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Strainer

unknownRepublic of Korea/Since the Liberation of Korea

National Folk Museum of Korea

National Folk Museum of Korea
Seoul, South Korea

Jori, also called seokmichu, is a strainer that sorts small stones from rinsed rice before steaming it. Rinsed rice that sinks at the bottom of a bowl is mixed with many small stones. In order to filter these stones, the toothed rice washing bowl is shaken and the rice is poured into another bowl repeatedly, thereby filtering the stones with the teeth inside of the rice washing bowl. Then water is added to the rice in the rice washing bowl and jori is repeatedly dipped in a certain direction to stir the rice. The grains of rice begin to float into jori, while stones sink to the bottom. Jori was generally dipped in an inward direction in the hope to bring good fortune into the household. Jori was mainly woven out of bamboo or bush clover into a shape of a ladle, which was an appropriate design since it strained rice grains easily and filtered stones from grains. Noodle jori, made of willow branches, was much larger in size and woven more loosely than jori used for grains. Jori was made by intertwining split bamboo strips, which were joined at the handle. Jori was such an essential cooking utensil that every home was normally equipped with two or three of them. Today, however, as there is no need to sort stones from rice, and jori has been replaced by a plastic bowl, it only serves as a symbol of luck in a form referred to as bokjori, or fortune strainer, which is generally purchased in the first lunar month. Since old times, Koreans hung two crossed jori on the wall of the main floored room or main room, hoping that jori would bring good luck into their home, since it keeps good things and filters out bad things.

Details

  • Title: Strainer
  • Creator: unknown
  • Date Created: Republic of Korea/Since the Liberation of Korea
  • Location: 한국
  • Physical Dimensions: Overall length 47.5 Handle length/shaft length 37
  • Type: Eating/Cooking/Cooking Tool/Strainer
  • Medium: Wood/Bamboo

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