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AESTHETIC REVELATIONS: YANAGI SÅŒETSU’S VISITS TO SEOKGURAM GROTTO – TAASA Review March 2021

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This article was originally found in the March 2021 edition of TAASA Review (Volume 30, Issue 1, Page 12).

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Penny Bailey I n 1916, the Japanese art critic Yanagi Sōetsu (aka Yanagi Muneyoshi, 1889–1961) visited Korea for the first time.

On 10 August, he took the train from Abiko to Shimonoseki, where he boarded an overnight steamship to the Port of Busan, on Korea’s southeastern coastline.

After touring the local curio shops, Yanagi travelled west to explore the Jinju and Daegu regions, before heading northeast to Gyeongju, the ancient capital of Korea’s Unified Silla dynasty (668–935) and then northwest to Seoul (Anon in Mingei 2016:60). Postcard featuring (from left): two of the Four Heavenly Kings (in the corridor), one (of two) Vajrapāni gate guards, and two (of eight) Divine Guardians (in the antechamber)...