About Kimchikan In traditional Korean society, the place
for making side dishes was called ‘Chankan’, the place for
preparing the king’s meals was ‘Surakan’ and the place for
keeping foodstuffs was called ‘Gotkan’. We took the suffix
‘kan’ from these words and created the name ‘Kimchikan’ in the
hope that the museum will display diverse […]
Introduction introduction
About Kimchikan
In traditional Korean society, the place for
making side dishes was called ‘Chankan’, the place for
preparing the king’s meals was ‘Surakan’ and the place for
keeping foodstuffs was called ‘Gotkan’. We took the suffix
‘kan’ from these words and created the name ‘Kimchikan’ in the
hope that the museum will display diverse aspects and stories
of Kimchi and enable visitors to feel, experience, and enjoy
it.
1986
Kimchi Museum first opened in
Pil-dong, Jung-gu, Seoul.
1987
Pulmuone took over the management
of the museum. It was the first Kimchi museum in Korea, and
remained as the country’s only food museum for a long time.
May 1988
The museum moved to the Korea
World Trade Center Complex in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. Numerous
foreign tourists who visited the country for the 1988 Seoul
Olympics stopped by the Kimchi Museum and opened their eyes to
the uniqueness and various benefits of Kimchi. This marked the
start of the globalization of Kimchi.
2006 After
Health magazine in the U.S. listed
Kimchi among the five healthiest foods in the world, people
around the world became more interested in its taste and
nutritional benefits. Major global broadcast networks such as
BBC, NHK and CNN frequently introduced the Kimchi Museum on
their programs, enhancing its renown as a prestigious museum
promoting Kimchi among people around the world.
December 2013
The culture of Kimjang was
designated as a UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage.
March 2015
Kimchi Museum became the only
Korean museum to be selected among the world’s 11 top food
museums by CNN.
Apr. 21, 2015
After finishing its days as the
Kimchi Museum, which shared a variety of stories and values of
Kimchi with millions of visitors from Korea and overseas, it
reopened as Museum Kimchikan in Insa-dong, Jongno-gu, a key
tourist area in downtown Seoul. While Kimchi, which used to be
a daily side dish on the tables of the Korean people, has
gradually moved closer into the lives of the people around the
world, the museum has also evolved both tangibly and
intangibly to respond to such a change. Museum Kimchikan, a
new museum of Kimchi based on a long tradition, is starting to
tell new stories of the old food, Kimchi, to both Koreans and
people throughout the world.
