▲ Mr. and Mrs. Heo in front of the traditional silk loom. (ⓒ Park Do)

There is a proverb that says, “Peongju clothes are hot even to cousins.” It is said that if a person close to you becomes wealthy, you will also benefit, and silk clothes have been a precious fabric since ancient times as a symbol of wealth or success.

After the Korean War, chemical fibers such as nylon, polyester, and acrylic were once inundated, but people began to look for natural fibers again, and were fascinated by the elegance and warmth of silk fabric.

In the past, mulberry fields were common all over the country and many silkworms were caught, but when chemical fibers hit the board, most of them were cut down, and now only a few places can be found nationwide.

Hearing from a natural dyer that Hamchang, Sangju, Gyeongsangbuk-do, is still alive as the best silk town in the country, he went a long way.

I met Heo-Ho (46) and Min Suk-Hee (43), the owners of 'Heo's silk fabric' in Hamchang-eup, which is said to produce the most silk cloth from generation to generation among 50 producing households.

-Why is this region in the limelight as the main producer of silk?

"This is because the wide plain, climate, and soil quality are suitable for cultivating mulberry. This region is the home of Myeongju, and Sangju has a research institute for silkworm insects and a breeding ground, and Sangju University has a silkworm department."

-Since when have you been producing silk?

"Since time immemorial, whole villages have been weaving silk from ancestors generation after generation. I didn't learn much because of a difficult family, so I started helping my mother (Seo Ok-soon, passed away in 2000) weaving silk in her 20s, then jumped into earnest.

Later, her mother used electricity to weave in the traditional way on her silk loom, adding her automatic devices to greatly increase quality and production.

There was also the temptation of completely ultra-modern mechanization, but the traditional method was adhered to. If the factory had been built with complete mechanization at that time, the unique charm of Hamchang Myeongju would have disappeared and its existence would have been cut off."

-Is the silk thread you are currently weaving domestically?

“Honestly, most of them are from China. First of all, mulberry trees are not as common as before, and even if people raise silkworms, it is more profitable to raise them for medicinal purposes, so we don’t bother making them into cocoons.

▲ Traditional silk loom (ⓒ Park Do)

Originally, silkworm breeding was the homeland of China. Only silk thread made in China is never inferior to that made in Korea. The technique of weaving silk has unique know-how unique to Hamchang. There are skills, techniques and traditions that cannot yet be matched elsewhere.

Farmers now pay more attention to medicinal uses such as silkworm powder or cordyceps than silkworm cocoons, but if producing silkworm cocoons becomes more profitable, it will change directly to cocoon production.

-Please brag about the Hamchang silk.

“First of all, it preserves the indigenous classical beauty. To do so, it maintains a narrow width (15 inches) as it did in the past.

Second, there is a natural roughness. The rough feeling comes out only when weaving with thick thread, but thick thread is as stiff as wire, so you have to soak it in water to soften it. The method of weaving by soaking in water cannot be weaved with an automated loom, and it must be done according to the principle of the loom that was woven by hand in the past.

Thirdly, the fabric organization is very strong. It is woven in a soft state after being soaked in water, and when it dries, it is much stronger than woven with dry thread.

Fourth, because it is woven in the old way, it is not sensitive to fashion, so the product has a long lifespan.”

▲ The death in prison (left) and the cocoon of life and death (ⓒ Park Do) 

-What is the scale and type of silk production in Hamchang?

"About 50 households are producing it as a family industry. Half of silk is produced for veterinary clothing and half for fabric, and in the future, we will move in the direction of increasing added value. Is expected."

In order to create a silk museum in Hamchang, Mr. and Mrs. Heo and his wife showed various silk and weaving tools that collected the entire process from silkworms to the completion of silk thread, which are kept in every corner of the house.

The length of the thread pulled from one cocoon is said to be about 1400m. In the silk thread, there are raw silk and prison silk. Raw silk is made from a single thread of silk thread from a cocoon containing one silkworm, and prison silk is produced from two silkworms entering a cocoon to produce a single thread.

However, it is difficult to weave a single fiber in an orderly way, so it is tangled and has many nodes. In the old days, the quality of the prison was almost discarded, but these days, the prison is more precious and much more expensive, and silk as well as worldly affairs are said to be ‘new ongjima’ that are on the trend.

Ms. Heo said that her family was so poor that helping her mother weave silk without learning more than others became her lifelong job.

Mr. Heo also said that he hopes that at least one of his two sons will inherit the family business and continue the tradition of traditional culture as your heir, but smiled broadly, asking if he can do farming for his children.

Mr. Heo said that your work is very enjoyable as if it were a hobby, and the pleasure of developing a new product is indescribable.

▲ The spinning wheel used to spin silk (ⓒ Park Do)
 

Mr. Heo said, "Abandoning the idea that 'old things are inferior and bad' and recreating our old things in a modern way is the way to inherit traditional culture and win international competition," and spread the theory of traditional culture born from your own experience.

I went home with Mr. and Mrs. Heo’s greetings saying that they had planted mulberry trees around the newly moved factory and house, and said that they should come and taste the mulberries when they ripen next spring.