The National Museum of Korea displayed the complete 22-volume Daedongyeojido map by Gosan Kim Jeong-ho (1804-1866) on the wall of the "Path of History" lobby on the first floor of its permanent exhibition hall in Yongsan, Seoul, on Thursday.
The museum photographed its "Sinyu edition" — a woodblock-printed map personally created by Kim in 1861 — in high resolution and printed it on traditional Korean hanji paper before mounting it on the wall.
The display was scaled to 96.5% of the original map's dimensions (6.7 meters tall and approximately 3.8 meters wide) to accommodate ventilation facilities on the wall, the museum said. The map is freely accessible to all museum visitors.
The Daedongyeojido divides the Korean Peninsula into 22 horizontal sections from north to south, with each section compiled into a foldable booklet. The museum printed high-resolution data of its collection onto traditional hanji paper, enabling visitors to appreciate the map's grand scale and intricate details at a glance.
Kim Jeong-ho's Daedongyeojido is regarded as the definitive Joseon-era map, synthesizing Korea's cartographic research traditions. Mountain and water systems are depicted with precision, allowing viewers to grasp the nation's geographical framework. Roads are marked with dots at every 10 ri (approximately 4 kilometers) to help estimate actual distances.
The map also encodes diverse contemporary information through symbols, including administrative, military, economic, and transportation data. Notably, Kim created a separate legend — equivalent to modern map keys — enabling users to quickly understand extensive geographical information.
Korea's excellence in cartography dates back to the Honil Gangni Yeokdae Gukdo Jido, produced in 1402 during King Taejong's reign. Jeong Sang-gi's Dongguk Daejido, created during King Yeongjo's reign using the baengni-cheok scale system, and Shin Gyeong-jun's Dongguk Yeojido laid the groundwork for the Daedongyeojido.
Before creating the Daedongyeojido, Kim compiled hand-copied national maps such as Cheonggu-do and Dongyeo-do, along with geographical texts like Daedongjiji. These cartographic traditions culminated in the completion of the Daedongyeojido in 1861. The map's defining feature was its woodblock printing, which allowed wider distribution and portable use.
"This exhibition offers a precious opportunity to experience Kim Jeong-ho's great achievement and the beauty of our land by encountering the Daedongyeojido in its full grandeur, rather than only in book form," said Yoo Hong-jun, director of the National Museum of Korea. "I hope visitors will feel pride in the excellence of our traditional cartography through this map, which embodies the essence of Joseon-era science and art."
"The map was created focusing on lands where people actually lived at the time, so uninhabited islands were not marked," Yoo added. "It is regrettable that some disparage the map for not including Dokdo."