Gansong Art Museum opens exhibition on box inscriptions that document its collection
In short
Seoul's Gansong Art Museum will hold a special exhibition from Oct. 7 to Dec. 6 on "sangseo" — the records written on the paulownia boxes made to store its relics. Yonhap said the show presents 106 items, including 45 relics and 61 box inscriptions, marking the 120th anniversary of founder Chun Hyung-pil's birth. Two 19th–20th century stone tiger statues have been installed at the Bohwagak gate in place of a Chinese stone lion statue.
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Gansong Art Museum will hold a special exhibition, “상서(箱書), 컬렉션을 읽다,” from Oct. 7 to Dec. 6 at its Bohwagak building in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, Yonhap and Maeil Business reported. Yonhap said the show presents 106 items in all, including 45 relics and 61 box inscriptions, and marks the 120th anniversary of founder Chun Hyung-pil's birth, closing a three-year series of exhibitions that began with the museum's 2024 reopening. [ 1 , 3 ]
The exhibition centres on records known as sangseo, written inside and outside the paulownia boxes made to hold the collection. Maeil Business said Chun, who spent heavily on collecting cultural heritage during the Japanese colonial period, began actively commissioning such records in 1934 and had specialist craftsmen build boxes fitted precisely to each object. Yonhap and Maeil Business both reported that a box cost 20 to 200 won to make at the time, when a sack of rice sold for about 20 to 28 won. About 700 boxes remain at the museum, 258 of them with confirmed inscriptions, and the writing is attributed to O Se-chang, Yi Do-yeong, Yi Han-bok and the Japanese scholar Naga Ozan, among others. [ 1 , 3 ]
Maeil Business described one such record: in the winter of 1939, O Se-chang wrote on the lid of a box holding Kim Jeong-hui's calligraphy couplet “Jikseong Sugu,” which had been given to a Qing scholar around 1820 and later returned to Korea, saying that its arrival in Chun's Bohwagak collection was “a truly strange connection.” Works on view include Kim Hong-do's “Nangwontudo,” which Yonhap and Maeil Business said O Se-chang praised as a rare fine work; calligraphy by Kim Jeong-hui spanning his 30s to 70s, including “Chaho Hogong,” which Maeil Business said is designated a national treasure; An Jung-sik's 1918 “Hansan Chungmu,” a portrait of Admiral Yi Sun-sin; and Jo Seok-jin's “Inmul Gosiljido,” whose twelve panels appear as a folding screen behind a first-birthday photograph of Chun. [ 1 , 3 ]
Outside the hall, Newsis reported that a pair of stone tiger statues, made in the late 19th to early 20th century, has been placed at the Bohwagak main gate. It said Chun bought them for 1,200 won at a March 1935 Gyeongseong Art Club auction after they came from the Japanese collector Watanabe family's holdings, and that they are presumed to have been made as tomb guardians. Yonhap reported that the statues replace a Chinese-made stone lion that had guarded the gate, which the museum donated to China following a Korea-China summit in January. [ 1 , 2 ]
Why it matters
The exhibition puts the museum's storage boxes and the attributions written on them on public view alongside the artworks for the first time since the museum opened, per Maeil Business, making provenance and connoisseurship part of the display rather than back-room records. For readers elsewhere, the event is mainly of cultural interest: it concerns a Korean private collection and its preservation during and after the Japanese colonial period.
Key facts
- The exhibition “상서(箱書), 컬렉션을 읽다” runs from Oct. 7 to Dec. 6, 2026 at Gansong Art Museum in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul, according to Yonhap and Maeil Business. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Yonhap reported the show features 106 items in all, including 45 relics and 61 sangseo; it marks the 120th anniversary of Chun Hyung-pil's birth and is the last of a three-year series since the museum reopened in 2024. [ 1 ]
- About 700 paulownia boxes remain at the museum, of which 258 have confirmed inscriptions, Yonhap and Maeil Business reported. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Boxes cost 20–200 won each to make in the 1930s, when a sack of rice cost about 20–28 won, according to Yonhap and Maeil Business. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Inscriptions were written by O Se-chang, Yi Do-yeong, Yi Han-bok and Japanese scholar Naga... (Naga Ozan), per Yonhap and Maeil Business. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Newsis reported that a pair of stone tiger statues made in the late 19th to early 20th century was bought for 1,200 won at a March 1935 Gyeongseong Art Club auction and now stands at the Bohwagak main gate. [ 2 ]
- Yonhap reported the museum donated the Chinese-made stone lion statue that had long stood at the gate to China, following a Korea-China summit in January. [ 1 ]
- Maeil Business said the museum described this as the first time relics are shown together with their boxes since it opened. [ 3 ]
Confirmed by several sources
- The special exhibition “상서(箱書), 컬렉션을 읽다” runs Oct. 7 to Dec. 6 at Gansong Art Museum in Seongbuk-dong, Seoul. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Sangseo are records written inside and outside the paulownia boxes holding works, noting the artist, title, appraisal, transmission history and evaluations. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Sangseo were compiled by connoisseurs including O Se-chang, Yi Do-yeong, Yi Han-bok and the Japanese scholar Naga Ozan. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Around 700 paulownia boxes survive at the museum, and 258 of them carry confirmed inscriptions. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Each box cost 20–200 won to make, against a rice-sack price of about 20–28 won at the time. [ 1 , 3 ]
- Works on show include Kim Hong-do's “Nangwontudo,” Kim Jeong-hui calligraphy spanning his 30s to 70s, An Jung-sik's “Hansan Chungmu” and Jo Seok-jin's “Inmul Gosiljido.” [ 1 , 3 ]
- A pair of stone tiger statues has been installed at the Bohwagak main gate in place of a Chinese stone lion statue. [ 1 , 2 ]
- Yonhap reported that the museum donated the Chinese stone lion statue to China after a Korea-China summit in January. [ 1 ]
Still unclear
- Whether the Chinese stone lion statue was given to China specifically in connection with a January Korea-China summit. Only Yonhap states this, and the portion of its article text describing it is truncated; no other document confirms it.
- The reported resemblance of the new stone tiger statues to a character in the Netflix animation “K-pop Demon Hunters,” cited by Newsis as a nickname. Stated only by Newsis and presented as a nickname rather than a verified fact.
- Details of the stone tiger statues' age, maker and tomb-guardian purpose. Newsis says the date and purpose are presumed or estimated, and no other outlet describes the statues.
What local media are saying
Timeline, local time
- Yonhap publishes its preview of the exhibition, including its dates, the 106 items on display and the museum's donation of a Chinese stone lion statue. [ 1 ]
- Newsis publishes photo coverage of the exhibition and of the stone tiger statues newly installed at the Bohwagak gate. [ 2 ]
- Maeil Business publishes its report on the box inscriptions and the works shown. [ 3 ]
- Exhibition “상서(箱書), 컬렉션을 읽다” opens at Gansong Art Museum and runs through Dec. 6. [ 1 , 3 ]