Previously unheard-of najeon chilgi box returns to Korea in top condition

A rare najeon chilgi box dating back to the renaissance of the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) made a dramatic homecoming from Japan and was revealed to local media on Wednesday at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul.

An official from the National Palace Museum of Korea carefully opens the lid of the returned najeon chilgi box that dates back to the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) on Wednesday at the museum in central Seoul. Najeon chilgi is lacquerware inlaid with mother-of-pearl. [YONHAP]

A rare najeon chilgi box dating back to the renaissance of the Goryeo Dynasty (918-1392) made a dramatic homecoming from Japan and was revealed to local media on Wednesday at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul.

Najeon chilgi is a traditional Korean technique in which lacquerware is inlaid with mother-of-pearl.

“I want to say it was a dramatic return as the existence of this najeon chilgi was unknown, even to experts in both Korea and Japan, after all these years,” Choi Eong-chon, head of the Cultural Heritage Administration (CHA), said. “I call myself an expert of najeon chilgi as I researched it in-depth while I was working at the National Museum of Korea and even organized an exhibition on it in 2006. I made sure to track down all the najeon chilgi from the Goryeo Dynasty, especially in Japan, as less than 20 of them are known to have survived across the world. But I was unaware of the mere existence of the returned najeon chilgi — no one was.”

The returned item, which the Korean government purchased from a Japanese individual, had been held in storage in Japan by a private collector for more than 100 years. It is said that the relic had been handed down from generation to generation in the family. The CHA and the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation said they learned of the existence of the relic only after hearing that its owner wanted to sell it in July last year. The CHA said it acted quickly, in fear of losing the relic to other museums in Japan, but that it was also hesitant because it seemed “too good to be true.”

“I saw the photographs and got detailed descriptions of the najeon chilgi box, but, honestly, I couldn’t believe it,” Choi said. “If it really is from the Goryeo Dynasty, and that well intact without very many repairs and for that large of a size, it would be a one-of-a-kind najeon chilgi box that has survived until now.”

The CHA and the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation managed to contact the owner and bring the relic to Korea before making the purchase, to examine it and make sure it is really authentic.

“Since experts didn’t even know of its existence, there was no data or any information whatsoever on it,” Choi said. “So we were able to receive the relic first and put it through a thorough examination for two months before finally deciding to make the purchase in July.”

The CHA said this is the first case in which the country received the cultural property first, to conduct a detailed analysis, before making the purchase. It added that it hopes this sets a precedent as the government continues its efforts to bring back Korea’s cultural properties.

With the returned najeon chilgi box, Korea now has four najeon chilgi from the Goryeo Dynasty in their motherland. This box, according to Park Young-kyu, an honorary arts professor at Yong In University, is especially valuable as it has gone through hardly any repairs compared to other lacquerware inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which are prone to damage. The small najeon chilgi that made its return in 2020 and is currently in a collection at the National Museum of Korea was designated as a national treasure, but Choi said it was a pity to see that about 50 percent of the relic had been redone.

“Compared to that najeon chilgi, this returned najeon chilgi box was hardly repaired at all. Researchers found out that there is one area that had been repaired around the lid, but it was still during the Goryeo time when the repairs were made, so we don’t really call it repair work,” Choi said.

The returned najeon chilgi measures 33 centimeters (13 inches) wide, 18.5 centimeters long and 19.4 centimeters tall. It has patterns made from mother-of-pearl, mainly from shells of certain mollusks. It is adorned with representative Goryeo mother-of-pearl patterns, including chrysanthemum vine motifs and peony vine designs.

“Najeon chilgi of the Goryeo Dynasty has been regarded as one of the era’s finest aesthetic accomplishments along with celadon and Buddhist paintings,” Park said. “It’s amazing that all of the admirable aesthetics and sophistication of that era can be witnessed in this returned najeon chilgi. The patterns and condition of the relic are so outstanding that it can epitomize Goryeo mother-of-pearl craftsmanship.”

BY YIM SEUNG-HYE [yim.seunghye@joongang.co.kr]