Man's hat (gat) and skullcap (tanggeon)

This set includes a man’s brimmed hat (Korean: gat or heukrip), and a skullcap (Korean: tanggeon) that covered the hair and topknot underneath the hat.

The hat comprises a slightly narrowing cylindrical-shaped crown with a flat top (Korean: chongmoja), and a round and curved brim (Korean: yangtae) attached to the crown. This hat has fabric straps (Korean: gatkkeun) that could be tied below the chin. It was made of woven horsehair and bamboo and has a black lacquer finish. This type of hat was worn by men as part of everyday or formal dress outdoors and for ceremonial occasions. During the Joseon dynasty (1392-1910), the gat was worn by noblemen and was a sign of their social status, but at the end of the dynasty, the gat became a widespread and common headgear also worn among lower social classes.

The cap is lower in the front and higher in the back with a flat semi-circular top. It is loosely woven from horsehair. A thin thread of intertwined horsehair connects the corners of the lower front, probably to keep the tanggeon in shape. Another thread is fastened at the top centre of the semi-circular top. Tanggeon was worn by men and covered the topknot (Korean: sangtu) and the hair above a horse-hair headband (Korean: manggeon). The scholar-gentry class of the Joseon dynasty also wore an outer hat, called gat (see above), on top of the tanggeon when outdoors, or covered the tanggeon with other types of hats such as banggeon or jeongjagwan inside the house.