LITMIR.BIZ

      Kobong is a concept which has no one-word equivalent in other languages. This is probably because the concept itself does not exist in other cultures. It means heaping the measuring cup till it overflows, and even then some.

      When we measure fabric with a yardstick or weigh meat with a scale, we are as exact, as possible. After all, that is what a measure, is for. So when we measure grain, we are supposed to give no more and no less. That is how the Japanese do it, anyway.

      Koreans, strangely enough, inaccurately use this device developed for accurate measure. And they misuse it deliberately. That is how we get the heaping measure. To provide some idea of how high it is heaped, a dishonest measure in Korea is one where the grain is heaped to overflowing only twice, not three or four times.

      If it is not absolutely spilling over, that is being pretty stingy. At meals the mound of rice above the bowl is almost as high as the bowl is deep. It is even higher, if such a thing were possible, on birthdays. And when we offer a bowl of water, it has to be sloshing over the brim for the one offering it to feel right.

      That conical form of the heaping measure may remind one of Egypt's towering pyramids. But the beauty of the heaping measure is not only in the symmetry of its external form, something we see only with our eyes. There is meaning there, too. That conical form shows that we have given so much extra that we have reached the limit where it is physically impossible to give any more. The heaped cup is the visual expression of a heart with no bounds.

      Every vessel has its own limiting capacity. In this way a vessel is like a scale, or a yardstick, made to limit with its own limitations. But the heaped cup shows how the warm heart of a Korean obliterates restraining physical confines and does away with limitations. The heaping cup shows a heart that is bigger than the vessel being used.

      A world of scales and yardsticks is not a world dictated by feeling for others. It is a world ruled by rationality. And so the scale is the basis of all commerce, and in this world of buying and selling we demand the exact measurement. The heaping measure is the Korean's attempt to change such a world into one of really human interaction, based on feeling for others. With this, even in the midst of the most competitive marketplace, the heaping measure will bring back the same to its giver.

      That brimming measure heaped so high is the height a person can attain. It is that grand stature which comes from feeling for others.

      The World in a Thimble

      Kolmu

      Among those devices which man has made from steel, we might say that the most symbolic contrast can be found in the sword and the needle.

      Man uses the sword and woman uses the needle. The sword cuts and severs, and the needle stitches and mends. The sword exists for killing and the needle for maintaining. The sword rules the field of battle, to fight and conquer, but the needle rules in the inner recesses of the women's quarters, to mend and make anew. The sword calls us out, and the needle beckons us in.

      In this extreme opposition we can see the intriguing contrast between man's helmet and woman's thimble. The helmet is worn on the head to ward off the sword, and the thimble is worn on the finger to stop the needle. Just as man wears his helmet when he goes out to do battle, the woman wears her thimble when she picks up something to mend.

      It is a small and delicate world in that thimble there on the tip of the finger, and the woman arms herself with this thimble to protect that world. It is a quiet world which does not know the male's arrogant hunger for fame and glory. The world which the thimble guards is not a vast empire but one the size of a sewing box.

      The thimble is the smallest and lightest of helmets. Like the bits of thread and fabric left over from sewing, like unmatching buttons, it is a microcosm of everyday life.

      And so a glance at the thimble can bring back countless nights to us out of our past, like mother sewing with her nimble fingers as she listens to the soft breathing of her sleeping children, with elder sister at her side, learning while assisting. Woman's long nights are lit by the soft glow of the thimble's magic. The thimble is her helmet in her struggle with time, so intent on wearing her down. It comforts her in longing and loneliness, in sorrow, in waiting.

      Man's helmet.

      Woman's thimble.

      The Luster of Lacquer Inlay

      Najonchilgi

      All sculpture projects itself. It does not lay there on a two-dimensional surface. Even a work of relief achieves its beauty by projecting outward from a plane surface. In this sense, as a matter of fact, the relief can be regarded as the progenitor of sculpture. There is no form of art which requires the bright light of day more than sculpture, because light provides shadow, and shadow, in turn, provides sculpture's third dimension.

      A gem is a kind of sculpture, in that it is a three-dimensional work of beauty. The gem, however, wants to hide from the light of day. It does not project itself, it withdraws into itself. In principle, the deeper from the earth a gem comes, the more valuable it is. And even when it is dug up and worked on, no matter what kind of material it is set in, it must be set deep for the design of the entire piece to work.

      Inlay is sculpture, akin to the relief, and it works together with the gem to effect a special composite beauty. When the gem embeds itself deep in a work of inlay the total piece obtains the full benefit of the gem, and only with this does the gem fully justify its presence in the work. The treasure chest with its fortune of gems, in fact, is always hidden in the deepest recesses of a cave, or in the inaccessible code of a secret map.

      Whether a ruby in the crown of a king or a sapphire in his ring, the gem achieves its value only when resting deep within the folds of its gold setting. If it falls out, all there is left is a gaping hole, which renders both gem and jewelry useless.

      The gem has a cousin in mother-of-pearl. This treasure gets its gem-like property

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