Skip to main content

Korean traditional flower shoes (Hwahye) ...

Korean traditional  flower shoes are called Hwahye.  Hwa is a generic term for any type of footwear and hye means a short version of shoes that don't cover the ankle.


There were over 20 different types of Hwahye shoes  that were worn during the Joseon dynasty and they indicated a persons status and  varied according to someones age, social class and gender. 

Silk embroidered
They  are traditionally decorated in bright flamboyant colours and patterns and are made in either leather, silk, wood or even rubber.  The rubber version was introduced in the 1920s during the  Japanese colonial period from 1910 to 1945 but these days they're only worn by the monks.

A good use for the old rubber shoes

As the Joseon Dynasty social hierachy crumbled  in the early 1900's and Korea began to become more globalized in their outlook and customs the need for the different varieties of Hwahye  became less necessary and during the 1930's the Hwahye shoes made way for western trends and the Korean people embraced modernisation except for on special occasions such as  weddings and funeral.

Leather
Leather

'Mituri' is the Hanji version of the 'hwahye' and are they're only made for decoration and as a souvenir of what was an important part of the Korean traditions during the Joseon Dynasty..

Mituri - shoes made of paper



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Lotus symbol in Korean culture .....

In traditional Korean Hanji art you can see many different designs of plants, animals, letters and insects. I'm sure you've wondered what they all symbolise as they are repeated so often and in many different ways.  In this post I just want to take a brief look at the lotus plant and what it symbolises for the Korean people. I've used this design on a few articles but I never really knew the full meaning of what it represented until I started doing some research for my book.  Even though many of us aren't Korean we can still use these designs and in so doing, translate a deeper meaning to our articles. Here are a just a few of my favourites from the easiest to the more difficult to cut out.                         The lotus flower symbolises creation, birth, liveability and reproduction and therefore it's one of the most  important symbols in both Korean culture and its traditional religions. In both Confucianism and Buddhism

The Buddhist symbol, Hanji & Korean culture ....

When selecting designs for my Hanji pieces I tend to make stylistic choices as to what will look best on each piece but the Korean designs all have very deep symbolic meanings.  None more than the Buddhist swastika (manja) design. ‘Manja’ (만, Man is “卍” and 만자, Manja literally means “letter Man”) is also called Srivatsalksana in Sanskrit.  It is one of the thirty-two (32) marks of excellence of the Buddha and is said to exist on his hands, feet, hair and waist.                         For those of us in the West this is often confused with the German Nazi swastika symbol but in fact it's been  around for about three thousand years.  The swastika is an equilateral cross with arms bent at right angles and all in the same direction, usually to the right, or clockwise. It's a symbol of prosperity and good fortune and it originally represented the revolving sun, fire, or life. The word swastika is derived from the Sanskrit swastika which means, "conducive to well

Online Hanji paper store, in English .....

I'm really pleased to be able to share with you this website where you can order a variety of Hanji papers from Korea and it's all in English !!!  The store is based in Daejon, Korea.   HAMINBRIDGE ( Thehanji ) was established by Moonyang Park in 1983. It's a family owned 2nd generation  business and they have a factory in Junju.  They also have a factory in China where some of the paper is made. The website is at www. thehanji.com and it provides a selection of specialty Hanji paper (Korean paper) and products.   I ordered some papers from them recently  to see what it was like and they were extremely efficient in dealing with  the order and it was here in the UAE within 5 days so I was really impressed. The prices were good and they even have some on special, the paper is beautiful and the ease of ordering was amazing.   They do sell rolls of paper, traditional papers and lanterns but overall I did think the range was a bit limited for what I wa