A cloth for wrapping good fortune.

Where bojagi comes from

Korea; earliest surviving example late Goryeo (c. 14th c.); most survivors late Joseon (19th–early 20th c.)

보자기 is 褓 ('wrapping cloth') plus suffixes; plain 보 was the older word, and the form 보자기 is first written down only in the 1890s. No one knows when wrapping cloths began; the Samguk yusa (compiled in Goryeo, 1280s) tells how Gaya's founder came down from the sky in a golden box wrapped in red cloth, but that is legend, not a record of practice. The oldest surviving bojagi is an embroidered late-Goryeo cloth in the Jeonju City Museum, probably a sutra wrapper. In Joseon, sumptuary rules reached even wrapping cloths: in 1408 a servant's yellow bo, the Chinese emperor's colour, led to two officials' exile. The court ordered bojagi to fixed sizes (상방정례, 1752) and logged them in 발기 inventories and wedding 의궤; these single-piece silk and ramie 궁보 contrast with 민보, the household cloths that women sewed from scraps and embroidered at home. Wrapping something was also thought to keep its 복 (fortune) inside, which is why wedding gifts were always wrapped. Everyday use faded after the 1950s, but collectors such as Huh Dong-hwa from the 1960s, museum exhibitions from the 1980s, and today's artists and biennial Korea Bojagi Forum (since 2012) recast bojagi as art.

Bojagi are still used to wrap wedding gifts and holiday presents, and patchwork bojagi is taught and exhibited worldwide; the Huh collection is now at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art.

The name

보자기 is defined as a square piece of cloth made for wrapping or covering things (물건을 싸거나 덮어두기 위하여 천을 가지고 네모나게 만든 피륙). Its 보 is the Sino-Korean 褓 (포대기 보; radical 衣). The National Institute of Korean Language traces the word as 褓 + Chinese suffix 子 (보ᄌᆞ) + Korean suffix -기, giving 보자기. 보자기 is first attested in the late 19th century, as 보작이 (국한회어, 1895) and 보ᄌᆞ기 (한영자전, 1897). Before that, plain 보 was used (15th-17th c.). Dialect forms include 보재기 and 보시. Related words are 보따리, 보퉁이, 봇짐, 보쌈, and 보부상 (褓商). The 복 association: the encyclopedia notes that 袱 (복, another character for wrapping cloth) was believed to be connected with 福 (복, fortune). The encyclopedia also links the bojagi's main colors (청·적·황·백·흑) to a folk belief in warding off misfortune and inviting fortune (액을 막고 복을 부르려는). Wikipedia reports a folk belief that keeping things wrapped brought good luck. The popular phrase '복을 싸다' (wrapping up fortune) is a modern gloss of this belief, not a documented historical term.

Wrapping and carrying

Korea, all periods; most surviving cloths late Joseon (19th-early 20th c.)

Before bags and plastic, Koreans of every class wrapped and carried in square cloths: books to school, food to the fields, goods on a peddler's back, a traveller's belongings on a shoulder strap, loads on the head. A cloth folds flat when empty, which suited small homes, and mothers sewed dozens for a daughter's trousseau. Because 袱 (bok, wrapping cloth) sounded like 福 (bok, fortune), people believed that wrapping something kept its luck inside, and wedding cloths especially carried wishes for a long marriage and many children. The care taken over the wrap showed respect for the person receiving it. Everyday use faded after the 1950s-70s.

Since the late 2000s bojagi wrapping has returned for holiday gifts and weddings, prized as reusable and eco-friendly; in 2026 holiday gift sets in Korea moved from gold satin to bojagi.

Patchwork

Joseon, mostly late Joseon (19th century) to mid-20th century; made in ordinary homes

Jogakbo (조각보, 'piece cloth') is patchwork bojagi sewn from offcuts left over from making clothes, including the curved pieces cut away in shaping hanbok. Women made them at home as part of everyday needlework, and the habit of saving scraps reflects a household economy where cloth was costly; scholars call it an 'aesthetic of waste' (폐품의 미학). Most surviving pieces date from the 19th to mid-20th century and served as wrappers and food covers. Bojagi were not collected as art in Korea until the late 1960s, when Huh Dong-hwa and his wife Park Young-sook began buying them; their Museum of Korean Embroidery opened in Seoul in 1976 and from 1986 sent bojagi and jogakbo exhibitions to Japan, Britain and beyond. Huh often compared jogakbo to the geometric abstraction of Piet Mondrian and Paul Klee, a comparison now standard in writing about them, though the makers worked centuries before and without any such idea.

In 2018 the couple gave more than 5,000 textiles to the Seoul Museum of Craft Art, where the collection is now shown. Jogakbo inspire contemporary artists and designers such as Chunghie Lee and Lie Sang-bong, and bojagi classes are taught in Korea and abroad.

Knots of the cord

Korea; braided cord from the Lelang/Goguryeo era, codified as a court craft in Joseon

Korean knotting (매듭) grew from practical cord-tying into an ornamental craft: a flat braid (광다회) was excavated from a Lelang-period tomb and braided cords appear in the Goguryeo Muyongchong mural. In Goryeo knotwork was a luxury of noblewomen; in Joseon it spread to palanquins, dress and daily life, and the Daejeon Hoetong lists court knot-makers (매집장/매듭장) in the Board of Works and the Sangeuiwon. The work was divided: 다회장 braided the silk cord (다회, round 원다회 for knotting, flat 광다회 used directly as ties) on a 다회틀, the 매듭장 tied the knots and made tassels. Its showpieces are the 노리개 pendants worn on women's hanbok and the large 유소 tassels for instruments, banners and biers. Bojagi share the same household world: wedding cloths are closed with a 동심결 on blue-and-red thread, and sewn-on corner ties are often finished with knots or tassels. Demand collapsed after the late 19th century, and 매듭장 was designated Important Intangible Cultural Property No. 22 on 23 December 1968.

Today the craft is taught by heritage holders (the Jeong Yeon-su / Choe Eun-sun / Jeong Bong-seop family line, Kim Hee-jin) and appears in norigae, accessories, and hanbok and gift-wrap finishing.

Colour

East Asian yin-yang and five-phase (음양오행) thought; applied to Korean textiles through Joseon

오방색 (formally 오방정색) are the five 'correct' colours, blue, red, yellow, white and black, each tied to a direction and one of the five phases (wood, fire, earth, metal, water); mixed 간색 sit between them. The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture names these five as the main colours of embroidered bojagi and links them to a folk wish to 'drive off misfortune and invite blessing' (제액초복) through yin-yang harmony. Colour was also regulated: in 1408 owning a yellow cloth (reserved for the Chinese emperor) got two officials banished, and a 1469 order barred commoners from red-dyed wrappers. Bojagi were classed by colour as 청보, 홍보, 청홍보, 오색보 and more.

Five-colour schemes now read as a shorthand for 'traditional Korean' in hanbok, wedding goods and gift wrap, and contemporary bojagi makers use them freely.

Motifs

Joseon households (embroidered 수보) and court workshops (gold leaf, painting)

Embroidered bojagi (수보) were made mainly for weddings, and their motifs (trees, flowers, fruit, paired birds) were read as wishes for blessing: the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture calls the tree the most typical, and the pomegranate the classic sign for many children and sons. A 2009 study describes these cloths as carrying women's modest wishes in symbolic patterns. Gold leaf (금박), stamped from carved wooden blocks onto glue, marked dignity and status; in Joseon it decorated royal ceremonial and wedding clothes, and wedding bojagi carry gold-leaf characters such as 囍 and 多男 and paired phoenixes. Court cloths also used woven, painted (당채) and printed motifs.

Gold-leaf work is a National Intangible Cultural Heritage craft (금박장, designated 1973) still practised in Seoul, and the Huh Dong-hwa embroidery collection is on show at the Seoul Museum of Craft Art.

How bojagi differs from furoshiki

• Ties (끈) sewn to the cloth. Strings attached at the corners are described as one of the distinctive features of Korean bojagi (보자기의 귀퉁이에 끈이 달린 것도 우리 보자기의 특징 중 하나이다). Korea Times likewise divides bojagi into blanket types and covers 'whose ends have strings attached'. Palace 솜보 have silk ties stitched in a cross (+) at the center of the outer face, running diagonally to the corners. One example has ties of 48 cm and 58.5 cm. Clothing and bedding wrappers (옷보, 이불보) have strings at the corners.
• Covers with a central handle. 상보 (food/table covers) have a knot or loop at the center for lifting. Some have oiled paper (기름종이/유지) on the underside: 식지보.
• Patchwork (조각보) is a core Korean genre. It is made from offcuts left by the curved cuts of hanbok, and the visible seams form a 'window-pane' design.
• Classes of user. Bojagi are classed as 궁보 (palace) and 민보 (folk). Patchwork arose among commoners, not at court.
• Construction layers. 홑보, 겹보, 솜보 and 누비보 (single, lined, padded, quilted) are standard categories, so many bojagi are thick, lined objects rather than a single hemmed sheet.
• Shared tradition. Korea, Japan and China all have wrapping-cloth traditions. A Museum of Korean Embroidery curator says it survives in only a few countries, including Japan, Turkey and Korea. Avoid framing bojagi as derived from furoshiki or vice versa.