Insadong: Breathing Its Last

Every South Korean used to need a seal for conducting legal affairs, andI was fourteen when I had my first seal carved. We could have gone to any seal shop in the neighborhood, but my father insisted that we go to Insadong and make a family outing out of it. “No, no, it’s your first seal. We cannot do it just at any store.” The place we went to was a small business run by the seal-carver himself. He explained different types of stone, carved my name by hand into the block of my choice, and pr