On first encountering Korean folk paintings, the avid collector Soetsu Yanagi (1889-1961) was so intrigued that he wrote, "The beauty of this Korean painting is beyond compare."
Yanagi coined the term minga -- paintings by the people -- in the 1930s to refer to the folk art genre. The collector and scholar felt that the works of anonymous artists deserved recognition, and helped launch the mingei movement to draw attention to folk art from East Asia. In celebration of the 70th anniversary of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, which Yanagi helped establish, the museum is holding the exhibit "Soetsu Yanagi and the Folk Paintings of Korea," showcasing 100 Korean folk paintings from the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910).
During the Joseon Dynasty, in contrast to the monochromatic paintings on silk done by titled court painters, traveling Buddhist monks and craftsmen sold polychromatic paintings on rough brown paper to commoners. Whereas court paintings emerged from a tradition that revered refinement and formalism, folk paintings had the more functional purpose of celebrating good fortune, health and longevity. They drew their subject matter from shamanism, Taoism, Buddhism and Confucianism, incorporating landscape and nature imagery as well as portraits of religious figures.