Gakgung, Korea’s Most Iconic Bow

Archery in Korea made great progress during the Three Kingdoms period when wars of conquest were common. Numerous wars were fought to conquer and unify the many neighboring confederate states. Along with the development of strategy and tactics in warfare, weapons became increasingly advanced, and bows and arrows are believed to have undergone major advancement around this time. It wasn’t until the Three Kingdoms period that the gakgung (horn bow) appeared, and the first nation to use it was Goguryeo. Founded by Jumong, whose name meant a “great archer,” Goguryeo was a kingdom of horse-riding people who were skilled with bows and arrows, and the fact that the people of Goguryeo were skilled archers is evident in their artifacts and tomb murals. 

According to Samgukjiwijidongijeon, the bows used by the people of Goguryeo were called maekgung, dangung, gyeonggung, gakgung, and so on. Among them, maekgung was known to be the best of its kind, and this is the gakgung we know of today. Records also show that when a Japanese emissary visited Baekje, King Geunchogo presented him with gakgung arrows, and from this we can infer that the people of Baekje also used gakgung. The bones and horns of gakgung from the Three Kingdoms period also remain, giving us an overview of the bows of the time. In the Middle Ages, craftsmen added materials such as bones and horns to wooden bows to make them stronger and more resilient, and this was called gakgung. They were made of mulberry, bamboo, oak, buffalo horn, and bovine tendon, and the components were attached together using fish glue. The designation for the bow depended on the fabrication method and materials used. First of all, according to the degree of attachment of the horns, bows were divided into janggung and hwigung. If a long horn was attached from jumtong to dogojang, it was janggung, whereas if a short horn was attached past ogeum to the end of hugungppul and the bow was made of mulberry wood from the samsami to dogoja was called a hwigung. The two bows each had their own strengths. Hwigung, made of stiff mulberry wood instead of the relatively soft and flexible buffalo horn, was stiffer than janggung, and once it was drawn to a certain point, it could not be drawn any further. This resulted in a high hit rate because it was easy to shoot the arrow by pulling it only a certain distance, but it was deemed to be of lower quality than janggung because it was made from water buffalo horns, which were scarce at the time, remaining after they were used to make janggung or from inferior short horns. Now that horns are more readily available than in the past, no one makes or uses hwigung today. 

Also, bows made from the same horns had different names depending on their color. For example, if a black water buffalo horn was attached, it was called a heukgakgung, and if it was white, it was called a baekgakgung. Since white water buffalo horns were precious, baekganggung was also valued, but their performance was the same. Archery was an important test subject in the military service examination until the Joseon dynasty, and it was also considered as a means of cultivating the mind and body by the Korean people. Instead of using the word, “shoot,” which emphasizes killing people in battle, the phrase “draw an arrow,” emphasizing the training of the mind and body, has been preferred, and this encapsulates the archery culture of Korea. 

Gungsijang Kim Bak-yeong

Kim Bak-yeong was born on August 9, 1929 (1933 according to the family register) in Wangsin-ri, Yecheon-eup, Yecheon-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province, the eldest of two children born to Mr. Kim Hong-gyeong of the Uiseong Kim family clan and Ms. Park Won. He learned to make bows from the age of 15 from his father, who was a well-known gungjang (bow maker) in Yecheon,  and after his father died when he was 17, he studied under his older cousin, Lee Chi-wu, who was also a gungjang, for about three years, during which time he became somewhat skilled. However, he left the bow-making business and worked as a shop clerk and at an underwear factory for the next decade, until he was encouraged by Kwon Oh-gyu, a gungjang in Yecheon, to enter the archery business again at the age of 35. So, he moved to Bucheon to learn how to make bows in the Gyeonggi-do style and became an apprentice to Kim Jang-hwan (1911-1984), a master of Gyeonggi-gung. In 1971, his teacher was recognized as a bearer of the National Intangible Cultural Heritage, Gungsijang, and in 1977, he was selected as a formal gungsijang student and completed the training in 1982. When his teacher Kim Jang-hwan passed away in 1984, he succeeded the tradition along with his teacher’s son, Kim Gi-won. However, Kim Gi-won died in a car accident, leaving Kim Jang-hwan behind. In 1988, Kim Bak-yeong became a traditional skill transfer teacher’s assistant (currently called a traditional skill transfer educator), and in April 1996, when the only surviving gungjang, Jang Jin-seop (1916-1996), passed away, Kim Bak-yeong began to be recognized as a bearer of gungsijang along with Sijang Yu Yeong-gi in December that year.

Gakgung is made between October and March after preparing the materials over the summer, and it must be handled about 3,000 times throughout the process. Flexible and robust bamboo is cut to the right length, water buffalo horns are trimmed and glued on the left and right sides, and the middle of the bow is filled with tendons from the back of a bull twice. It takes about three bulls to make a single bow.

Kim Bak-yeong made about 100 bows a year. While training under the tutelage of Kim Jang-hwan, the two of them used to make up to 500 bows a year. The decline in number is reflective of the fact the number of students training to make bows has decreased and that the passion for archery is not as strong as it used to be. In fact, the majority of people who practice archery these days opt for modified archery, which is a combination of traditional and modern archery. This is because it is much more accessible and inexpensive than gakgung, which requires greater strength and finesse. For this reason, Kim Bak-yeong’s workshop attracts more foreigners than locals, with Japanese tourists especially showing a keen interest. Gakgung, which is about 1 m long, can shoot arrows to about 150 to 300 meters, whereas Japanese bows only have a range of a few tens of meters despite being more than 2 m long. Once people see gakgung, they become mesmerized by its appearance and often buy one as a collectible or to pick up the sport as a hobby. Kim Bak-yeong, who actively made gakgung and strove to cultivate future gakgung craftsmen, passed away in April 2011 (age 78).

Kim Bak-yeong’s lifelong wish was to introduce the traditional Korean bow, gakgung, and traditional Korean archery to the world, and his efforts made him famous abroad. After learning of his death, Karl Zeilinger, a German archer who was fascinated by traditional Korean archery and collected and studied traditional Korean bows extensively, published an article in Traditionell Bogenschiessen #62, a world-renowned magazine published in Germany, mourning him. Kim Bak-yeong, who has dedicated his life to the preservation of traditional bow-making techniques, is succeeded by his son, Kim Yun-gyeong, who has been designated as an educator for the transmission of gungsijang. 

Works

- Gakgung | 51×135 cm

The most iconic bow from Korea is gakgung, which is classified as bokhapgung and mangung. It is made of water buffalo horn, mulberry wood, bull tendon, and thread that are glued together with croaker fish glue. It is characterized by its curved shape, and it is turned over to the opposite side of the bow’s curved direction to shoot the arrow.