September 16, 2024 |
Michael Smith and Jennifer Giaccai
Imagine unfolding a map. It’s composed of twenty-two separate booklets that, when fully opened, take up your entire living room. Now imagine carefully carving woodblocks to print each detailed section of this enormous map. All that imagining should start to give you a sense of the incredible nineteenth-century Korean map preserved in the National Museum of Asian Art’s library. The library’s map is a hand-drawn manuscript copy of the famed woodblock-printed Territorial Map of the Great East (Daedong yeojido or Taedong yŏjido, 大東輿地圖), produced by legendary cartographer Kim Jeong-ho (Kim Chŏng-ho). The term “Daedong,” or the “Great East,” was one of the names used to refer to Korea, highlighting its eastern location in relation to China.
Unfolding this enormous map takes a lot of time and care. We made a digital composite version so more people can access it! Examine this important piece of history and zoom in on all the delicate details.
Kim’s map was groundbreaking when it was first printed in 1861. Traditionally, maps were hand-drawn and produced only in small quantities. By woodblock-printing maps, Kim paved the way for sharing geographic information more widely.
The original map measures approximately thirteen by twenty-two feet when all twenty-two booklets are assembled. It’s believed that Kim spent over thirty years gathering data to make this map. In recent years, films and books have told his story, often sharing an idealized account of his life. An asteroid, 95016 Kimjeongho, was even named in his honor.
The NMAA library copy of the Daedong yeojido.
How Was It Made?
Woodblock printing allows many copies of a work to be printed from the same carved woodblocks. In this technique, the negative space is carved away, leaving raised portions to be inked and printed on paper.
Kim’s original map was created with approximately fifty-five woodblocks made from linden wood (see the National Museum of Korea’s online collection). With repeated use and revisions, the wood wore down and lost its crisp detail. As the woodblocks deteriorated, hand-drawn manuscript copies—like our library’s copy—began to be made.
A close-up of a Chinese character from NMAA’s map.
The image here shows a character from the map’s title with a visible outline around each stroke. Characters on a hand-copied map would have first been outlined and then filled in. Check out the digitized map for more close details. (Note: the text on the map used Chinese characters because, at the time, Hangeul, the Korean alphabet, had not been widely adopted.)
When Was It Made, and How Did It Get Here?
To find out when this copy was made, Professor Emeritus Kim Kihyuk of Pusan National University compared the place names used in the printed originals with the names on NMAA’s manuscript version. Based on his analysis, this copy is likely based on the second edition (1864) and postdates 1869. We don’t know the copyist’s name, but we can trace the map’s history as far back as 1886. That was when William W. Rockhill, an American diplomat, purchased this copy of the map in Seoul. His widow, Caroline Rockhill, gifted the map to the Smithsonian in 1927.
Like the original printed versions, the NMAA library’s copy contains twenty-two foldable booklets, stored in an inscribed case.
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Like the original printed versions, the NMAA library’s copy contains twenty-two foldable booklets, stored in an inscribed case.
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Like the original printed versions, the NMAA library’s copy contains twenty-two foldable booklets, stored in an inscribed case.
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The Science of Color
We were curious about the origin of the pigments used in our manuscript copy, so we used X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy to examine the map. Our scientists and conservators use an XRF spectrometer, housed in the museum’s Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, to identify the chemical elements in substances.
X-ray fluorescence on a section of the map that shows Seoul. Photo credit: Department of Conservation and Scientific Research
Our analysis revealed that the copyist used traditional Korean pigments. Indigo-based color was used for blue water, and it was mixed with gamboge (pronounced gam-bōj), a yellow resin derived from garcinia trees, to create green for mountains. A mixture of red lead and vermilion pigments was used to make red, which marked cities and other areas of interest. Learn more about pigments and the science of colors in our immersive color Art Stories.
Informative Symbols
The woodblock-printing process resulted in a map in black and white, unlike traditional hand-drawn maps that communicated geography with color. Because of this, Kim used many coded markings to represent geographic features. For example, ridged lines were used for mountains, wavy lines for rivers, and straight lines for roads. Tick marks on the roads were used as distance counters, each representing ten ri, or 2.4 miles. The way the tick marks were drawn provided another useful metric: they are closer together where the road was arduous and are further apart where it was easier to pass. Twenty-two different symbols mark features such as beacons, granaries, royal tombs, and military sites. Over 11,000 names appear on the map. Once printed, colors were sometimes added to further enhance readability.
A close-up view of the NMAA library’s copy of the Daedong yeojido.
We hope that the digitization and scientific analysis of the NMAA library’s copy of the Daedong yeojido will make it more accessible to scholars around the world. Check out the digitized map and examine its details yourself. Learn more about the library, its catalog, and how to arrange a visit.
Many thanks to Professor Emeritus Kim Kihyuk, Pusan National University, Daedong yeojido Archive, and Sunwoo Hwang, Korea Foundation Assistant Curator of Korean Art and Culture at the National Museum of Asian Art, for their assistance with this post.
