A Study on Tohwan

Abstract

Tohwan was the name of a buckle on braided belts that wrapped around men’s waists in informal dresses, Pyeonbok. Though no excavated evidence exist, various literary works and portraits from the early Joseon dynasty reveal that Tohwan was used. This research intends to identify and establish the notion of Tohwan, and to classify its categories. Literature review included the annals of the Joseon dynasty, traditional arts from China and Korea, and artifacts from China. Tohwan was commonly used in the Chinese Yuan dynasty, and it also was worn on men’s informal dresses and military uniforms, such as Cheolik, during Goryeo and Joseon dynasty. Various materials were used for Tohwan, such as jade, aloeswood, tridacnidae spp., gold and silver plating, brass, agate, Hyang-gwan, and Bi-gyeonseok. Tohwan was categorized by its buckles’ lock types, Tohwan-guja and Samtae. Furthermore, Tohwan-guja can be classified specifically into Ring, Hook and the combination of Ring and Hook types. Those consistent variations of shape in Tohwan reveal that there have been no changes throughout time. This research in Tohwan will be significant and lay a foundation for further studies in Tohwan relics and men’s ornaments in Korea.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 1 citations exist upstream.