Rare Original Mid Century 1950s South Korea Korean War Taegeukgi Flag 48"

Description

Rare original vintage South Korean / Korean War era flag, circa 1950's. White cotton with screen printed design.

The Korean War was fought between North Korea and South Korea; it began on 25 June 1950 when North Korea invaded South Korea and ceased upon an armistice on 27 July 1953. North Korea was supported by the Soviet Union and China while South Korea was supported by the United Nations Command led by the United States

"The national flag of South Korea is named Taegeukgi (태극기, 太極旗). The flag has a red and blue Taegeuk symbol in the center, with sets of paired black lines called trigrams in each of the four corners of a white background. This flag was first created in the early 1880s by Joseon (1392–1897) state officials when Joseon Korea first forged diplomatic relations with Western nation-states. Korea had no national flag previously. The creation of the Taegeukgi was intended to represent Korea as a modern, sovereign nation-state at the turn of the twentieth century.

The central Taegeukgi design stems from ancient East Asian visual representations of the supreme forces of the universe and symbolizes the concept of harmony in the cosmos. The blue Taegeuk represents the negative forces of the universe (eum, 陰) and the red Taegeuk the positive (yang, 陽). According to tradition widely recognized in East Asia, the harmony of these two forces give life to all things in the universe and represent the ultimate truth of the great natural world.

Trigrams are composed of three lines that are either whole or broken and each trigram is affiliated with different components that make up the universe. Each of the four trigrams used on the Korean flag has a name: the geon (건, 乾), gon (곤, 坤), gam (감, 坎), ri (리, 離). In the Taegeukgi design, geon symbolizes the sky, gon represents the earth, gam stands for water, and ri for fire.

Condition

Good Overall - Gentle wear/discoloration

Dimensions

48" x 34" (Length x Width)