Jeju Folk Museum (제주민속박물관)

Jeju Folk Museum (제주민속박물관) is a public museum which carries many folk treasures of Jeju island’s inhabitants. All the exhibit items are real items that were used by people in the past. The first floor has a special exhibition room, and second and third floors have permanent exhibitions. The museum preserves about 10,000 artifacts, and ones we can actually see in display are about 3,000, such as folk instruments made of bamboo, dry rice-straws, and rocks. You can also see tools used by Jeju Island’s female sea divers, the clothes they wore going into the sea, and maetdol (millstone) they used. You can see fascinating items related to local religions, preserved from the old times, or ones involving old traditions of the area, and visit straw-roofed houses. Especially eye-catching sights are the traditional Jeju costume Galot, and Aegigudeok (baby’s cradle), the musical instrument “Ulsoe”, made up of five kinds of mirrors, and “Dorongi”, rain coat made of straw. The most eye-catching item, however, is the Sun-dial. Made for a single person to carry, it is extremely rare item. When you go out to the outdoor exhibition area, you can see many faces in a row. These are the “Jeju Mushin Gung” statues. At this place, you can witness the 143 Mushin statues which have been handed down from long ago. The “Mushin”s are gods that Jeju people believed would bring them happiness if they prayed to them with all their heart. These Mushins are recognized internationally as valuable artistic treasures, and sometimes the local people still visit and hold sacrificial ceremonies. If you get lucky, you may get to witness one of these ceremonies while you are there.