Szilágyi András (szerk.): Ars Decorativa 15. (Budapest, 1995)

NAGY Ildikó: Hagyományos koreai ruhadísz a Hopp Ferenc Kelet-Ázsiai Művészeti Múzeum koreai gyűjteményében

The majority of the pendant ornaments of the norigae were made of semi-precious stones, the characteristic colours being light red or coral red, yellow, blue, and green, but precious stones and precious metals (gold and silver) were also used. The primary colours of the hanging strands and the tassels were red, blue and yellow but green and cobalt-blue colours were also used, with various shades of cyclamen coming into use from the second half of the nineteenth century.

9 For little girls norigae were made using colours of the rainbow (red, yellow, cyclamen-rose, green and blue). Although the norigae was the typical highly coloured ornament of ceremonial dresses, its simpler variants could also be found on the everyday wear of women. Consisting of a single pendant strand (danjak) norigae was made for everyday wear, e. g. with a miniature cosmetic bottle (kakhyang norigae) or with the popular butterfly-design (nabi norigae) made of embroidered or more precious materials. The butterfly and other decorative motifs taken from the natural environment were made to meet the beauty ideal of the age, which was the artless beauty drawn from nature and considered to be essential in a view of life free from artifice, in harmony Confucian ideas.

10 The ornamental pendant known as the samjak norigae consisted of three strands (samjak) and was made in more decorative or simpler versions. The more decorative composition was made of coral, jade, malachite and pearl. It also had gilded ornamental elements and of olivegreen, bright red and dark blue coloured braided hanging strands with butterfly knotting patterns which harmonized with the semi-precious stones and the tassels forming three rows and with the lentil-shaped hanging button (it was attached by means of this to the tie of the dress or waist band). On simpler but very attractive variants of the three-pendant norigae the pendants consisted of embroidered bats with one bat on each pendants. Its pendants (hanging strands) ended in paired silk threads instead of bundled tassels; these threads came out off braided lotus-bud shapes. The three bats also signified the wish longevity." The five-branched (ojak) ornamental pendants, the ojak norigae, made for court garments. One surviving example, is the decoration for a ceremonial costume from the nineteenth century. On each strand of this these are embellished with semi-precious stones covered with silver and flamed enamel: a tiger claw and mask, a toothpick case, a butterfly ornament, and a cluster of grapes. In addition, a dragonhead and a miniature axe are also present: these belong among the symbols of a ruler. The braided patterns of the strands formed an endless knot (this was one of the eight auspicious emblems of the Buddhists). The characteristic bright colours of the silk strands and the thick tassels (carmine, gilded yellow, dark green and cobalt blue) provided a delightful composition of colours and ornamentation, together with the colours of the hanging decorations of turquoise bluish-green, gilded yellow, silver, coral and some versions of bright red.

12 The norigae was a favoured present for i bride or between girls; symbolically, when given to an unmarried girl and a young man it indicated a marriage soon. The Korean Collection of the Ferenc Hopp Museum holds a beautiful and rare ornamenta pendant composition (or a decorative tassel composition for clothing). The interesting characteristic of this is that in contrast to the more frequent tassels norigae compositions with one three and five hanging strands, our specimer consists of four braided strands (known, accor ding to the number of strands, as a sajak nori gae)P This might belonged to the ceremónia dress. The pendant strands are made of co lourful silk strings with a braided endless kno pattern divided into three. On each strand then is an ornament of jade, coral, malachite, o: goldsmith's work. The braided strands end ir thick bundled tassels. Each bundled tassel con sists of fifteen closed-ended double silk strings near their ends all are held together by a thir metal wire wound round them. Each pendan strand is of a different colour. On the gilt yellow braided and knotted stran< there hangs a hexagonal-shaped folding prisn in a bright jade, with a mounting of gilt bras