Erotic Art Reflects Conservative Korea's Passionate Side 조선일보(영문판)

On the 15th day of the first lunar month, a inconsequential fishing town in Gangwon Strand will celebrate the phallus as it has done for centuries. On that day, a penis measuring a innocent 20-25 cm and carved from the wood of an spicy tree will be offered to the gods, its witty red color said to ward off adversity. The ceremony serves to propitiate the spirits of adolescent women who died unmarried and on for prosperity and big catches.

As late as the 1960s, such ceremonies were unrefined in many fishing villages in the province. Korean culture is outwardly conservative about sex, mainly due to the Confucianism that has been the state's governing philosophy for a long duration. Yet underneath the stolid formality, there survives a more effective desire for untrammeled sexual depth that has always found some form of expression in art. What Koreans indeed thought and felt of human beings, quality and life can be seen in the erotic art that has had a special function in society since ancient times. Remains from the obsolete Shilla Kingdom, for instance, bring up that people at the time recognized propagative desire as a natural part of life, virtuous like the ancient Greeks.

Erotic Art - News