[Story about Korean Traditional Craft] The Korean Five Colors of Directions

While the western concept of color is about physics and optics, the five-direction colors, called ohbangsaek[o:baŋsek] - blue, white, red, black and yellow - are objects of symbolization in our daily lives.

The visual attraction of arranged colors is not considered important.
What's crucial are conpatibility and incompatibility between each ohbangsaek, based on the principle of the 'Yin, Yand and the Five Elements'.
The configuration of color strips in harmony with this principle was thought to be auspicious.

Feeling strange about the ohbangsaek? Then, sit quiet and contemplate the significance and meaning of the colors.

What Korean ancestor pursued with colors was the spiritual beauty in accordance with the cosmos, not a plain visual attraction.