said it would'nt go with the sofa.Is she trying tell me something?
For a while I had a 3-D Jigsaw Puzzle of the White House complete with a flag as we so often see in the strip,sitting atop the TV.It just disappeared one day--guess it didn't go with the sofa either!Maybe a small ceramic one for atop my computer would be OK.
This book is just what every follower of the strip needs.It is an overview of the first 25 years of the strip and lets you become familiar with many of the characters as they were introduced.I am not sure how many we have in total,but I suspect it is around 100.
I am sure every reader has a favourite episode.I know I do and it is included in this book.Being an avid birdwatcher,I was really taken ith Dick Davenport's pursuit of the Bachman's Warbler and his success in photographing it in his final act of immortality.(page 209).
When this book came out it was the best thing around,except for the almost annual books.Then ,3 years later,in1998,we got "The Bundled Doonesbury"with a CD of all the 9000strips.Although a great idea,there was much disappointment with the CD from a technical standpoint.See my review ,also done today,December 4,2005.
So,if you are looking for something simple to show what this strip has been about all these years;this is definately what you want.

Consistently relevant, original, and hilarious.......2005-01-30

It seems like the comment that I have heard most frequently from others about Doonesbury is that they feel they can't get into it, because the story lines are long and drawn-out, and they assume a depth of knowledge about the characters on the part of the reader that could only have come from reading the cartoon over a long period of time. This book is a great opportunity for those who have not followed Doonesbury since it began (or, who perhaps were not alive when it began, as I was not) to follow the development of the strip from its earliest days through very recent times. It's also a great book for long-time Doonesbury fans, because it provides a lot of additional materials, comment from Trudeau, comment from a number of cartoon subjects over the years (check out what Donald Trump said about it), etc. This book is also great for people who like Doonesbury and would like a book to call their own, but don't want to spring for a whole set of collected strips in book form that have been released over the years, because it provides a fairly comprehensive collection of the strip in one volume.

Doonesbury has been a chronicle of our times since the 60s, and in my view, along with "Calvin & Hobbes," has been the most consistently original and consistently humorous strip appearing on the comics page in recent times. Let's hope it is around for another 25!

man oh man.......2003-09-04

It is hard to believe that people used to think this guy was a laugh riot.

Hail,hail,the gang's all here!.......2002-10-15

Here we find the first CharlieBrownish debut of Mike, and also the first appearances of B.D. the Jock, zonked Zonker and Marvelous Mark, and also Bloopsie, Joanie Caucus, and the immortal Duke, whose Chinese saga makes one of the best pages of the book. Here you can follow the graphic evolution of the strip,and the psychological evolution of the charachters in the course of American and world history. A must for the Doonesbury fans!

Look back in irony!.......2001-06-25

Has it really been 25 years that Doonesbury is making his contributons to our survival in a world gone mad? This book makes it possible to look back, not in anger but irony. The problems from back then are gone, replaced by even worse ones, the cast has grown older but Mike and his friends are still with us. Great!

Flashbacks - Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury

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Flashbacks - Twenty-Five Years of Doonesbury
G.B. Trudeau
Manufacturer: The Easton Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound

Doonesbury | Comic Strips | Comics & Graphic Novels | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B000VA94HY

Book Description

The super hero has been the staple of the modern comic book since the late 1930s. The phenomenally successful movies "Superman" and "Batman" have made these two comic book super heroes as familiar worldwide as any characters ever created. Yet to relatively few aficionados are they known at first hand from their appearances in comic books.

Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology explores the origins of the super hero by documenting how heroes emerged from the comic book genre and are defined both by its history and by audience expectations.

To show some of the most influential and paradigmatic figures, this study focuses on the texts of three comic books in the genre--The X-Men, The Dark Knight Returns, and Watchman. It examines ways in which the comics mythologize both the role of the hero and the nature of consensus, authority, and moral choice.

Blending academic scholarship with specialized knowledge of the comic book medium, Super Heroes: A Modern Mythology will have appeal for several audiences. Since most of the academic scholarship published on comic books has focused on history rather than on cultural analysis, this book will be of great value to scholars of popular culture.

Customer Reviews:

Highly Insightful and Well-Written.......2007-08-07

In Superheroes: A Modern Mythology, Richard Reynolds does an excellent job of dissecting some of the origins of the superhero genre. Beginning in the 1930s and 1940s, he lays bare some of the prevailing ideas and iconography and puts superheroes in context. Reynolds also does an able job of analyzing The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore's Watchmen, as well as certain superhero origin stories. This book's only disappointment comes from the fact that his analyzes of superheroes' mythic origins don't go far enough - those looking for explicit comparisons to assorted mythic pantheons or full-throated examinations of how superheroes fall into legendary templates (except those of the Joseph Campbell variety) will be disappointed. However, an excellent and important read for anyone interested in comic books.

Great........2000-08-22

This book forever changed the way that I read superhero comics. Reynolds discusses the factors that are present in virtually every superhero comic since Superman was created. Some are apparent (devotion to justice, secret identitities), and some are subtle (lost parents, accountability only to one's own conscience). Virtually all factors are recapitulations of the developmental struggles of the primary audience of these comics: adolescent males. Reynolds continues by illuminating the grand, mythical nature of the comic-book universes, all stories blending into one vast "canonical" story, each comic becoming part of a larger continuity. This continuity shares several features of classical mythologies, which Reynolds explores in depth, citing the X-Men, the Watchmen, and the Dark Knight Returns series (among others) as evidence. Read this, it's great.

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