Buyeo County has released the poster for the "2026 National Heritage Night Tour." The theme is mokgan, the wooden tablets that stand as a symbol of Baekje's record culture, and the stage is the old capital of Sabi after sundown. It has been announced as the first event of this year's Night Tour season, which runs from April along with Cheongju.
Mokgan are long, slender pieces of wood on which writing was set down in an age when paper was scarce. When they are excavated after enduring a thousand years in damp soil, the surface takes on a wet brown, and ink lines have blurred faintly along the grain. They are light in the hand, and they warp a little as they dry.
The writing on them was not the prose of kings. It is closer to tags hung on goods, working records counting grain and people, traces of practice where letters were written over and over. Rather than a language of the night left behind by Baekje, it is a record of hands that moved busily through the day.
Buyeo was the last royal capital of Baekje, which moved its capital to Sabi in 538. The present town center sits directly on the strata of that royal capital, so walking its alleys becomes walking over the ruins. This is why the Night Tour chose the form of walking instead of looking around an exhibition.
Opening heritage at night comes with costs to be borne. Records made of wood and ink are vulnerable to light and moisture, so they can hardly leave spaces where illumination, temperature and humidity are managed. The more the festival draws people, the more footsteps the ground of the site has to take. Operation that does not gloss over the tension between showing things and keeping them safe becomes the Night Tour's real ability.
At the same time, the Night Tour is also a night when the region introduces itself. Lights come on in streets that usually go quiet after sundown, and shops and residents greet visitors together. It is a time when heritage comes back from a stuffed exhibit to the backdrop of daily life.
Detailed schedules and program lineups have not been released. Only the poster has been distributed at this stage, so anyone planning to visit Buyeo in April would do well to check the county's announcements before setting a date. Buyeo on a spring night is cooler than by day, so an outer layer is worth packing.
Event information
Date: April 2026 (details not yet announced)
Venue: Buyeo area, Chungcheongnam-do
Host: Buyeo County
