Gugak Museum, National Gugak Center

On the slopes of Umyeonsan in Seocho-gu, right next to the Seoul Arts Center, the National Gugak Center houses the Gugak Museum, opened in 1995 as Korea's only museum devoted to traditional Korean music. From huge court instruments to Joseon-era scores and instruments worn smooth by 20th-century masters, it lets you hear the history of Korean music as well as see it. Admission is free, so it fits neatly before or after a performance at the Center.

About the museum

The National Gugak Center is the state institution that continues the line of Jangagwon, the Joseon royal court's music office. Its museum collects and displays instruments, scores, music treatises and costumes, and has staged special exhibitions such as loans of music artefacts from abroad and displays of the Center's instrument research. When the permanent galleries were redesigned in 2019, the focus shifted to "listening exhibitions", with real sound in every room.

Gallery by gallery

• Gugak Tteul (court courtyard): the first room gathers the largest instruments used in court ceremonies: bronze bells and stone chimes in sets and singly, the great geongo drum, the tiger-shaped scraper eo and the box-shaped chuk. A 14-speaker (13.1-channel) sound system and 4K video play the Center's performances of the Jongmyo royal ancestral music, Yeongsan hoesang and Namdo sinawi.
• Sorip-um: a listening room for the sounds of the Korean peninsula, from rain, wind, waves and insects to laundry beating, a hand mill turning and voices reading aloud, recorded over 13 years by sound collector Kim Yeong-il.
• Instrument gallery: instruments are grouped as wind, string and percussion. Ancient traces include a string-instrument fitting (yangidu) thought to date from the 6th–7th century, and a replica and reconstruction of a 9th-century drum excavated from a pond at Hwawangsanseong Fortress in Changnyeong.
• Documents gallery: scores, treatises and paintings such as Daeak hubo (1759, a Treasure), the 1743 edition of Akhak gwebeom and the ten-panel screen of a 1902 court banquet.
• Archive gallery: recording media from cylinder phonographs to 1968 reel-to-reel tapes of Jeju folk songs, plus material from the Gugak Archive.
• Masters' gallery: belongings of performers born before the 1940s who founded their own styles, including Kim Cheon-heung's spring-oriole dance costume, Ji Yeong-hui's piri and haegeum, and Seong Gye-ok's Jinju sword-dance props.
• Hands-on room: try out how material and length change pitch and tone, which makes it a good stop with children.

Exhibits may change with new displays.

Tripto tips

• Opening hours: 10:00–18:00, last entry 17:30. Closed every Monday and on 1 January.
• Admission and booking: free, and individuals need no reservation. Groups must book by phone (+82 2-580-3130); on Wednesdays and Saturdays education programmes may limit access to some areas.
• Photography: allowed, but no flash or tripods, and no food or drink inside.
• Getting there: from Nambu Bus Terminal Station (Line 3) exit 5, take village bus Seocho 22; from Bangbae Station (Line 2) exit 1, Seocho 07, 15 or 17; from Naebang Station (Line 7) exit 3, Seocho 07 or 15. Blue buses 142 and 406 and green bus 5413 stop at "National Gugak Center/Raemian Art Hill". Parking is limited and paid, so public transport is recommended.
• Time needed: 1 to 1.5 hours to see the galleries properly.
• Combine with: book a performance at the Center, such as its Saturday shows, and the Seoul Arts Center is a short walk away.