[One Thousand Characters a Day] Kim Seoul's 'A Very Private Palace Walk' <4>

Editor's Note"How much could that be for just one sheet..." Silently calculating the value of the only blue-tiled pavilion among the dozens of buildings in the five palaces, and imagining the savory scent of the palace building’s interior finished with rice, soybean juice, and perilla oil. Like how we hang frames on walls and change curtains every season today, we get a glimpse of the tastes and aesthetics of Joseon people who lived in the palaces and decorated their homes. Observing various aspects of the palaces from a contemporary perspective will lead you to discover new pleasures in palace strolls. Word count: 1088 characters.

First, the basic wallpaper is made from the fibers of the paper mulberry tree and the sap of Hwangchokgyu (Dakpul), which is notable for its large flower clusters. In modern terms, it can be considered a perfect vegan product with no animal-derived ingredients at all. The glue used to paste the wallpaper on the walls comes in both vegan and non-vegan varieties. Rice paste, also used in traditional kite making, is a vegan product, while animal glue made by boiling cowhide parts or fish bladders falls under non-vegan products. Unfortunately, the brush used to apply the glue is a non-vegan product. Although the brush body is made of wood, the bristles are gathered from domestic pig hair.

Once the glue and brush are prepared, it’s time to apply the wallpaper. In the past, just like today, to achieve a firm and thick finish, the final wallpaper was not applied directly to the wall but went through initial and secondary layering processes. For the initial layer applied directly to the wall, sometimes newly made clean paper was used, but since it was the innermost layer, recycled paper was often used to conserve resources.

Recycled paper here refers to the answer sheets of those who failed the state civil service examination. Of course, the sheets were not used as-is with the writing intact; rather, the answer sheets were pounded in a mortar to make a kind of recycled paper. While it is admirable to use tiles worth the price of a house on one side and recycled paper on the invisible side to save resources, it is somewhat unsettling that the recycled paper came from failed exam papers.

Anyway, after carefully applying the initial layer with a spirit of frugality, a clean sheet of paper was pasted once more, and finally, several sheets of paper were laminated thickly as the last layer. At that time, there was no separate flooring material like today’s linoleum, so the floors were wallpapered just like the walls. Areas not exposed to heat, such as the main hall, were finished with wood, while the heated ondol rooms were covered with wallpaper. After finishing the wallpapering with thick paper, a final coating process was done by applying perilla oil or soybean juice over the wallpaper to increase the paper’s strength and prevent moisture.

Imagine for a moment a palace pavilion just after wallpapering. It would have been very neat and white, pleasing to the eye, but also emotionally uplifting with the scent of rice paste, savory perilla oil, and soybean juice. If the stove fire was burning warmly, the smell of slightly damp rice paste cooking and the aroma of perilla oil would mix, making the room a place that would make one very hungry.

- Kim Seoul, A Very Private Palace Stroll, Nol, 15,000 KRW