The bamboo salt tradition

Kim In-seok

Practitioner who completed Intangible Cultural Heritage transmission training · Sambo Jukyeom — Jeollabuk-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 23, bamboo salt manufacture

He calls making bamboo salt a calling rather than a business

Came to bamboo salt in 1989
First formal training in Korea
Completed training, 2004
Nine firings · 1,500°C

Portrait coming soon

PROFILE · introduction

Who he is

Kim In-seok came to bamboo salt in 1989 and was the first person in Korea to receive formal transmission training in bamboo salt manufacture. His teacher was Hyosan Heo Jae-geun, holder of Jeollabuk-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 23 for bamboo salt manufacture, who had been making bamboo salt since 1958.

Bamboo salt is made by packing bamboo tubes with sun-dried sea salt drained of its bittern for six months, sealing them with ocher and firing them over a pine wood fire — nine times over. Only the ninth firing melts the salt in a special kiln at 1,500 degrees. Every material, from the bamboo and the salt to the ocher and the pine, is Korean. He describes the process not as work that turns a profit but as work for people who are unwell.

Affiliation: Head of Sambo Jukyeom
Credential: Completed Intangible Cultural Heritage transmission training — Jeollabuk-do No. 23, bamboo salt manufacture
Taught by: Hyosan Heo Jae-geun — making bamboo salt since 1958
Started: 1989 · the first formal transmission training in Korea

PATH · the road here

What he did to get here

1958
Where his teacher began
Hyosan Heo Jae-geun began firing bamboo salt. This lineage was later designated Jeollabuk-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 23.
1989
He comes to bamboo salt
He received the first formal transmission training in bamboo salt manufacture in Korea and began making bamboo salt himself.
1993
Sambo Jukyeom is founded
He set up the company and began putting bamboo salt fired by the traditional method on the market.
1999
Selected for transmission training
In November he was selected for training in bamboo salt manufacture. The same year the company's technical adviser was designated holder of Jeollabuk-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 23.
2004
Completed formal transmission training
In January he completed transmission training in bamboo salt manufacture under Jeollabuk-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 23.
Today
Nine firings, unchanged
He keeps the traditional process of nine firings with Korean bamboo, sun-dried sea salt, ocher and pine firewood exactly as it is.

VALUES · principles

What he sets out to protect

A calling, not a business
He defines bamboo salt as work for people who are unwell rather than a product to profit from. It is also his reason for never shortening the process.
Every material from Korea
Korean bamboo grown at least three years, sun-dried sea salt drained of bittern for six months, ocher, pine firewood. Not one of them is substituted.
He never cuts the nine firings
Fewer firings would bring the cost down, but then it is no longer bamboo salt. The ninth firing, melting at 1,500 degrees, is what separates the quality.
The body of the person eating comes first
Salt is an ingredient to eat sparingly. So he focuses on making a salt that puts less burden on the body at the same amount.

“Bamboo salt is our people's medicine; only fired nine times is it the finest.”
Jeonbuk Ilbo interview — Kim In-seok, practitioner trained in bamboo salt manufacture

WORKS · what he has left

Results you can verify

Process

Korean bamboo grown at least three years, packed with sun-dried sea salt and sealed with ocher
Only sun-dried sea salt drained of bittern for six months
Eight firings over a pine wood fire
A ninth firing, melted at 1,500 degrees in a special kiln

Credentials and lineage

Completed transmission training in bamboo salt manufacture under Jeollabuk-do Intangible Cultural Heritage No. 23 (January 2004)
Selected for Intangible Cultural Heritage transmission training (November 1999)
Trained under Hyosan Heo Jae-geun · the first formal transmission training in Korea

ROLE · planned scope of collaboration

His role in this product

The place this person holds among the four axes: taste, health, tradition and maturation.

Adjusting the firing stages
He sets the firing stages to suit jeotgal, a long-matured food, so the taste does not break down during maturation.
Grain size for each raw material
Coarse for shrimp salted in the shell, fine for oyster that has to take it up quickly — the ratio of crystals to powder is blended to the tissue of each raw material.
Stable fermentation
He adjusts the bamboo-salt ratio and the maturation temperature by raw material so fermentation stays steady even in the reduced-salt range.

* The detailed scope of participation is under discussion and will be updated once confirmed

The other three

See all four

Sources

Compiled from publicly available material. If anything here is inaccurate, tell us through the contact page and we will correct it.