The National Hangeul Museum, under the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism, announced on the 8th that it will sign a memorandum of understanding with the Korean Confucian Culture Promotion Agency for "the discovery and utilization of regional Hangeul cultural heritage." Under the agreement, the two institutions will closely cooperate in ▲discovery and joint investigation and research of Hangeul cultural heritage, and ▲education, exhibitions and archiving of Hangeul cultural heritage.
As a first step under the agreement, the two institutions decided to jointly pursue a "Regional Hangeul Cultural Heritage Discovery Project." The project, running through this year and next, covers approximately 200 Hangeul documents from the Naju Im clan, a Soron faction family in the Chungnam region, entrusted to the Korean Confucian Culture Promotion Agency. The materials include Hangeul letters, death anniversary records and birthday records. Because the authors and dates of the documents can be identified, the collection is considered valuable for research on the linguistic and social history of the Chungcheong region from the 17th century onward. A joint research team will carry out deciphering, annotation and modern Korean translation of the materials.
The two institutions also agreed to hold a joint academic colloquium on September 3 under the tentative theme "Characteristics and Value of Hangeul Letters from the Naju Im Clan after the 17th Century." In particular, the event will present research findings on approximately 20 Hangeul letters excavated from the tombs of Im Se-geom (1657–1709) and his wife Lady Yi of Deoksu (1659–1718), which the Korean Confucian Culture Promotion Agency has been independently investigating.
"This agreement is a meaningful first step in which our museum collaborates with regional institutions to jointly study Hangeul cultural heritage and examine it from diverse perspectives," a National Hangeul Museum official said. "We will do our best to ensure that Hangeul cultural heritage from other regions can also be enjoyed by the public."