문양

What the cloth wishes for.

22 motifs from embroidered and gold-leaf bojagi, and the blessing each one carries.

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.