Swords engraved with Yi Sun-shin’s poem to become national treasure

The Cultural Heritage Administration announced on Thursday to include on the national treasure list long swords with poems of Chungmugong Yi Sun-shin, a naval commander during the Joseon Dynasty, written on them.

Kept in Hyeonchungsa Shrine in Asan, South Chungcheong Province, these two swords, two meters in length and five kilograms in weight (scabbards included), are presumed to have been used for ceremonial purposes, not in battlefields.

The admiral's poems are written on the blades of the two swords – “swearing to God to make the mountains and rivers shiver” and “brandishing the sword to make the mountains and rivers bloody.” The engraved letters on their tangs show who made them and that they were manufactured in 1594.

Grouped with other objects, such as Yi’s waistband, the artifacts were already designated as a national treasure in 1963. However, they were later reassessed as the symbol of the general’s historical significance, based on which efforts were initiated to classify them separately as national treasure.


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