Ten Thousand Things

"Ten Thousand Things" is a Buddhist expression representing the dynamic interconnection and simultaneous unity and diversity of everything in the universe.

Ancient Multiculturalism: From the Korean National Museum to the Shosoin in Nara

Posted Feb. 2, 2006 by Jean Miyake Downey


Taking a broad view of Korean culture's Silk Road roots, the National Museum of Korea, which opened in late October 2005, houses a vast repository of Silk Road and East Asian historical artifacts.

It has drawn over a million visitors to its new venue in Seoul (relocated from its previous building built by the Japanese colonial government at Kyongbok Palace). And its new space allows the display of 11,000 artifacts of its 150,000-piece collection, making it the largest museum in Asia and the sixth largest in the world.

Yoko Haruhara's December 15 2005 article "Bridging cultural currents" in The Japan Times, accompanied by excellent photographs, emphasizes how the museum demonstrates the pivotal role that Korea played in transmitting Silk Road, East Asian, and Korean cultures to Japan:

It has long been known, though usually not mentioned in public discourse in Japan, that Korea has played a vital role in the transmission of Chinese culture to the country, starting with the introduction of Buddhism in 538.

Haruhara also focuses upon the museum's framework of integrating Korean culture within East Asian culture:

Not only does the museum -- which took eight years to build -- celebrate Korea's artistic heritage, but in an attempt to document the full sweep of Silk Road culture, it also places its art and artifacts squarely in the context of greater Asian civilization. To that end, and perhaps surprisingly for a national museum, the collection includes artifacts from China and Japan, as well as places as distant as Central Asia and Indonesia.
Seunghe Sun, the curator in the Department of Special Exhibitions, told The Japan Times recently that one of the aims of the museum is to show the bridge that exists between East Asian cultures. "The continuum of experiences in these exhibition spaces is designed to offer visitors a glimpse of the similarities in the art traditions of Korea and Japan throughout our long history," she said.

One of the many fascinating objects that Haruhara describes is a crown, decorated with antler- and tree-shaped motifs, that was excavated from fifth-century royal tomb site in Hwangnamdaechong. This is the largest tomb found in Gyoungju, Silla's ancient capital, an area dotted with tumuli and permeated with Korea's shamanistic roots. The crown's primal motifs, intricately connected with nature, (symbolizing a sacred tree linking heaven and earth) are thought to have originated from Eurasian nomads.

The Korean National Museum's integrative historical multicultural perspective, a holistic perspective being adopted by the arts in education movement as well as by museum curators throughout the world, reminds me of the naturally holistic ancient multicultural worldview of the world's "oldest museum," the eighth-century Shosoin Imperial Repository in Nara. The Shosoin storehouse was established in the eighth century, is a log structure behind the Todaiji temple. Its collection of over 9,000 objects belonged to Emperor Shomu and some of the objects were used in the consecration of Todaji, when thousands of overseas visitors converged there in 752, and the Indian monk, Bodhisena, ceremonially painted in the eyes on Todai-ji's gigantic bronze Buddha.

I have a poster from my visit to the 2004 Shosoin exhibition, featuring its lead object, a lute (biwa), richly decorated with mother-of-pearl inlay on my wall. The lute, an instrument that originated in West Asia (Eurasia) became the "king of Renaissance instruments" in European courtly circles after its introduction there by Arab traders, and in Asia, transformed into the pipa in China and the bip'a in Korea before becoming the biwa in Japan.

One of the most striking examples of ancient multiculturalism highlighted in the Shosoin are those reflected by the cultural traces of ancient Persia. These spiritual and visual echoes of Persia appear all along the Silk Road from its western end in Venice to its far eastern end in Nara.

Last year's exhibition featured a Persian bird motif carved into stones for the exhibition's featured red sandalwood go gameboard:

"The lines on the board's surface are made of ivory, while the sides of the board feature designs such as the likeness of Central Asian people and camels. The go stones, known as "Bachiru no Kishi," are round pieces of ivory dyed red and navy blue... The go board and stones are believed to have been made in China, where items from around the world were traded on the Silk Road...A sacred bird with a flower in its beak is inscribed on the red and navy blue go stones. In ancient Persia, a similar bird could be found on various items, but it carried a ribbon to indicate the ranks of royalty and nobility. The design traveled to China and Japan, where the bird generally was depicted with a flower in its beak instead of a ribbon..."

The Shosoin exhibition only lasts for two weeks every autumn when the maple leaves turn red in Nara. The crowds only add to the festive and special atmosphere of the exhibition because you can feel the wonder and admiration in the air. People, wanting to share their feelings of discovery of the beauty of the objects, for the artists who made them, and for those who brought them from vast distances to Nara, look up with little smiles and exchange glances even with strangers. It's like sharing a secret, the feeling of sharing something precious, rare, and exquisite. I was at the exhibition alone, but I felt a feeling of communion, through the excited smiles and warm eye contact I experienced with people of all ages and backgrounds. Some people even initiated small conversations with me, all ending with a long and appreciative "nees" and nods of deep feeling.

The Shosoin shows us that reason for the "similarities" in the art traditions of Asia, especially that between Korea and Japan stems from the continuity of their cultures, from ancient times until now. They interpenetrate each other to the point of fusion in so many instances but our imagined constructions of discrete "national" cultures have obscured this deeper reality.

While shrill politicians denounce "multiculturalism," at the same time, we are hearing the deeper and more resonant tones of world history in the worlds of the arts and education where the idea of the homogenous nation-state as the sole repository of culture is being replaced by broader and deeper visions of human history and societies as interrelated global interconnections, continuities, and world legacies. This was the worldview of those who created the Shosoin and is the worldview of the curators of the new Korean National Museum.

Integrated multicultural perspectives are continuing to spread from the experimental margins of art to the mainstream, and even into institutional circles of museums known for their conservativism. In 2003, the Japan Society in New York examined Buddhist art along a single continuum spanning both Korean and Japanese culture. New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art, in an exhibition of Chinese artistic influences on Korea and Japan, explored the same theme with equally broad vision. The New York Times art critic Holland Cotter, in his review of both shows observed: "After years of exhibitions proclaiming the 'triumph' of this culture or that, the reality of interdependence is being acknowledged even in conventional quarters. Both art and the world are too complex and fragile to be viewed any other way."

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