Mystery over King Sejong's cap

By Kim Tong-hyung

Historians suggested Wednesday that a Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) era winged cap brought from Japan last year belonged to King Sejong the Great (1397-1450), credited for creating the Korean alphabet.

Should radiocarbon dating tests confirm the claim as true, the cap will represent a significant discovery, considering the paucity of Joseon artifacts from before the 1592-1598 Japanese invasion led by Toyotomi Hideyoshi.

The inner layer of the cap is embedded with scrolls of an earlier version of “Hunminjeongeum,” the first series of documents published by King Sejong to describe the native script for the Korean language, which was later called Hangeul. This will provide historians critical information on how the alphabet looked before the publishing of “Hunminjeongeum’s Haerye” (explanations and examples) edition in 1446.

The cap, measuring 27 centimeters in height and 57 centimeters in width, was purchased last year by a Korean collector from Japanese counterpart. Winged caps were part of the former work attire for Joseon kings. One of the standard images of the headwear has been the portrayal of one on the 10,000 won bill worn by none other than King Sejong.

“The current descriptions of winged caps on kings before the 1592 Japanese invasions were actually products of the imagination, derived from the winged caps worn by kings in the later part of the Joseon period,” said Lee Sang-kyu, a Hangeul historian from Kyungpook National University in Daegu.

However, aside of the “Hunminjeongeum” print found in it, Lee wasn’t able to provide other specific reasons to suggest that the headpiece belonged to King Sejong.

“The discovery of this cap could prove a groundbreaking moment in the study of royal attire in the earlier Joseon period. As the artifact remains delicate, we have yet to thoroughly study the letters imprinted inside it, but we were able to see and analyze some of them by using endoscopes,” Lee continued.

“Through the endoscope, we have found two or three layers of paper with Hunminjeongeum passages on them. We also saw some handwriting, which could have been written by King Sejong himself. We could find more significant findings if we are able to take the cap apart and study it more closely.”