National Hangeul Museum

This guide to the National Hangeul Museum in Seoul opens with a family taking a knife to their own precious book, slicing off its cover and first pages just so it might survive. It follows the Hunminjeongeum Haerye, the original explanation of Hangeul commissioned by King Sejong in 1446, through generations of the Yi family of Andong who kept it hidden, and into 1940, when an art collector named Jeon Hyeong-pil learned of the manuscript's existence under Japanese colonial rule. The guide traces what Jeon noticed about the damaged pages, and the promise he made about where the book came from. Look closely at the letters on the walls around you.