[Baking Typewriter] The 'Hojakdo' That Brings Fortune and Wards Off Evil Reflects the Values of Its Time

Explaining the Animals, Plants, and Symbols
in Traditional Korean Art and Architecture

The global popularity of the Netflix animated series "K-Pop Demon Hunters" has brought renewed attention to the folk painting known as Hojakdo, also referred to as Jak Hodo. This painting features a magpie and a tiger together. In Korean tradition, magpies are considered birds of good fortune that bring happy news, while tigers symbolize power and are believed to ward off misfortune and evil spirits. It was believed that attaching a Hojakdo to the front gate on New Year's Day would bring blessings into the home and keep evil spirits away. In addition to tigers, images of dragons and door guardians were also attached to gates.

The book "Symbolic Codes of Traditional Art," written by Heo Gyun, an advisor to the Korean Folk Painting Association, also features Hojakdo on its cover. Like Hojakdo, the book kindly explains the meanings of animals, plants, and symbols used in traditional Korean art and architecture. With the recent surge of interest in traditional Korean art sparked by the K-Pop Demon Hunters phenomenon, this book is a perfect fit for the times.

Because the book focuses on paintings and unfolds the lives of ancestors like old tales, it reads smoothly. The author pays particular attention to how the symbols in old paintings functioned within social contexts and everyday life. This demonstrates that traditional Korean art is not just a collection of artistic works, but also reflects the values of its era.

Yulimongjado is a calligraphic painting themed around the eight virtues of Confucianism. Among them, the Hyojado (filial piety painting) often features carp, bamboo shoots, fans, and geomungo (a traditional Korean string instrument). All of these are objects and animals that appear in stories about filial piety. The story of bamboo shoots comes from Mengjong of the Wu Kingdom during China's Three Kingdoms period. Mengjong's sick mother craved bamboo shoots in the middle of winter, so he went into the bamboo grove but could not find any. Overcome with grief, Mengjong wept, and bamboo shoots miraculously sprouted where his tears fell.

The Chinese character for "east" (dong, 東) combines the characters for "sun" (il, 日) and "tree" (mok, 木), pictographically representing the sun caught in the branches of a tree. Thus, the east signifies the direction where the sun rises and the energy of life begins. This is why the residence of the crown prince was called Donggung, or the Eastern Palace. When King Taejo Yi Seonggye founded the Joseon Dynasty, he placed the royal ancestral shrine, Jongmyo, to the east to honor deceased kings and queens as if they were still alive.

The book is divided into four chapters, each covering the following themes: auspiciousness and warding off evil, life and death, the spaces of east, west, south, and north, and the world of celestial phenomena embracing the sun, moon, and stars. Advisor Heo unpacks the meanings embedded in traditional art, explaining how the worldview, perspective on nature, religious values, philosophy of life, and practical desires of ancestors are all intertwined. He also notes that the reason the same symbols are repeatedly found in paintings is because ancestors believed that following the order of the universe would bring blessings from the heavens.

"K-Pop Demon Hunters" features not only Jak Hodo, but also many other symbols of Korean traditional culture such as the gat (traditional hat), norigae (ornamental pendants), and Obong Ilwol-do (Five Peaks and Sun-Moon painting). The popularity of K-Pop Demon Hunters can be attributed to the fresh reinterpretation of traditional cultural symbols to suit modern tastes, but fundamentally, it is because of the Korean identity that we unconsciously share.

The K-Pop Demon Hunters phenomenon has proven that what is most Korean can also be the most global. This is also why the symbolic codes of traditional art are more intriguing than ever. This book goes beyond being a simple guide to traditional art; it offers a new perspective on how we view tradition today.

Symbolic Codes of Traditional Art | Written by Heo Gyun | Dolbegae Publishing | 296 pages | 22,000 won