The Shaman.

I found some new traditional Korean hats to add to my ever-growing collection...

...this week I found two velvet versions of the traditional Shaman 무당 hat...

Shamans have a long history in Korea...

...they were considered to be 'mystics' who could provide a link between humans and the spiritual world... 



Shamanism has been around in East Asia for at least 40,000 years (wow)...

In Korean culture, Shamanism became a kind of religion where the Shaman무당 could act as a healer, on a physical and psychological level...

Here is an Anime representation of the Korean Shaman 무당;
(...is she wearing sneakers...?!)

Interestingly...

...it is not so controversial for me to dress as a Shaman 무당...

... because traditionally in Korea...the Shaman 무당...

...was typically a woman...

Shamanism was not dissimilar from other historical religious beliefs in East Asia...

Shamanism didn't involve the observance of just one God...

... but rather,

...many many Gods...

These Gods may have came in the form of spirits living within a tree, a rock, a spring, an animal... etc etc...

...Shamanism evolved from land-based agricultural societies...

...so it began to dwindle with the industrialization of Korea...

... although some Shamans still exist in modern Korea...

Traditional dress costumes in Korea are often very detailed...

... and each hat, layer of silk, and pattern can reveal a lot about the social status of the wearer and also the time period of the piece...

The beads that hang below the Shaman 무당 hat and drape from the temples are what distinguishes the hat from the Yangbin 양반 high-class-scholar hat from the Joseon dynasty...

The Shaman hat often featured feathers at the top (mine do not have feathers) and also much brighter colors than the Yangban 양반 hat...

...Yangban hats were also slightly transparent and perhaps more light-weight, as they were woven from horse hair...

...You can clearly see the difference in styles between my Yangban 양반 hat (black) and Shaman 무당 hats (blue and red);

Since it is Spring (although it feels like Summer)...

... flower stores in Seoul are overflowing with new flowers that only bloomed a couple of weeks ago after the long winter...

...so I am trying to incorporate flowers into everything...

I am not sure why I decided to attach a flower to one side of a blue Shaman's hat...

...I think I must despise symmetry...

Even though the social rank of the Shaman 무당 woman was very low in traditional Korean society...

...the colors and details of their traditional dress were extremely loud and vibrant...

I have no idea where I will have space to store all these new hats...