This study is concerned with the synthetic dyes introduced to South Korea since the opening of ports in 1876 through the 1940s, summarizing the synthetic dyes introduced to South Korea and discussing the phases of the development through an analysis o...
This study is concerned with the synthetic dyes introduced to South Korea since the opening of ports in 1876 through the 1940s, summarizing the synthetic dyes introduced to South Korea and discussing the phases of the development through an analysis of the printed media. This study conducted literature search focusing on the printed media issued since the opening of ports in 1876 through 1949 and analyzed the possibility of the application of synthetic dyes to the relics in the modern period through the measurement of colors based on this.
The synthetic dyes began as Mauve was synthesized in 1856. It has begun to be introduced to Joseon in earnest since its opening of ports in 1876. The early synthetic dyes came in through intermediary trade with China, Japan, and Russia, and as it concluded a treaty of amity with the western powers and started trading with them, some countries such as the U.K. and Germany, directly exported dyestuff to Joseon. Earlier than this period, the western pigments and dyestuffs had been handed down through China’s intermediary trade. In Joseon, the pigments coming from the west were differentiated from the existing names of the colors by putting the letter, ‘Yang’ meaning a foreign country, and some pigments such as Yangcheong, Yanghong and Yangnam shared their names with the dyestuffs. Later, as the volume of the introduced synthetic dyes increased with the vitalization of trade, the same principle could not apply, so they were subdivided, borrowing the existing names of colors and the names of natural dyestuffs.
In the 1930s, with Campaigns to wear Color Garments and the modernization of industries, synthetic dyes became popularized and the market expanded. The Campaigns to wear Color Garments in the 1930s were led by the government agencies, which were carried out forcibly and fast: e.g. People wearing white clothes were prohibited to enter public offices, or black paint was shot. Accordingly, each family dyed the existing clothes and wore dyed clothes. The education of dyestuffs and dyeing methods spread to each family through the Class of Synthetic Dyestuff, schools and printed media in the regions. On the premise that the education of dyeing methods for wearing colored clothes should be able to be attempted easily at each family, the dyeing methods were developed, centering around simple direct dyes, acid dyes, basic dyes and sulphur dye.
Since the mid-1930s, the modernization of the industries has advanced. Like other modern countries, the textile industry was mainly developed, in which less capital should be invested, and it would be easy to secure the market, and at factories with large facilities, weaving and dyeing fabrics were conducted in a lump. Especially, in the late 1930s, the rayon textile industry revived, so it was checked by Japanese companies. The use of synthetic dyes that have been kept for family use with the development of the industries expanded to the kinds and dyeing methods suitable for the industry.
This attempt led to the introduction of acid mordant dye and azoic dye with difficult dyeing methods but good fastness in the 1940s. It seems that the somewhat complicated dyeing methods unlike those of the existing dyestuffs were used without difficulty because of higher technical/educational institutions and the entry of the experts who came from Japanese weaving factories. In addition, this group of experts became the main axis filling the technology gap caused by the Japanese advanced technicians’ return to their home at a stroke, who had worked at dyeing and weaving factories since 1945.
The usual color name written together in the print media to express the colors of the synthetic dyes in writing are the materials that show the common views of colors at the time. The usual color names used for descriptions were mainly the names of the colors that had been used from the previous times or the materials of natural dyeing.
To check if the synthetic dyes were actually used in the relics in the modern period, the colors were compared through the measurement of the colors. To do so, malachite green, which appeared continuously from the 1870s through the 1940s and had less possibility of replacement by natural dyes was selected as a color appropriate for the measurement of the color, and the colors of four relics showing the colors, similar to the dye sample provided by dyestuff/chemical company, Dystar were measured. The color difference between the relics and the dye sample, ΔE is 19.54, 11.20, 26.26 and 27.38, respectively. For the colors of the relics and the sample, ΔE was over 0.6 based on the standard range of color difference (NBS unit), they were the colors looking very different from each other to the naked eye. However, three relics commonly had the bigger value of yellowness than the dye sample. It seems that yellowing affected the process of storing the relics because of UV or discoloration by time.