Kim Hong-do's Wrestling Painting: Joseon Daily Life

Full transcript

Annyeong, yeoreobun! It's Yul. Most royal paintings show kings, mountains, or flowers. But this painter showed something different: regular people. Laughing, working, eating, fighting. Meet Kim Hong-do, the star painter of eighteenth-century Joseon. His pen name was Danwon.

The museum keeps his album of genre paintings, with twenty-five small scenes of everyday life. A blacksmith hitting hot iron. Kids at a village school, one of them crying because the teacher scolded him. Women doing laundry at a stream. It's like a Joseon-era Instagram feed.

The most famous one is Ssireum, Korean wrestling. Two men are locked together in the middle. All around them, people are watching. Some are leaning forward, some are relaxed, and a boy is selling taffy, totally not interested in the match. You can almost hear the crowd shouting.

Now, a puzzle for you. Look at the spectators at the bottom right. One man's hands look strange. His left and right hands seem to be drawn the wrong way around! Was it a mistake? Or a joke to see if viewers were paying attention? People are still arguing about it today.

And here's one more detail. Look at the wrestlers' faces and the way the bodies lean. You can actually guess who's about to win. Kim Hong-do painted the moment right before the end, so you feel the tension.

Yul's tip! The paintings are on the second floor, in the Calligraphy and Painting gallery. Because paintings are fragile, the museum sometimes rotates what's on display, so check what's out when you visit. Bring your phone's zoom. The tiny faces are the best part.