Traditional Korean Dance for Chuseok

Traditional Korean dance. Women dancing in circular arrangements.

Really interesting:

This dance originated as a military tactic in the Joseon Dynasty when women and their daughters dressed in hamboks and danced in circles on mountain tops to intimidate Japanese invaders. I suppose when the Japanese were looking up at a mountain-top with a constant stream of women dancing, there was no way for them to gauge the population of their village or city. Hence, the Japanese would be confused in estimating the size of the opposing Korean military force.

Today, masters of traditional Korean dance are considered “national living treasures.” While Korea was occupied by Japan between 1910 and 1945, the knowledge of traditional Korean dance was secretly kept alive despite attempted “cultural genocide.“  The more I learn about Korean history, the more I realize why there’s so much tension between Korea and Japan still today. I wrote a post on the history of Korean pottery a while back, uncovering what was a similar political situation between Korea and Japan during the Pottery Wars.

While I was eating at a Korean restaurant earlier today, I noticed the same patterned dance at a Chuseok festival on the news.