Seokdang Museum of Dong-A University, Busan, South Korea

The Seokdang Museum of Dong-A University is the oldest and the most highly regarded university-led museum in Busan, Republic of Korea. Established in November 1959, it houses an estimated 30,000 valuable items, making it one of the greatest collections of Korean cultural properties in Busan. We were made possible with the passion and dedication of Dr. Jae Hwan Jeong, the founder of the university, collecting the cultural properties to prevent them from being sold or leaving the country during the Korean War (1950-1953). The museum illustrates Korean history, life, and arts, from archaeological relics of the ancient period excavated by the museum staffs, to Buddhist antiquities of the Goryeo dynasty, to paintings and calligraphy of the Joseon dynasty, to architectural remains of the early modern period. Since the museum was moved to the former Government Headquarters of the Temporary Capital in May 2009, it fully utilizes this advantage for active exhibitions and social activities for the public as its primary mission.

Dong-A University Seokdang Museum houses a collection of about 30,000 valuable academic artifacts, including 2 national treasures, 11 treasures, 20 Busan City tangible cultural assets and more.

Exhibits include relics from a broad period of time and in various categories—archeological materials, art, and folk resources.

Dong-A University is a private university in Busan, South Korea. It is the only private university and one of two universities that has both medical and law school in Greater Busan, the second-largest city in South Korea.

The undergraduate and graduate academic programmes in archaeology, offered through the departments of Archaeology and Art History and the Dong-A University Museum, are the most well known in Korea.

National Treasure
National Treasure in the Republic of Korea refers to as heritage of a rare and significant value in terms of human culture and with an equivalent value to tangible cultural heritage, such as historic architecture, ancient books and documents, paintings, sculpture, handicraft, archaeological materials and armory.

Treasure
Treasure in the Republic of Korea refers to tangible cultural heritage of important value, such as historic architecture, ancient books and documents, paintings, sculpture, handicraft, archaeological materials and armory. This is regarded as a bit lower level than National Treasure beforehand.

Landscapes
The painting of landscape refers to a style of Korean painting that involves or depicts scenery or natural landscapes, literally representing mountains and rivers in the Korean peninsula. Highly influenced by the style of Chinese painting, the art style can be divided into landscape with actual scene, landscape with artistic forms, and landscape with actual scene but drawn by a brush and ink. Landscape with actual scene refers to the paintings for practice probably from the late Goryeo period to the mid-Joseon period. Next, landscape with artistic forms illustrates a combination of artists’ subjective emotions and actual views. Lastly, during the late Joseon period, landscape with the actual view had transformed the black-and-white by using a brush and ink. In so doing, this gallery covers the three kinds of paintings above drawn by excellent Joseon painters, such as Seon Jeong, Myeong-guk Kim, Yoon-kyeom Ki, Gwan-sik Byeon, etc.

Archaeology Gallery
This gallery illustrates outstanding archaeological objects from the Paleolithic era to Unified Silla period (AD 936) at the Korean peninsula: pottery, jewelry, armors, tools and weapons etc. It is interesting to note that the collection is uniquely important for the museum history because so much of it comes from documented excavations undertaken by the museum staffs from 1970s to 2000s. In so doing, the large topological series of objects above provide a unique insight into how people have lived and died near the Nakdong River.

Buddhist Art Gallery
This gallery shows the works of Korean Buddhist art collection based on its doctrine and religious belief. Buddhism, a religion that originated in India during the 2nd century B.C.E, spread eastward across much of Asia during the next thousand years. Following its strong religious and cultural presence, the Buddhist works of art, such as stupa, statue, painting and reliquary, was largely produced, due to the fact that Korean has given a local and distinctive interpretation and sensibility to the representation of the Buddhas as well as to the other images and symbols to the Buddhist art.