Woo, Korea, wedding accessories, wood. 'Kirogi' wedding duck, carved wood with black and red lacquer, Korea 18th - 19th century

Woo, Korea, wedding accessories, wood; separate head from wedding duck, carved wood with black and red lacquer, Korea 18th - 19th century

The duck comprises a separate body and head. The body is made of a single piece of wood which has been finely carved to deliniate wings and feathers. The eyes were formed by hammering two iron nails into either side of the head. Black, red, green and white lacquer had been used to paint the body, although most of this has not survived. The base of the body had been carved out, possibly in an attempt to prevent the wood from cracking.
The wedding duck, or kirogi, was once an important feature of the Korean wedding ritual. Wooden models of ducks, a bird which was traditionally believed to mate for life, were either made or commissioned to be made by the bridegroom. This duck was then presented to the parents of the bride as a symbol of the man's fidelity. The parents would accept the marriage proposal by the symbolic act of feeding noodles to the duck.
The presentation of a live goose was a custom that had been borrowed from Chinese Confucian wedding rituals. In Korean, this custum survived long after it had ceased in China, wooden geese and ducks had then been substituted for the live birds.
The style of kirogi varied greatly : from stylised example made of a section of log and an upright stick to more realistically carved one. The stylized, but more realistic carving of the feathers and the traces of pain which would have originally covered the entire surface of the bird,mindicate that this example may have been used in a wedding ceremony for those of higher rank.


Colour: Mainly wood-coloured with the remains of red, white and black lacquer

The groom brings wooden geese to the bride’s house in a ritual conducted as part of a traditional wedding, called jeonallye. At first live geese were used, but wooden geese started to replace live ones in the late Joseon period. Since geese are a symbol of loyalty and fidelity, wooden geese were used as a sign of the groom’s everlasting love towards his bride. This wooden goose has the underside of its belly hollowed out; the sides of its body decorated with raised patterns, and its neck can be disconnected. Big nails were used to express the eyes, and the beak has an incised line to suggest the upper and lower sections. This wooden goose bears traces of painting.

This simplified wooden figure of a duck was made for presentation by a groom to his parents-in-law as the centrepiece of the Korean marriage ceremony. Ducks and geese were believed to mate for life and the wooden duck would have symbolised the groom’s fidelity. The presentation of a live goose was initially borrowed from Chinese Confucian wedding rituals and the custom survived in Korea long after it had disappeared in China. Over time real geese were substituted with wooden geese and ducks (in Korean, ‘kirogi’), supposedly because it was so difficult to obtain the former.

The detailed rendering of this duck, with the realistic carving of its plumage and the traces of the paint that would originally have covered its entire surface, suggests that it was made for a high-ranking family.

FE.128:1, 2-1996