There are a lot of historical stone monument in Korea. There are 3 kinds of monument roughly speaking. The first one is tombstone. The second one is monument for special historical event. Last one is the monument in honor of government official, for example governor and so on.
Today I’d like to post about the tombstone.
The meaning of the Tombstones seems to have a same meaning all around the world. The tombstone was built to commemorate the dead. So when I see the tombstone, I feel some strange feeling from my deep inside. Especially while seeing an old tombstone, that make me think again the meaning of life.
This tombstone was built more than 600 years ago. Its head was unique style compare to other common tombstone in Choseon Dynasty
close shot of the head part
common style
The common style’s head is similar to the roof of the traditional house.
Normally in tombstone, the name and the official position in government of husband and the family name of the wife was engraved. The First name of the wife was not written.
Interest thing is the name of the second wife was written in the case the husband married second time only when his first wife was dead.
The owner of this tombstone had had 2 wives.
The second wife had the same right as the first wife.
It was the first time for me to look at this style of unique head part. I don’t have any idea until now from where this tombstone was influenced.
Thank you for reading.