Rather, it was popular for noble ladies to smoke, accompanied by their maids carrying tobacco pouches, pipes and flints, which is a popular scene in folk paintings from that time. Moreover, young girls, including female entertainers or giseang, did not seem to be discouraged from smoking as expressed in folk songs that were sung by them in an ode to the pleasure of tobacco smoking. However, the early social rule grew more prohibitive to an extent that ruled out women under the male-dominated Confucian society of Joseon, historians argue. During the Joseon Dynasty, the noblemen initiated a sophisticated tobacco culture with the use of the long, smoking pipe and luxurious tobacco containers as the symbol of their status. With the passage of time, the pipe became longer and more extravagant.
Old paintings show gold and pearly pipes even longer than the smoker.
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