Tigers

In Korea tigers used to roam the mountains, reportedly until some time in the 20th Century. Koreans claim during the Japanese imperial administration, deforestation of the peninsula and hunting encouraged by colonial officials resulted in their elimination.

Tigers played an important traditional role in fables and childhood upbringing. If children didn't mind their parents wishes, or wandered too far off, they were told the tiger might carry them away. Years ago I was fascinated with the cultural focus on tigers. They had many qualities in art, whimsical, fantastic, dangerous, and strong. It's bad karma I guess to have too many images of tigers in one's home, but I collected some anyway. Images of a tiger apparently have some shamanistic property. A lot of young US soldiers I saw in South Korea, had the ubiquitous ferocious tiger embroidered on black jackets. I actually wasn't too fond of this aggressive image, but what the hell, maybe it keeps the bad spirits away, I don't know.

Below are three differing styles, the traditional folk painting (min hwa) of a tiger with an animist, whimsical style; a "realistic" style painting from the 18th Century by Kim Hong-do, a famous court painter (a copy by my wife's aunt) ; and a modern realistic rendition of the tiger coming down the mountain on white celadon:

Years ago, I bought this contemporary watercolor minwha tiger painting (below) from a street artist in Itawwon for about 15 dollars. It's one of my favorites.

The band Lee Nal-chi does a performance of Tiger comes down with the Ambiguous Dance Company in a Modern folk fusion performance. I haven't taken time to do the translation yet, but I'm gathering that it comes from the myth of a sea turtle that called a rabbit down the mountain, for a deceptive purpose. He erroneously called the rabbit "Ho" (tiger) instead of "Do" (rabbit). As a result the sleek, powerful, tiger came down the mountain inspiring mortal fear in the turtle. Ah, found a translation:

이날치(LEENALCHI) - 범 내려온다(Tiger is coming) Kor-Eng sub
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sMzIJNF0Do