Boy's Outerrobe (Aegi Jeonbok; Aegi Kwaeja)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 24 Feb 1886
name: label: Donor Name
content: Ensign U S N John B. Bernadou
notes: label: Notes
content: "Late 19th century. Blue Chinese silk brocade. This sleeveless and unlined robe is of dark blue silk and has a red-silk sash. Another red-silk band is sewn across the upper back of the robe. Three small, embroidered, stuffed balllike bags with tassels, called hyangnang (literally, scented bag), hang from the center of this band. Chason-period upper-class families let their male children wear jeonbok or kwaeja on special festive occasions (Kim, 1988b: 426 and 490; HUM ('Hanguk ui mi' or Beauty of Korea), 1988: 18; Jang, 1999: 170-171 for varied styles, uses, and illustrations). Jeonbok are normally military-officials uniforms and kwaeja everyday outerrobes worn by civil and military officials. This piece of clothing is identified as su doltti jeonbok, a sleeveless outerrobe with a sash decorated with embroidery to be worn at a child's one year-old birthday celebration (MBM ('Miguk bangmul-gwan sojang Hanguk munhwajae' or The Korean Relics in the United States), 1989: 138, illustration number 22). Bernadou Field Notes 146 "Outer garment... of a Chinese fabric. The Koreans say that there are three spirits who enter the world at the same time as a child [is born] and who guard him during his childhood. Account of these are shown [with] the three little bags sewn on the waist band. They contain cotton and sometimes a piece of the child's hair." Collected in Seoul. Ref: Hough Korean Catalog p. 447; Bernadou Field Notes 146; Published "MBM 'Miguk bangmul-gwan sojang Hanguk munhwajae' or The Korean Relics in the United States", 1989: 138." [from: "An Ethnography of the Hermit Kingdom: The J.B. Bernadou Korean Collection 1884-1885", Chang-su Cho Houchins, 2004, number 19]
label: Record Last Modified
content: 11 Mar 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Korea, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Not Given
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 016970
label: USNM Number
content: E77077-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Robe
physicalDescription: label: Length
content: 66 cm
label: Width
content: 23 cm
label: Width
content: 74 cm