September 4 ran in two directions. In Cheongju, the 2026 Jikji Culture Festival opened. On the same day, the 9th Intellectual Property Day ceremony was held under the auspices of the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property. Jikji was added to the UNESCO Memory of the World Register on September 4, and Intellectual Property Day is an official commemoration day designated to mark that inscription.
The Jikji Culture Festival runs for three days from the 4th at the Cheongju Early Printing Museum and the plaza of the Cheongju Arts Center. A tally showed that some 3,000 citizens visited on opening day. The program includes a metal type casting demonstration and hands-on experiences with traditional printing culture. A fireworks show was also announced.
Molten metal is hot and gives off a smell. The wax burns, steam rises from the mold, and after it cools a single character the size of a fingernail comes free. A single book required several thousand such characters.
During the festival, a special exhibition surveying the media that have carried records was also prepared. The exhibition ranges from stone and clay tablets through papyrus and parchment to paper, and then to digital.
The slogan of the ceremony in Seoul was "Irreplaceable Republic of Korea." Starting with the first in 2018, this year marked the ninth. Kye Seung-gyun, an official of the Presidential Council on Intellectual Property, attended. The name of the commemoration day carries the words "intellectual property," and on the date that served as its basis sits a printed Buddhist scripture from more than 600 years ago.
At 5 p.m. on the 4th, Unlidan-gil near the Cheongju Early Printing Museum was turned into a car-free street and a flea market was held.
On the same day in Jeongeup, the Jeongeup Buddhist Federation held a memorial tea rite for the monk Baegun Gyeonghan to coincide with Jikji's inscription day. Ven. Daewon, president of the Jeongeup Buddhist Federation, Ven. Daeu of Naejangsa, Ven. Jayun, abbot of Mireugam, and Ven. Seongjong, abbot of Jeongtosa, attended. Shin Hyun-cheol, head of the Jeongeup Buddhist Lay Association, and Jeong Myeong-seong, head of the Baegun Gyeonghan Memorial Society, also took part.
There is something troubling about the commemoration. The original Jikji was printed in two volumes, upper and lower, and neither is in Korea. One copy of the lower volume is at the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
Both the festival and the ceremony are held without that book. The fact that the physical object that served as the basis for the inscription and the events honoring that object are divided between different countries is written nowhere in the program, yet it pervades the venues.
Jikji is described as the world's oldest extant book printed with movable metal type. The note that it preceded the Gutenberg Bible by 78 years also follows it. Some records give the year of inscription as September 2001, while others give only the date, September 4. The commemoration day was built on that date.
The festival runs through the 6th. To see the casting demonstration and the special exhibition, go to the Cheongju Early Printing Museum and the plaza of the Cheongju Arts Center.
