Metal Inlayer

A plain, undecorated object in a single colour gives a neat, clean impression, but it is flat and dull. As human perception developed, people came to want to express something on an unmarked surface and give it symbolic meaning. This is how patterns were born, and people began drawing or carving designs and images on various materials for decorative and symbolic purposes, adding colour to them. Metal, however, is difficult to paint or colour. So craftsmen used a chisel to carve dots, lines and planes, and then inlaid threads or sheets of gold and silver into the resulting grooves to create patterns and images. This is called ipsa gongye (metal-inlay craft), and the artisan who practises it is an ipsajang. Ipsa craft is delicate and beautiful. The lustre of gold and silver added to a metal ground makes it splendid yet dignified. Because the work involves cutting grooves into metal and inlaying images into them, it demands quiet perseverance and a composed spirit. Three national treasures, beginning with the Chiljido (Seven-Branched Sword, a Japanese national treasure) made by Baekje and presented to the king of Wa (Japan), and including the Bronze Kundika with Silver Inlay (National Treasure No. 92), and four treasures, including the Bronze Incense Burner with Silver Inlay (Treasure No. 778), are currently designated as state heritage. For this reason ipsa craft is called "the flower of metal craft" and is regarded as one of Korea's representative crafts. The holder, Lee Gyeong-ja, is a pupil of Lee Hak-eung, the last ipsajang of the Joseon period, and carries on the tradition of silver inlay (eunipsa) craft passed down from her teacher. Through varied attempts to combine traditional craft with modern metalwork, from jewellery to wall decoration and outdoor installations, she is broadening the horizons of ipsa craft, and some 200 pieces of silver-inlay work that she has painstakingly restored and reproduced are now on display in twelve museums across the country.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Anseong, Gyeonggi

Designation

Provincial Intangible Heritage · 시도무형유산