A couple of people have asked about the banner image. Well, the place is Geungnak Hermitage, attached to Tongdo Temple near Busan. Strangely enough, I can’t find an actual photo taken from the same spot as the drawing, but here’s one of the stone bridge leading to the compound, and here’s a really beautiful one of the compound itself. The Weekly Chosun ran a piece in December of last year with some small yet none-the-less eye-pleasing photos of some of Tongdo Temple’s many mountain hermitages. I visited Tongdo Temple maybe five or six years ago, and it’s a massive complex, although the thing I remember most about the visit was that it was freakin’ cold as hell.
Now, the banner is a drawing by artist Kim Yeong-taek, who has a series going in the Weekly Chosun entitled “Korea Through the Pen Sketches of Kim Yeong-taek.” His work is seriously amazing, and you’d be doing yourself a favor by checking the series out — he’s got a real eye for the beauty of Korean architecture. He’s planning to draw 500 of Korea’s cultural properties over the next 30 years (a bold project, considering that he’s 59), and each of his drawings takes over 500,000 pen strokes. He would also like to affix his drawings to postcards, calenders and what not in order to show the world Korea’s beauty, and the Marmot’s Hole will do its part by linking to his work as it has appeared in the Weekly Chosun, much of it courtesy the blog My Shadow (Korean), which has an outstanding collection of Korean culture-related posts:
Yangsan Tongdo-sa Temple’s Buli-mun Gate
Hwasun SSangbong-sa Temple’s 3-story wood pagoda and Cheolgam Seonsa budo
Cheongdeok-gung Palace’s Secret Garden
Pavilions of Mt. Deokyu’s Hwarim-dong
Geochang’s Yosu-jeong Pavilion
Stone animals of Gyeongbok-gung Palace 1
Stone animals of Gyeongbok-gung Palace 2
Tongdo-sa Temple’s mountain hermitages
Dongnak-dang’s Gyejeong Pavilion and Oksan-seowon Confucian academy
Damyang Sosoaewon
Hapcheon Yeongam-sa Temple ruins
Jangseong Baegyang-sa Temple’s Ssangye-ru Pavilion
Yeosu Hyangil-am Hermitage’s sunset
Mungyeong Bongam Temple
Andong Byeongsan Seowon Confucian academy’s Mandae-ru Pavilion
Changdeok-gung Palace’s Buyong-joeng Pavilion
Gangneung Seongyojang
Wonju Songgwang-sa Temple’s Drum Pavilion
Yeongju Sosan-soweon Confucian academy
Haenam Mihwang-sa Temple
6 Comments
I’ll bet that “stone bridge” is cement, and a rather late edition. Nothing wrong with a little foreign influence, of course.
Or maybe not. There are some better shots of the bridge in question here.
Thank you so much for the links to the drawings; they are very nice indeed!
Ditto on that stone bridge being cement. The pragmatic nature of contemporary Koreans aesthetics is too well known!
I never realized that Korea was such a beautiful place. Anyway, as I told you that the image reminded me of Japanese garden at Huntington library, here are images of the garden: http://www.gsbf-bonsai.org/hun.....arden.html and http://www.joannrea.com/japanese_garden.htm.
The moon bridge looks like wood. I am not sure whether this is really Japanese style, but it is beautiful.
See the February issue of “Seoul” magazine, put out by the excellent folks at http://www.seoulselection.com, for an interview with the artist (in English).
Here is a preview page:
http://www.seoulselection.com/.....tach-4.jpg
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