Not satisfied with his nakjuk skills even after the five-year training, Kim began to search for a new teacher. One day, he heard that an elderly man named Guk Yang-mun had the best nakjuk skills in the country. Visiting his workshop, Kim saw that this 74-year-old artist, with a body bent like a shrimp due to his lifelong devotion to his art, was still producing great works. Under Guk’s tutelage Kim finally mastered the nakjuk skills that had been left incomplete due to the unexpected death of his earlier teacher. Kim recommended that his new tutor be granted the title of Nakjukjang (which previously belonged to Kim’s first tutor, Yi, before his death) and in 1987, Guk Yang-mun was bestowed with the honorable title by the government that also designated the pyrography art as ‘Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 31.’ Kim’s enthusiasm towards pyrography was revived and his achievements began to be recognized across the country through the various prizes he won almost every year from the many arts and crafts fairs and competitions he entered. The artistic merit of Korean pyrography art now began to earn an international reputation through exhibitions of his work in the U.S., Thailand and Germany, fascinating many art lovers in those respective countries. His long-time devotion to the preservation and development of the traditional nakjuk art was decorated when he was granted the third Nakjukjang title in 2000 following his two predecessors. A nakjuk craftsman doesn’t need to use many tools; an indu and a charcoal brazier are all he requires. An indu is a tool shaped like a hoe with an iron head that looks like a parrot’s beak whose end is sharply pointed. An artist normally uses two indus while making a piece, using them in turn. Maintaining the right temperature for the tip is the key because if the temperature is too high it can burn the bamboo surface leaving black marks behind, while if the heat is too low the finished drawing can be too dim. The temperature of an indu is measured by holding the heated end close to the cheek and feeling the heat radiating from it. A quick sense and much experience are crucial to determining the right temperature. At the same time, the artist should be equipped with the ability to make quick movements as well as strong skills because he needs to complete a character or an image before the heated tool cools down. Because a drawn image should display aesthetic beauty and meaning, a nakjuk artist must be mentally focused, creative, and highly proficient. Nakjukjang Kim Gi-chan displays incredibly exquisite expertise in depicting a landscape or a plant, and engraving words onto a tiny space. To produce a work, he needs to repeat an extremely difficult process many times to elaborately engrave thread-like fine designs onto the bamboo’s surface while maintaining an upright cross-legged position for many hours, as well as make extraordinary efforts to materialize his artistic creativity. His works are largely based on traditional designs and subjects, but each of the pieces exhibits a unique beauty expressed in Kim’s own style and ingenuity. Making an eollaebit, a traditional wooden comb shaped like a half-moon with loosely spaced teeth, is another area of traditional handicraft with which Kim is in love. An eollaebit is a beauty care item used for arranging the hair before styling. As excavations from Gaya (an ancient Korean kingdom that existed from the 1st century B.C. to 562) tombs show, the wooden comb is one of the oldest houseware objects in Korea. It has also been an essential wedding gift mothers give to their daughters before marriage. A recently known fact is that the use of wooden comb, instead of modern plastic combs, helps prevent static electricity and keeps the hair and scalp healthy. An eollaebit that is held in the hand is also used for the massage of the palms (by repeatedly clenching it), neck and shoulders (by pressing it down on them), an activity known to be beneficial for both physical and mental health. It was through extensive research on remaining relics collected in museums that Kim succeeded in reproducing the traditional eollabit used by Korean ancestors 1000 years ago. Following his success, he started to give it creative forms and decorate it with various exquisite nakjuk designs based on the natural world, thus amalgamating function with beauty. The eollaebit made by Kim Gi-chan features a beautiful design and elegant form, and his finishing touch with camellia oil increases the natural wood texture for years to come. Kim Gi-chan’s artist name is Eulsan, which means ‘Second Tallest Mountain.’ He said that he chose the name, instead of Gapsan (‘The Tallest Mountain’), because he wants his position to be not at the very top but somewhere just below it. It is also another way of expressing his wish to live his life striving to move forward and upward, and always searching for, and challenging, what is new. “Hold a pen only with your right hand,” he said, concerning his quest for the innovative in his art, “and you get always the same writing style. But if you hold it with your left hand, you can find a new style that you never expected.” Even today, his ambitious efforts to advance forward without staying just in one place, to forge new ideas for his art as his artist name signifies, takes him on creative journeys in many different directions, opening his eyes to wonderful new experiences. * Photo of Kim Gi-chan by Seo Heun-kang

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