Korean Five Color Theory: Obangsaek 오방색
Yes, the rainbow striped sleeves still makes a very striking impression when displayed on children’s hanbok!
The display of colors are obligatory for an infant’s 돌 dol celebration attire.
Stunning, attractive, yet bold and affirmative in presence, such arrangement of colors as a distinctively Korean design motif was meant to be that way for a reason.
The obangsaek color motif is a design that is distinctively Korean and has its roots in very old shamanistic folk practices.
Growing up and seeing the colors, especially on children’s hanboks, small purses, flourishes on many small emboridered items, it was always there, just as the sun and sky and land, thus I never wondered why.
When I started looking into Korean minhwa folk paintings, I read about some principles behind Korean artforms. I was taken aback and finally came to understand that there was a whole ancient theory behind the five colors: 오방색 obangsaek.
Each color has a meaning and assigned a cardinal direction plus center, making five colors of astute visual significance. The beautiful rainbow pattern on the sleeves of children’s hanboks offers protection against malignant forces and the attention of the benign.
The obangsaek is a design philiosophy in Korean food, the colors used in the palace, and of course mudangs still practice shamanstic rites using the spiritual meaning of the colors.
Often, the colors are attributed to “China’ origin ying-yang, but it really seems the shamanism predates anything of ethnic Chinese. The meaning of the colors differ, and Koreans emphasize four directions plus center whereas Chinese settled on four cardinal directions.
What is really impressive is that black, white, red, yellow, and blue are also five colors for design. The obangsaek primary colors blended and adjusted with black or white can make any shade of ogansaek colors.
Thus, ogansaek secondary colors also have a place in Korean culture.
Our ancient Korean ancestors embedded meaning through a special kind of spiritualism. The spiritualism is not religious in form, but expressed by observing practices involved in living life itself as Korean culture, a cultural spiritualism encompassed in Danilminjok seeking protection and fortune for everyone together as 우리. Modern Koreans hopefully will not be distracted too much by western influences, to continue rediscovering and understanding the deep Korean cultural and spiritual meanings even in something as simple as color theory.
Korean Traditional Colors
http://www.newshyu.com/news/articleView … dxno=32143
- The five colors of obangsaek represent the five elements (fire, water, tree, metal or gold, and earth) that compose the universe, and symbolize five positions (south, north, east, west, and the center).
The Five Traditional Colors and their Variants
The colors of obangsaek have each of its own significations.
Red, symbolizing creation, passion and love is conceived to be a powerful color that wards off evil spirits. This belief is the reason why Koreans eat red bean soup on the day of the winter solstice.
Black stands for wisdom, darkness, and death. Since black indicates death, the color is rarely used in palaces. However, judges wore black to embody honesty and honor.
Blue signifies new birth, brightness, and clarity. Blue is typically used in clothes of maidens and vassals in palaces. The bride’s dress and thread decorations hung in marriage ceremonies are also in red and blue.
White, meaning truth, life and virginity, is the color that is loved by Koreans the most. Koreans liked to wear white clothes, and called themselves the “white-clad folk”.
Finally, yellow or gold represented brightness and rays of sunlight. Gold ropes are used to mark holy sites and places that need protection, such as the house where a mother just gave birth to a child.
Ogansaek is another set of five colors that are made from the combination of each of the colors of obangsaek.
Two obangsaek colors are mixed to make ogansaek colors; green (yellow+blue), light blue (blue+white), bright red (red+white), sulphur yellow (yellow+black), and violet (red+black). Though obangsaek is more representative than ogansaek as Korea’s traditional colors, they are used harmoniously in traditional Korean design.
- Ogansaek colors are made by mixing two colors of obangsaek.
(Photo courtesy of http://cafe.naver.com/colorsun/65688)
How the Colors are Used Together
Obangsaek and ogansaek are widely employed on hanbok, a traditional Korean outfit, and on food and architecture.
Saekdong jeogori, a type of hanbok worn by children, is adorned with saekdong, stripes of many colors. Colors of obangsaek and ogansaek are used to make saekdong, which is believed to drive away bad luck and bring good fortune.
A lot of Korean foods make use of the colors as well. The most well-known of these foods is bibimbap, rice mixed with vegetables and meat, which the colors of the ingredients are beautifully arranged.
Dancheong, which are patterns such as animals, plants and geometric shapes that embellish wood structures, is painted in obangsaek and ogansaek. The colorful patterns emanate mystique and express the dignity and authority of important structures, too.
- Saekdong jeogori (1st picture), bibimbap (2nd picture), and dancheong (3rd picture)
(Photos courtesy of http://sula.kr/xe/7962,http://sweetcook.tistory.com/, https://pixabay.com/ko/ )
Five-Colored Ribbons(五色布)
Encylopedia of Korean Folk Culture
https://folkency.nfm.go.kr/en/topic/detail/2580
Osaekcheon, meaning five-colored fabric and comprised of the colors red, green, blue, yellow and white, is worshipped in Korean folk religion as a sacred entity or offered in rituals as sacrifice.
Five-colored ribbons are used as offerings for the village guardian deity Seonang; or as banners tied to bamboo staffs for the wind god ritual yeongdeunggosa or for worshipping the boat guardian deity Baeseonang; or for wiping the body of the patient in healing rituals (byeonggut).
Osaekcheon is offered to the village guardian deity Seonang as part of the village ritual seonangje or as part of a private ritual, by hanging or wrapping the fivecolor ribbons on or around a stone stack or a tree that is worshipped as the village guardian deity. This is called “dressing the village guardian.”
In Gangwon Province, five-colored ribbons are tied to trees as part of sanmegi, or mountain-feeding ritual, to “dress the ancestor god Josang.” In worship rituals for boat god Baeseonang, five-colored banners on bamboo staffs are erected on boats and five-colored ribbons are also offered on the ritual table along with the other sacrifices.
Five-colored banners are also used in the wind god ritual yeongdeunggosa, erected in a corner of the kitchen. This banner is called yeongdeungot, or dress for the wind god, and is considered a sacred entity that embodies Grandmother Yeongdeung.
In byeonggut (illness ritual), the process for washing away evil spirits involves the five-color fabric, which the sorcerer cuts with the divine knife (sinkal), and wipes the body of the patient with.
