“Mamigun (a female underskirt made of horsehair)온라인카지노 from Jeju Island in Joseon was introduced to Suzhou in the Gangnam region, the best fashion city in the Ming Dynasty through maritime trade in the 15th century.”
Koo Do-young, a researcher at the Northeast Asian History Foundation, made this remark while presenting an article analyzing the ‘Chosun Dress craze in the Ming Dynasty and women’s hanbok in the early Joseon Dynasty’ at an academic conference titled ‘Korean Costume Culture History: Korean Clothes and Style’ co-hosted by the Northeast Asian History Foundation and the Korea Institute of Crafts and Design Culture on the 21st.
Research Fellow Koo said, “‘Mamigun’, which was worn by Joseon women, became popular among the Chinese upper class in the past and led the trend.”
This is the result of an analysis that directly refutes the claim of some Chinese netizens that the Korean traditional clothing culture, such as hanbok and gat, originated in China.
Mamigun is a woman’s underwear made of horsehair, and Koreans wore it underneath their skirts. It is similar to a Western petticoat in that it makes the outer skirt look puffy . Research Fellow Koo said, “Even in Europe in the 19th century, horsehair petticoats were made to enrich skirts, but horsehair petticoats in East Asia were born in Joseon.”
It has also been confirmed that such fashion items of Koreans were popular among the upper classes of China’s Ming Dynasty in the past. According to Yuk Yong, a bureaucrat in the Ming Dynasty, ‘Jap a Wish’ (菽園雜記), “Mami-kun started in Joseon and flowed into Gyeonggi (capital). At first, wealthy merchants, nobles, and gisaengs wore it, but since then, the number of people wearing Mamigun increased day by day, even high-ranking officials.”
It was found that it has established itself as a fashion code to the extent that even merchants who directly weave and sell Mami-kun appear in the slope. Here, the slope is not Beijing, which is commonly known, but Nanjing (now Nanjing, Jiangsu Province) in the Gangnam area. Research Fellow Koo explained, “The Gangnam area of Ming was a region leading fashion and trends in China, and Suzhou (now Sizhou City, Jiangsu Province) was the foremost among them.” All of the writers of the historical records of Mami-gun were from the Gangnam area near Soju.
It is not known how Mamigun of Joseon was first introduced to Gangnam, China. However, researcher Koo explained that the Annals of King Seongjong reveal the circumstances in which horsehair clothes produced in Jeju Island in the late 15th century were distributed to the Gangnam area of the Ming Dynasty. It is a story that Jeju Island’s leader, Lee Seom, was traveling on a boat when he encountered a storm and drifted to the Gangnam area.
Researcher Koo said, “The fact that Mami-gun does not appear in the records and relics of Joseon land, and all the circumstances that Mami-gun was popular in Ming were in Nanjing, not Beijing.”
However, it was found that the Ming Dynasty government at the time did not like it, considering it an extravagant garment brought from abroad. Researcher Koo explained, based on ‘making a long-cherished wish’, “As the Mamigun fever raged in Gangnam communities such as Shanghai, not only Gangnam women but also high-ranking male officials wore them, and the Ming Dynasty government expressed concern.” In the end, Ma Mi-kun was banned from wearing Hongchije in the early Ming Dynasty at the end of the 15th century.
Concluding his presentation, Research Fellow Koo emphasized, “This is a case of cultural exchange between Jeju Island, which has been on the fringe of Korea-China relations, and Gangnam, China.” He added, “Recent Chinese online and academic trends often explain that China is just spreading culture to neighboring countries, but the case of Mami-gun confirms the aspect of cultural exchange.”
At the conference, ‘Goryeoyang’, the clothing culture and lifestyle of Goryeo, which was popular in China in the 14th century prior to the fashion of Mamigun in the 15th century, was also covered.
Kim Yun-jeong, a full-time researcher at the Seoul Institute of History, explained in an analysis of the report, “‘Goryeoyang,’ which was popular in the Yuan Empire in the 14th century, was an unprecedented cultural phenomenon in pre-modern Korea-China relations.” At the conference, presentations on topics such as the danryeong (團領) of the Joseon Dynasty, women’s fashion in the late Joseon Dynasty, and Joseon’s Gat and hats were continued.
The foundation said, “We hope to provide clues to resolve conflicts between Korean and Chinese civil societies by identifying the characteristics and historicity of Korean clothing and enhancing understanding of East Asian cultural exchanges.”