A recent holiday saw me passing through Seoul for a few days, where I was fortunate enough to stumble across some "ancient & medieval" Korean stuff along the way - and here it is
(If you are reading this on the front page of my site, you'll need to click through to the article on the Blogger site using that link to see the videos)!
This was a demo of Korean swordsmanship (and spearmanship?) take at the top of Namsan Mountain. During the Joseon Dynasty, Namsan was considered a sacred shamanistic site, but is now a lovely scenic park with the Seoul Tower standing atop the central hill.
There was also a bit of pike action too.
We also visited the Korean National Museum, where it seems that most of the stuff is pottery-related, with the War Museum being where the cool wargaming-relevant bits are (of course).
However there were a few unusual pieces - this Silla-era armour being a highlight:
For the uniform painters out there, this also looked - from a distance - like a good bit of battle planning, however on closer inspection it's actually a manual for organising a royal wedding procession!
Slightly weirdly there is also this genuine Greek helmet.
The story is that it was awarded to a Korean runner at the first modern-era Athens Olympics, when Korea was under the control of Japan, meaning that the chap was running under a Japanese flag at the time.
Eventually, after many trials and tribulations, and many years later, he did end up with the "helmet prize" in his hands - which is now seen as a momentous moment in forming the modern Korean national psyche.
Finally, in the ICN airport Duty Free area on our way home, a few more reenactors in costume.
I'd actually been to the Korean Military Museum a few years ago - the photos from that trip
can also be seen here
