Seoul Museum of Craft Art


There's the museum, seen from across the street.

A closer view.

I passed by this young Hanbok-wearing girl.

The previous picture showed a bunch of buildings in the distance, seen more closely here. Those two funny ones were built basically across the alley from Jacob's, our old RAS Korea hangout. Somerset, where we had the lectures, is behind them.

The Somerset is almost exactly 200 meters from the museum building, which is the minimum permitted distance between a school and any hotel. This museum used to be a school, but it had to be closed so they could build a hotel next door in the empty embassy compound (which fell through following the Nut Rage incident.

Here's another view of that young girl, who probably doesn't need to walk 200 meters to find a place to buy alcohol.

Hardcore conservatives, calling for the execution of Moon Left-in.

I went to Lina's, a sandwich shop near work, and took this picture of my scooter parked outside.

Here's the interior of the museum, on the top floor of the beige building.

Good update for the tiger vs magpie art.

Behind the museum, they're rebuilding part of Andong Byeolgung. According to Peter Bartholomew, the last authentic buildings of this outer palatial complex were torn down in the mid-2010s, due to the local government not having the right date of their creation...for whatever reason.

This map shows Jongno area during the Japanese occupation, when Cheonggyecheon was aboveground. You can see three forks in it.

The one closest to [10] leads up to Seochon, and Baekundongcheon. You can see how it curves upward and is already buried underground at this point in history. The street grid still reflects this route.

Over by [14], you can see Junghakcheon, running straight in a northeastern direction, where it passes close to Cheong Wa Dae to its source, located in Samcheong Park.

And [11] is the one I know the least about, not even having a name. That little delta where it branches off currently has Cheonggyecheon Hanbit Square in its armpit. I don't know much more about the course of this stream, not even which direction the water originally flowed.

This map, which I didn't do a good job photographing, shows Manchocheon running from the river, through Yongsan Garrison and up past Seoul Station. I need to find a better version of this one.

The museum archives were visible with an appointment. I didn't really want to go in, but I was interested by this floor-mounted blowdryer you have to cross to enter.

Please remember that these photos are all copyrighted to me. If you want to use them in any way, there's a 90 per cent chance I'll give you my permission, and be able to give you a copy with a higher DPI.
Copyright Daehanmindecline 2021