The roofs of the palace gates are hipped while the roofs of the main structures are hipped and gabled. Decorative ceramic figures in the shape of dragons and other animal heads are at each end of the ridges and rows of chapsang, which are clay figures derived from a popular Chinese story, line the sloping ridges to guard against evil spirits.The photo I was researching the description for didn't have the clay figures on the roof, but some photo's I'd already written descriptions for, and some I had yet to write descriptions for did. So I thought I should do some research on the 'chapsang' so I could improve the descriptions for my photos featuring the roof sculptures.
However, a google search for 'chapsang' didn't reveal anything relevant. I also tried the Korean transliteration '찹상', which came up with 1 result, that was just a page with a couple of lines of content (maybe a 404 or error page).
The terms in the article are using the McCune Reischauer transliteration of Korean, while the tool I used to convert 'chapsang' to '찹상' uses the Revised Romanisation transliteration (I think). So I tried to see how 'chapsang' transliterates to Hangeul using the McCune Reischauer system, but it seemed to be the same, still 찹상.
Next I just tried googling for various terms like 'Korean roof sculptures', 'Korea roof statues', 'Korea roof guardians', 'Korean roof figures', and various variations along those lines. I checked a number of results for each search, so it took quite a long time.
I remembered that I'd seen a photo of the roof sculptures in one of my previous searches, so I thought I should try and find that page again, since it might have had more information on the roof statues. I remembered that it mentioned that some of the roof figures were of monkeys, so I tried searching for 'Korea Roof Monkeys', but couldn't find the page I was looking for, or any other relevant pages.
Then I remembered that the page had come up before when I looking for information about the Chinese Zodiac statues outside the National Folk Museum of Korea. So I searched for that again, and found the page I was looking for, on the second page of results.
But unfortunately, the information about the roof figures on that page didn't give much info on them. Going back to the original page that started my quest for information on the roof sculptures, I saw it said they were
derived from a popular Chinese story. So searching for 'Chinese figures roof', I finally hit some info. Unfortunately the article only gives info on their use in China. But it does include three different Chinese names that the roof figures were known by, both in traditional and simplified Chinese.
So I tried searching for the traditional Chinese names, one at a time, on google.co.kr, and selecting to only show Korean search results. I then checked a number of pages for each result to see if they had anything relevant. But none of the pages had any images of the Korean roof sculptures.
After lunch I started trying to research the description for another photo, and strangely enough, I found some info on the chapsang roof decorations that I'd been trying to get info on all morning. It turned out that the revised romanisation of the roof decorations is not 'chapsang', but rather 'japsang', or 잡상 in Korean. So then I spent quite a bit of the afternoon trying to find info on Japsang.
While I did find some info (they are based on the characters from a Chinese story, 'Journey to the West'), I didn't find out much more than that. If only I knew Korean or Google translate would provide good translations. Some resources I found were
- http://blog.daum.net/gjg695/15720033
- http://blog.korea.kr/app/log/chlove/40606501
- http://picpoke.com/im/2b89kk
So all my searching had resulted in very little info on the roof sculptures. I also checked my guide to Changdeokgung that we brought back from Korea with us, but I couldn't find any info about the roof statues in there either. My searching on this subject took me most of the morning.
I went in the garden for a bit, then did more photo research/description writing. I had a photo of a throne, and found a couple of websites with brief info on the throne here and here. But then I realised that my photo was of a different throne. Unfortunately my photo was geocoded as being outside Geunjeongjeon (the main throne room), which is incorrect. Google searching for 'throne gyeongbokgung' just brings up photos of the throne in Geunjeongjeon, not the throne I had a photo of.
The next photo I had was of an information board, so I assumed this information board must be near where I had taken the throne photo. Taking the name of one of the buildings from the information board, gave quite a few results, but none seemed to be of the correct building (the buildings were all closed up so you couldn't see inside them).
Next I checked on panoramio, and one by one clicked through the photos in the area I thought the building containing the throne might be in. After a few clicks, I found a photo of inside a building, with the same inside as my photo (the photo was looking up more so you couldn't see the throne). So I looked up what building that photo had been geotagged to, and found it was Cheonchujeon 천추전. I did a google search for 천추전, and found various photos, but it didn't seem to be the correct building.
So I went back to panoramio, and checked through some more of the photos nearby, and found one of the same throne as my photo. It was in a different position to the previous photo, but by the same person?!
So I found the names of the other buildings nearby, and proceeded to check them in google to try and find photos of them to determine if they were the same building as my photo. I also used 360cites.net and checked the panos there to see if I could see a building with open doors/windows and railings so you couldn't go inside.
Eventually I checked Sajeongjeon, and found that one of the websites that I'd initially used to get info on the throne before I realised it wasn't the same throne as the one in Geunjeongjeon. And when I checked the page, it had a photo of the throne in Sajeongjeon (as well as the photo of the throne in Geunjeongjeon I'd been looking at before). So instead of an hour or two searching, I could have just scrolled down that page, and would have found the location info I wanted. Doh!
In the evening I watched an episode of Equalizer, then did backups while reading bythom.com (who had an impressive overhaul of his home page for April Fools day), nikonrumors.com, and canonrumors.com.
The weather was a mixture of clouds and sun, though mainly sunny until sunset when it started to cloud over more. Not sure if there was a sunset, as I can't see where the sun sets at this time of year, but I didn't see the clouds get lit up at all, so I'm guessing not.
Food
Breakfast: Bowl of Asda Golden Balls Cereal; Cup o' Tea.
Lunch: Mature Cheddar Cheese Sandwich made with Bread-maker-made Bread; Crust of Bread-maker-made Bread with Blackcurrant Jam; Cup o' Tea.
Dinner: 2x Sausages; Fried Leek; Fried Sliced Mushrooms; Potatos; Carrots; Gravy. Pudding was a slice of Home-made Chocolate Cake with Cream. Coffee.
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