Nonggi (set)

Dure was a traditional form of communal labour in Korean farming communities, practised mainly during the busiest period of the agricultural year - rice transplanting and weeding - when a large workforce needed to be mobilised intensively over a short time. The nonggi, or farming flag, was the emblem of a dure's pungmul (farmers' music and dance) band. It was raised by the dure members during communal labour and left standing until the work was finished. It was also known by various names, including yongdanggi, yodeokgi, deokseokgi, yongsulgi, seonanggi, daegi and nongsanggi. Flags were usually inscribed with the phrase 'Nongja cheonha ji daebon' (農者天下之大本, 'Farming is the great foundation of the world') or 'Sinnong yueop' (神農遺業, 'the legacy of Sinnong', the god of agriculture) and painted with a dragon; this expressed prayers to the water god and the dragon god for abundance in wet-rice farming, in which water was considered most important. The Agricultural Museum holds four such flags in its collection, described below. Nonsan Jugok Flag: a dure flag used in Jugok-ri, Sangwol-myeon, Nonsan, South Chungcheong Province, donated to the Agricultural Museum by the village of Jugok-ri in 1995. It was first made by Lee Hak-un, the great-great-grandfather of villager Lee Bang-heon (born 1928); the ink inscription 'byeong-o' (丙午) suggests an original date of 1846, though oral tradition holds that the present flag was remade in the Japanese colonial period after the original design. It shows signs of repeated repair and use by the village, and bears the ink inscription 'Sinnong yueop, byeong-o chilwol' (神農遺業, 丙午 七月, 'the legacy of Sinnong, seventh month of a byeong-o year'), which can be read as equivalent in meaning to 'Nongja cheonha ji daebon'. Gangjin Yongso Flag: a dure flag used in Anji village, Yongso hamlet, Gundong-myeon, Gangjin, South Jeolla Province, donated to the Agricultural Museum in 1995. Its ink inscription shows that it was made by the father of Park Gyeong-chae of Namoe-ri, Jangheung, the village neighbouring Anji, in the name of his son Park Gyeong-chae - born in a gyeongsin year, believed to be 1920 - begun in the early seventh month of a gyeyu year, believed to be 1933. It depicts Sinnong, the god of agriculture, carrying a hoe and riding a dragon, together with various cloud motifs and water-dwelling creatures such as carp and turtles, rendered in a folk-painting style. Seosan Deokjicheon Flag: a dure flag used by the farming bands of Deokjicheon-dong, Seosan, South Chungcheong Province, donated to the Agricultural Museum in 1995. Its ink inscription, 'Cheonha daebon, Taisho 5th year, byeongjin intercalary sixth month, newly prepared', indicates that it was made in the fifth year of the Taisho era (1916). It is painted overall with cloud motifs, now much faded. Gimje Sinpung Flag: a dure flag used in Sinpung-dong, Gimje, North Jeolla Province, donated to the Agricultural Museum by the village in 1995. The dragon on this flag is painted with great skill by a professional artist, and an ink inscription records the donor, the dure's leading figures and the year of production, naming the village head Seo Gwi-hwan, chair Kim Jae-bok and official Yang Min-sik. It shows that the flag was donated by Gwak An-sun, born on the twelfth day of the eighth month of a mu-o year (believed to be 1918), and made on the fifteenth day of the seventh month of a jeong-yu year (believed to be 1957), with the painting done by an artist known by his pen name Nan-gok, a resident of Gwangju. Since nonggi were generally made of cloth and used outdoors, they were easily exposed to wind and rain, and because of their bulk when stored, they were usually kept folded in the yard, leaving them prone to damage. Given these unfavourable conditions, many nonggi from the past have been lost or badly damaged, whereas these four retain their original form comparatively well. Moreover, while most surviving nonggi share the same uniform design centred on the phrase 'Nongja cheonha ji daebon', these examples are notable for following the older tradition of the dragon flag bearing a dragon motif and phrases such as 'Sinnong yueop', and for features such as the use of centipede-leg-shaped streamers, making them outstanding in both form and content. Furthermore, as dure declined and eventually disappeared, nonggi vanished along with them, making surviving examples extremely rare.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Jung-gu, Seoul

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료