A wave of international maritime trade swept East Asia in the sixteenth century, which is known in Europe as the Age of Discovery. Silver, ceramics, spices, and slaves traveled across the oceans, and new European weapons like matchlock muskets (jochong) and breech-loading swivel guns (bullanggipo) arrived on East Asian shores. These new weapons threatened the security of Joseon-era Korea, but they also contributed to its defense.
Along with importing new weapons from Europe, the Joseon Dynasty authorities were continuously improving existing weapons and developing new ones. This also required refining their tactics and military systems accordingly. These efforts strengthened defense and supported national sovereignty. Moreover, they resulted in an increase in the number of professional soldiers and in the demand for weapons, invigorating commerce, industry, and mining.
The Jinju National Museum specializes in the history of the Japanese Invasions of Korea. It has been holding a series of special exhibitions on weapons of the Joseon Dynasty, starting with Bigyeokjincheolloe: The Time Bomb of the Joseon Dynasty in 2019. This year’s contribution is The Age of Gunpowder in Joseon II.
This exhibition takes the perspective of the history of civilization to introduce new weapons that arrived in Korea from across the seas. It sheds light on Joseon-era Korea’s efforts to protect the nation by developing and improving gunpowder weapons and the limits they faced from the seventeenth through the nineteenth centuries. How did Korea develop its firepower for over 300 years after the Japanese Invasions of Korea, and how was it eventually extinguished?
The second chapter of the story of the peak and decline of the development of gunpowder weapons in the Joseon era unfolds at this exhibition.