history

The handicraft of making different kinds of necessities and ornaments with various grasses and stems, leaves and bark of trees is called grasswork.

It has the longest history among folk crafts and has been developed and enriched in close relation to the people’s economic and cultural life.

It spread among broad sections of people because there were abundant raw material resources and it could be easily made without special equipment or tools and with comparatively less labour.

Unlike ceramics and metalwork, materials for grasswork are so prone to rot away that it is difficult to preserve for a long time. However, a piece from a reed mat unearthed in the Namgyong site in Honam-ri, Samsok District, Pyongyang, remains a very old historical relic.

Originated in the ancient times (3000 BC-3rd century BC), the earliest period of human society, grasswork further developed in the period of the Koryo dynasty (918-1392) thanks to the creative labour of the people.

During this period, such materials as sedge, bush clover, reed, osier, rice straw, hemp and arrowroot were used to make basket, mesh bag, winnow, straw sandal, rope, string, kat (a kind of hat), net and other products.

In the period of the feudal Joson dynasty (1392-1910), grasswork made further progress thanks to the creative labour of the resourceful and talented working masses, with the main emphasis put on sedge crafts.

Today, grasswork is developing further in the DPRK, winning popularity among the Korean people.