A Scottish painter named Constance Tayler who visited Korea around 1900 and
published a book of essays about that country noted that "Korea is par excellence the
country of hats. There is the hat of bridegroom, the married man, the mourner, the priest,
the peddler, the bullock-driver, the chair-man (coolie) and the messenger." Until the
early 20th century, Korean people valued hats as a symbol of their honor, with the style
and materials used in making hats indicating a person's social class and background.
People never took them off, even when entering an enclosed area or sitting down to eat.
Though they removed their shoes whenever indoors, they only parted with their hat at
bedtime (Cho Yong-shik, http://kn.koreaherald.co.kr/SITE/data/html dir/2001/
04/07/200104070036.asp).
This particular hat, called a kat, was worn widely by gentlemen during the long
Choson Kingdom (1392-1910), but it dates back to the period of the Koguryo Kingdom
(37 B.C.-A.D. 668), as proven by a mural in the ancient tomb, Kamshinchong, which
shows men wearing kat.(http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Concourse/4927/Korea
Allgemein/Story about _kat.htm). During the Chosun period, adult Korean men usually
tied their hair into a topknot (sangt'u), wore headband made of horsehair, and wore the
traditional cylindrical Korean kat on top. The gentleman-scholar (sonbi) of old wore a kat
to protect against the sun, snow and rain as well as to show dignity (see attached images
of gentlemen wearing the kat in paintings from the 17 and 18 centuries). Because air
could flow through the hat's fine mesh, it allowed the wearer's head to stay cool.
Usually, the color of the kat was black, but during the periods of national or family
mourning, a white kat was worn. The aesthetics of the kat -the contrast of the black hat
with men's traditional white clothing, the hat's transparency which subtly reveals the
wearer's headband, its concise form that harmonizes straight lines with curves -are
widely thought to exemplify Korean sophistication (http://www.koreana.or.kr/search db
/view.asp?article id=1022).
The round brim of the kat is woven from thin bamboo strands as fine as human
hair, while its tall cylindrical crown is woven out of horsehair.
The making of a kat involves precisely 51 steps, all done completely by hand (see
attached photos). Kat making is divided into making the yangtae (brim) and katmoja
(upper and central part of a kat). The yangtae is made of bamboo which was brought in
from Hadong and Jinju in Kyeongsangnam-do. The brim is made on a form called the
yangtaepani, and a daekal (knife) is used to make strands of bamboo as fine as human
hair. The katmoja or actual head piece is made of horsehair and involves the gol, a form on which the katmoja is woven, the kolgeori from which the gol is suspended and a
banongdae (rack for needles). To fashion the katmoja, a sheet of changhoji (Korean
window paper) was pasted onto the top of the gol, and then glue was smeared on the
paper with the horsehair threads put down lengthwise and crosswise in a weave pattern.
Cords attached to each side of the crown were tied under the chin to secure the hat.
(http://210.104.87.69/neng/jeju intro/item_15/item_15_04_03.asp).
Because of the work involved in making a kat and the respect with which these
hats were treated, they were kept in special hat boxes (which are still available in Korean
furniture stores).
The following excerpt in praise of the kat is taken from "Korea In Its Creations" by
Lee O-Young (translated by John Holstein):
Korea's version of Confucianism, which came to dominate our society from the end of the fourteenth century, gave the kat a feature unique among hats of the world. While it resembles a roof, it does not
serve the roofs function of protecting. From a practical point of view, on the face of this earth there is nothing more impractical than the kat. This headpiece, woven in a very loose and airy warp and woof from the hairs
of the horse's tail, stops neither rain nor sun nor wind nor cold. In truth, a much more attractive aspect of this wondrous hat which, for all its lack of protection, one can wear without actually wearing, is the way it shows off the head under it. The topknot and the horsehair band inside are
silhouetted as clearly as the form in a lace curtain window.
This is not to say, though, that the kat is for ornament. On the kat you see neither the resplendent gems nor the brilliant colors of great wealth or high authority. This black kat, even when worn at its usual casual tilt, is the ultimate expression of moderation and restraint. But this is not to say that the kat is anything ponderous or oppressive, like some helmet or ceremonial hat designed to maintain a Spartan or sublime frame of mind. On the contrary, the unique feature of the kat, more than anything, is in its feeling of lightness. We might say it is the lightest of all hats known to us.
The kat is used neither for practical reasons nor for ornamentation. The act of wearing the kat, and the kind one wears, expresses an idea, a spirit, and identifies the one wearing it. We have the adage, "Put on your kat and await your doom." This means that the kat bares to all the world your self, your mind and soul. Since the beginning of the Chosun Dynasty in the fourteenth century, the kat has announced the social position and the activity of the one wearing it. In the nineteenth-century social critique, "The Legend of Ho Sang," we
find an episode in which the hero tries to corner the market on the kat so that he can at least temporarily deprive the aristocrats and Confucian scholars of their mark of distinction, by which, in turn, he hoped to excise the problems inherent in the strict formalism of Confucianism. With this
episode the author seemingly denounced not only Confucianism but the kat along with it. Rather than this being any insult to the kat, though, he inadvertently highlighted the kat's moral power.
The kat's message is manifest in the firm and straight consistency of the hair of the horse's tail. It is soft, not hard like steel. The kat's silken black sheen nevertheless manifests the strict integrity it attests to. The material is itself the embodiment of the Korean spirit.
http://koreamosaic.net/chests/c07c.htm
References:
1. http://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Concourse/4927/Korea_Allgemein/
Story_about_kat.htm
2. http://210.104.87.69/neng/jeju intro/item 1S/item 15 04 03.asp
3. http://koreamosaic.net/chests/c07c.htm
Techniques: hand woven
Culture: Korean
Geographic Location: East Asia, Korea
Credit Line: Gift of Yvonne Porcella
