Seogak
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Lee Gyu-nam carves calligraphic letters and pictures on wooden blocks in his studio in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. He was designated as Gyeonggi Province Intangible Cultural Property No. 40 in 2004. / Korea Times photos by Shim Hyun-chul
Master breathes life into wood
By Chung Ah-young
PYEONGTAEK, Gyeonggi Province — When Lee Gyu-nam, as a teenager, first saw the Tripitaka Koreana (Goryeo Tripitaka), the world’s only extant collection of wooden printing blocks for Buddhist scriptures in Chinese, at Jeondeung Temple, Ganghwa Island, he almost fainted. Looking back, it was a strong calling, leading him to become an artisan of “seogak” (gakja) or engraving calligraphic letters or pictures on wooden blocks, he said.
At that time, parts of the scriptures, which are now stored in Haein Temple in Hapcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, were temporarily housed at the temple.
“All people have their own calling. In my case, my first encounter with the Goryeo Tripitaka determined my life,” Lee said in an interview with The Korea Times.
He never forgot the thrill and began learning engraving from the late master Oh Ok-jin (1935-2014) in 1982.
Lee even carved letters on coconut shells when he worked as a sailor on a deep-sea fishing vessel for two years. Later Lee repeatedly tried engraving the letters on wooden doorplates, leaving his hands bruised and bloodied because of his lack of skill.
In 1982 Lee found Oh and asked him to teach him, but Oh turned him down four times, citing a lack of space and time. But Lee didn’t give up. Even though he then lived in Yeoju, Gyeonggi Province, Lee dogged the master in Seoul for several days.
“I went to Oh’s house every other day to ask him to teach me. Finally, after he was impressed with my persistent passion for learning, he accepted me,” he said.
The artisan studied engraving techniques under Oh for three years, the most crucial time in his life. With Oh he developed both advanced skills and depth in wooden engraving art.
Toughness, happiness and fear
While learning from Oh, Lee almost used up all his savings paying fees to Oh and commuting between Yeouju and Seoul. Because of his artistic pursuit, his wife and children suffered financial difficulty. Sadly, his friends never supported him. Rather they ridiculed his job as being “non-economic activity.”
“I didn’t earn a penny for selling my artwork for over 30 years until I was designated as Gyeonggi Province Intangible Cultural Property No. 40 in 2004. Even my friends didn’t buy my artwork. They just wanted it for free. People didn’t want to pay for the product of sweat and effort,” he said.
Today automatic machines are replacing hand-engraving signboards in traditional houses, worsening his situation, the artisan said.
“The machine-carved wooden blocks are accurate and flawless. Nowadays, calligraphers’ handwriting is very rare. Thus this craft is losing popularity,” he said. Traditional artisans, including himself, are losing their footholds in this rapidly changing modern society.
Lee said carvers became masters because they didn’t give up. “All the hardships disappear when I see the resulting product. I am one of the happiest people in the world because I am doing what I love,” he said.
Lee said in his early period of engraving, he was confident about any kind of work from sophisticated pictures and abstruse calligraphic letters. But as time goes by, he feels more fear than easiness when he faces a new project.
“Fear grows whenever I work on a new creation. Now I understand an old saying. ‘Before engraving a wooden piece, think about what you will create for 10 days at least,’” he said. “The more the artisan mulls over what he tries to create, the more perfect the outcome will be,” he said.
Simple method, great outcome
Lee’s artworks, engraved with pictures and calligraphic letters, are created with simply a knife and a hammer. Lee has made almost all his tools from hammers to knives.
Compared to wooden engravings marked by accuracy in Japan and Tibet, Korean engravings are coarser, as the tools and methods are simpler. “Korean traditional engraving has its own distinctive charm, rough but natural,” he said.
Engraving developed as human beings began to record their knowledge to preserve and deliver it to others. Such attempts were done using animal skins, clay, rocks and trees.
Mostly, this craft was used for religious scriptures such as the Tripitaka Koreana and Confucian printing woodblocks of the Joseon Kingdom for the printing of their teachings.
“It is difficult to produce good calligraphy, but it is more difficult to carve such writings on the wooden plates,” he said. “It is the outcome of skilled workers from the past.”
“To create a masterpiece, artisans should focus on the engraving itself and take time to instill all their energy and skill into it, even if it is left unfinished and handed down from generation to generation,” he said.
Lee said engraving calligraphic letters is the most difficult thing, but as people can’t understand the meaning of abstruse Chinese characters, he began focusing on creating pictures on wooden blocks.
“As an artist, I hope as many people as possible can enjoy my works. Many people don’t understand what the Chinese character-engraved works mean. The engraved pictures might help people understand the artworks better,” he said.
The Confucian printing woodblocks consist of a total of 64,226 blocks that were manufactured to print Joseon’s prominent Confucian scholars’ writings ranging from literature, history, biographies and geography to Neo-Confucianism from the late 15th century to the early 20th century.
Who is Lee Gyu-nam?
Born in 1949 in Gongju, North Chungcheong Province, Lee Gyu-nam spent his childhood in Nonsan. He moved to Seoul after graduating from elementary school. Fascinated by the Tripitaka Koreana (Goryeo Tripitaka) when he was a teenager, Lee began learning wooden engraving skills from the late master Oh Ok-jin.
From the Buddhist paintings to Western paintings, he has crafted more than 50 pieces of wooden carvings with pictures, including the 42 scenes of the “Pilgrim’s progress” and Italian sacred paintings over the last six years. He has recently taken the signboards of Namhansanseong Fortress as part of his restoration projects.
He currently runs his workshop in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.
He was designated as Gyeonggi Province Intangible Cultural Property No. 40 in 2004.
What is 'seogak'?
“Seogak” or “gakja” refers to the art of engraving letters or pictures on wooden blocks. Seogak is divided into wooden blocks for printing, signboards hanging in front of traditional houses and decorative tablets engraved with poems and pictures.
The representative works are the Tripitaka Koreana (Goryeo Tripitaka), the world’s only extant collection of wooden printing blocks of Buddhist scriptures in Chinese, consisting of 81,258 wooden printing blocks from the 13th century, and Confucian printing woodblocks comprising some 64,226 wooden blocks to print Joseon’s prominent Confucian scholars’ writings ranging from literature, history, biographies and geography to Neo-Confucianism from the late 15th century to the early 20th century.
As the metal type advanced in the late Joseon Kingdom, the craft started to decline. Currently a handful of artisans preserve this engraving tradition.