Introduction
Traditionally, Koreans believed that objects fashioned in the shape of talismanic animals invoked the power of these animals, both to ensure the protection of their property and to bestow the blessings of wealth, health, fecundity, and happiness. The exhibition tells the story of this traditional belief in the power of talismanic animals through the intensely rich visual vocabulary of the symbolic motifs employed in Korean folk art.
As with locks and latches, key charms also evolved from functional key holders into largely symbolic objects that became exquisitely decorated personal accessories. They were passed from mothers to daughters as tokens of the responsibility women bear for ensuring the good management of household affairs. It was customary for families to celebrate special occasions by adorning their walls with the auspicious animal motifs that often were incorporated into the design of key charms.
Read more about this topic: Lock Museum
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“We used chamber-pots a good deal.... My mother ... loved to repeat: “When did the queen reign over China?” This whimsical and harmless scatological pun was my first introduction to the wonderful world of verbal transformations, and also a first perception that a joke need not be funny to give pleasure.”
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“Such is oftenest the young man’s introduction to the forest, and the most original part of himself. He goes thither at first as a hunter and fisher, until at last, if he has the seeds of a better life in him, he distinguishes his proper objects, as a poet or naturalist it may be, and leaves the gun and fish-pole behind. The mass of men are still and always young in this respect.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)