Should Sungnyemun still be our No. 1 treasure?

Sungnyemun, an ancient wooden gate in Seoul, is one of the four gates that surrounded Seoul during the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910). It reopened last year after undergoing years of repairs after an arson attack in 2008. / Korea Times file

By Kim Tong-hyung

The botched repair job at Sungnyemun (also known as Namdaemun) is triggering debate on whether the historic Seoul city gate continues to deserve its status as the country’s No. 1 National Treasure.

It took five years for culture officials to reopen Sungnyemun in May last year after it was torched by a disgruntled old man in February 2008. However, a slew of problems were discovered at the gate almost immediately, including hardened, cracking paint, splitting wooden columns and gaps between the horizontal beams beneath the roof and the posts that support them.

This drew an angry response from President Park Geun-hye who then fired her first Cultural Heritages Administration (CHA) director, Byun Young-sup, and ordered a full-scale investigation on the restoration project, including on whether architects and carpenters had cut any corners.

The saga reached a low point in January when Chungbuk National University professor Park Won-kyu, a wood expert who was among the people questioned by police, committed suicide.

The fierce controversy over Sungnyemun is prompting an increasing number of people to argue that the gate, which had been the city’s oldest surviving wooden structure before the fire, should concede its glorified spot as the No. 1 National Treasure. They claim that the fire and half-baked repair job damaged the cultural value of the gate irrevocably.

Na Sun-hwa, the new CHA director, appears to be taking the discussions seriously, telling reporters that the administration will discuss the gate’s designation at the end of the year, when the investigation is expected to be completed.

``While people will always attach significance to No. 1, the reality is that the cultural assets designated as national treasures got their numbers in the order of when they were registered. This stems from the system of the colonial era when administrators simply attached numbers to the cultural assets of each region, although not many people know this,’’ Na said.

``The lower numbers therefore do not always indicate greater historic significance. We will need sufficient public debate before deciding whether or not Sungnyemun should continue to be our No. 1 National Treasure.’’

Even before it was damaged, Sungnyemun faced objection as the No. 1 treasure several times. This had less to do with debates about its historical value than emotional resistance over the gate inheriting such status from the Japanese colonial government, which designated it as the first ``Joseon Historic Site’’ in 1936.

Such arguments promoted the governments of former Presidents Kim Young-sam and the late Roh Moo-hyun to recommend the CHA to name a new No. 1 treasure. The administration ultimately decided against doing so both times, but Na seems more open to change.

The Haerye edition of Hunminjeongeum, the original promulgation of the Korean alphabet ``hangul,’’ and the Seokguram Grotto, a hermitage that is part of the Bulguksa temple complex in Gyeongju, North Gyeongsang Province, are considered worthy alternatives for the No. 1 spot.

Others claim that the government should retire the serial numbering of state-protected cultural assets entirely. South and North Korea are among the few countries in the world that bother to number their treasures, which they claim is a meaningless exercise.

Before Park’s death, the investigation had been progressing in a direction where the police began questioning his relationship with Shin Eung-soo, a master carpenter who helmed the restoration. Shin was under suspicion that he used cheaper Russian pine in remaking Sungnyemun when he was supposed to use top-quality Korean wood, or Geumgang pine, and pocketed the difference.

Researchers at the Korea Forest Research Institute (KFRI) recently concluded that the wood used in the renewed Sungnyemun was actually Korean, but not the Geumgang pine he lumbered for the project at Jungyeongmyo, a tomb of the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910) era army general Yi Yang-moo.

Police are now questioning Shin on how he used the wood taken from Jungyeong and other Geumgang pine that had been donated from a landowner on Anmyeon Island, Gyeonggi Province.

Shin maintains his innocence, claiming that he was forced to use different wood for Sungnyemun because the pines from Jungyeongmyo and Anmyeon Island weren’t properly dried in time.

After researching the pine from Anmyeon Island at the request of the CHA, Park concluded in 2011 that the quality was insufficient to be used for high-profile projects such as Sungnyemun.

The police questioned Park over this study before his death as they suspected that the report might have been influenced by Shin as he searched for an excuse to use the Anmyeon wood for different purposes.

Although Shin’s management of the Geumgang pine has clearly not been transparent, the KFRI does weaken the investigators’ case as the price difference between the pine Shin took from Junggyeong and the pine he used for Sungnyemun isn’t dramatic.