Son of a Chef

If you didn’t know me well, you’d probably never guess that I have a fascination with ceramics. Well, the Gyeonggi Provincal Museum in Yongin City paid that off in spades.

I must give credit where credit is due, the design and layout of the museum is superb. They do a fantastic job of taking you through the repetition of certain objects that show the transformation of local history over time.

While the pottery and painting are no doubt the star of the show, there are other objects worthy of serious curiosity. They have a handful of hand canons, Buddhist scrolls and ever changing new acquisitions room. During my visit, the museum, like many other museums is spotlighting marriage and family life in their acquisitions.

The museum funnels you into Joseon and Koryeo history first. Or we walked the wrong. I’m not sure which is the case.

The early history exhibit is fantastic. And the plethora of complete ceramics as well as interesting diorama line the big room. The diorama proceed chronologically and show the transformation of basic tasks into more complex ones.

In addition to the family-focused items, there were some fantastic fine celadon ware that really highlighted the serene approach to form from the high points of Korean pottery. Form, inlay and slight subtle decoration. The items on display were quite excellent examples of their period.

As you can see, the open layout of the museum is perfect for strolling through. Here in the Joseon wing, it is easy to pace with comrades and let people focus on the things they want to see more than others. The hall is well-lit and is loaded full of interesting objects. The English is limited on plaques, so it took me a while to make it through. Sometimes I gave up reading and simply translated via app.

The odds and ends of the museum are great. And you’re able to get close enough to most items to get a great sense of scale.

I was surprised, we went on a cold windy day. It was museum weather but the museum was rather empty. Perhaps it is not too popular. If so, that’s a shame. It’s really a fantastic museum and not overwhelming to visit through.

The paintings are extremely well preserved. Meticulous work has gone into presenting faithful colors. Often, when there is a damaged old item, the original is displayed next the reproduction. It was incredible to see the true size of some of the old garments laid out to full size.

After spending time in a lot of the museums down south, this one was an awesome stop. The hyper local focus on Gyeonggi province makes some of its history a little smaller. But I liked that a lot.

Despite the provincal focus, there was no shortage of, “Wow!” The museum delviered beautiful object after beautiful object. From the depictions of battles to room dedicated to the nobles, I could spend a long time there. However, now, after spending more time on Pungsujiri for school, I need to return to look at the maps some more.

Maybe this summer when I get some good time off. Bless that museums allow for cameras these days. It will be easy to snag some images to work off of for future projects.