Three generations making traditional wood crafts

▲ Kim Yong-oh, CEO of Goryeo Crafts

Goryeo Crafts was established in 1900 and has passed down its reputation of wood crafts making through three generations. Kim’s father Kim In-gyu has more than 50 years of experience and is the intangible cultural heritage No.24. The father and son stick to the traditional ‘gai-tle method’ commonly used in late Goryeo Kingdom. The method goes through choosing a wood, dry, process and plastering which must be done by hands only. Kim (son) said “We dry naturally the woods from Gangwon Province and Yeongdong County for 6 to 10 years. The trimming process takes about one and half years thereafter and it takes 120 procedures in total including lacquering to complete a wood craft.” The excellence of the works of Goryeo Crafts have brought Kim’s a number of prizes at wood crafts exhibitions in Daejeon and nationwide. As a result, Goryeo Crafts listed its name as an excellent traditional crafts in 2004 and ‘it’s Daejeon’ in 2006 as well as the excellent inventions by the Korean Intellectual Property Office and the cultural products by the Public Procurement Service in 2008. Kim also introduced a burial urn made of lacquer followed by silver-added model and attracted a great attention in 2006. “The lacquer burial urn is firmly sealed and is moist and waterproof. The urn doesn’t attract any bugs or molds and it cuts off far-infrared radiation electromagnetic waves and harmful earth radiation.” The innovation of the lacquer burial urn has won numerous prizes including the Korea First, World Best Awards and the Korea Consumer Awards. The product also displayed its excellence at exhibition halls in Sapporo and Fukuoka, Japan. 

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Jon Kim powerkorea_j@naver.com