The Cheongju Early Printing Museum () is a museum in

Cheongju Cheongju (; ) is the capital and largest list of cities in South Korea, city of North Chungcheong Province in South Korea. The 'Cheong' in the name of Chungcheong Province is the Cheong of Cheongju. History Cheongju has been an important prov ...

, South Korea. The museum is dedicated to the history of printing in Korean culture. It is the first museum dedicated to printing in Korea.

History

In 1992, the museum was opened, the intention of the creation of the museum was to conserve Heungdeoksa artifacts at the Uncheon-dong land development site. In 2007, the museum was designated as a Jikji Special Cultural Zone. In 2015, a Jikji metal type printing plate was restored using traditional techniques. In 2017, 864 million won was allocated to remodel parts of the building and replace panels in the exhibits. On December 15, 2017, the museum reopened, the reopening ceremony was attended by Lee Beom-seok, Mayor of Cheongju at that time, Hwang Young-ho, Cheongju City Council Chairman and Na Gi-jeong, Jikji Cultural Association Chairman. The museum has been a major contributor "UNESCO International Archives and Heritage Center of Cheongju attractions" in 2017. Since 2019, the museum has been part of the

Google Arts & Culture Google Arts & Culture (formerly Google Art Project) is an online platform of high-resolution images and videos of artworks and cultural artifacts from partner cultural organizations throughout the world, operated by Google. It utilizes high-re ...

platform. In 2021, the museum organized a survey on a name change, in which the Museum Management Committee participated, among the names suggested for the museum were Cheongju Jikji Printing Museum, Jikji Printing Museum, Korea Printing Museum, Cheongju Jikji Museum and Jikji Museum.

Collections

The museum contains more than 650 books dating from the

Silla Silla (; Old Korean: wikt:徐羅伐#Old Korean, 徐羅伐, Yale romanization of Korean, Yale: Syerapel, Revised Romanization of Korean, RR: ''Seorabeol''; International Phonetic Alphabet, IPA: ) was a Korean kingdom that existed between ...

Goryeo Goryeo (; ) was a Korean state founded in 918, during a time of national division called the Later Three Kingdoms period, that unified and ruled the Korea, Korean Peninsula until the establishment of Joseon in 1392. Goryeo achieved what has b ...

and

Joseon Joseon ( ; ; also romanized as ''Chosun''), officially Great Joseon (), was a dynastic kingdom of Korea that existed for 505 years. It was founded by Taejo of Joseon in July 1392 and replaced by the Korean Empire in October 1897. The kingdom w ...

periods. The first exhibition hall contains exhibits about

Jikji ''Jikji'' () is the abbreviated title of a Korean Buddhism, Korean Buddhist document whose title can be translated to "Anthology of Great Buddhist Priests' Zen#Seon in Korea, Zen Teachings". Printed during the Goryeo Dynasty in 1377, it is the ...

, the museum also has exhibits about the culture of Cheongju and the rest of Korea. The museum contains Buddhist cultural artifacts, in addition the museum also contains Jikji Simgyeong

type metal In printing, type metal refers to the metal alloys used in traditional Movable type, typefounding and hot metal typesetting. Historically, type metal was an alloy of lead, tin and antimony in different proportions depending on the application, b ...

. The museum contains

movable metal types, which was the first movable metal types invented in the world. Among the exhibits are woodblock prints and printing tools. For 5 years since 2011, the museum carried out the 30000 letters restoration project, this project was called "Koryo Metal Type Restoration Project". The museum contains exhibits about printing in Korean culture. In 2020, the museum held an exhibition about the discovery of Gyeongjaja () in 1420 and printing in the early Joseon Dynasty.

References

External links

Google Arts & Culture
{{Authority control Museums in South Korea 1992 establishments in South Korea Printing press museums Early Korean history