JOSH: Movable type in Korea

Movable type in Korea

In the thirteenth century the transition from wood type to movable metal type occurred in Korea during the Goryeo Dynasty, to meet the heavy demand for both religious and secular books. A set of ritual books, Sangjeong Gogeum Yemun were printed with movable metal type in1234. Choe Yun-ui of the Goryeo Dynasty in1234 was the first acknowledged for the use of metal movable type.
The process and techniques for bronze casting, used at the time for making coins,bells and statues, were adapted to making metal type. Unlike the metal punch system thought to be used by Gutenberg, the Koreans used a sand-casting method. The following description of the Korean font casting process was recorded by the Joseon dynasty scholar Song Hyon 15th c.
To achieve the sand-casting method cuts are made beech wood, forming the letters. One fills a trough level with fine sandy otherwise known as clay from the reed-growing seashore. Wood-cut letters are pressed into the sand, then the impressions become negative and form the molds. molten bronze is poured into an opening. The fluid then flows in, filling the negative molds, one by one becoming type. The last step is to scrape and file off the irregularities. Then they are stacked ready for use.
Korean printing with movable metallic type developed mainly within the royal foundry of the Yi dynasty. Royalty kept control of this new technique and by royal mandate censored all non-official printing activities and any budding attempts at commercialization of printing. This resulted in the small, noble groups of the highly stratified society being able to print in early Korea.

The oldest extant movable metal print book is the Jikji, printed in Korea in 1377.



Bibliography

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_typography_in_East_Asia#Wooden_movable_type
www.futureofthebook.org/blog/archives/printing/
www.rightreading.com/printing/gutenberg.asia/gutenberg-asia-9-korea.htm
www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/07/eak/ht07eak.htm
www.loc.gov/rr/asian/guide/guide-korean.html
www.rightreading.com