1940s Korean Vintage Wallpaper — Sookja (original / ivory / timber green)

Sookja dates to 1946. Its repeating structure is built from interlocking crosses that generate an octagram grid — a geometric grammar originating in Byzantine mosaic and decorative arts. That grammar traveled to Korea along two distinct routes: westward through Italy, France, and England, where it fused with Gothic Revival encaustic tile and Majolica beading ornament; and eastward through the Russian Orthodox tradition into Slavic folk embroidery, carried further east by White Russian émigrés in Harbin and the aesthetic of Manchukuo Modernism. The two lineages converged in early 20th-century Shanghai and Manchuria — Asia’s design hubs — before reaching the Korean peninsula, either through Shanghai’s Haipai eclecticism (which inserted Eastern motifs into Western geometric frames) or through Japanese manufacturers influenced by Manchurian design. The pattern’s most telling detail is its medallion center: where a Western design would place a cross or classical floral, Sookja carries a four-petal flower echoing the Korean dangcheong juhwamun (柱花文) and corner ornaments resembling soikkomun (여의두문) — traditional East Asian auspicious symbols quietly substituted into a Western structural frame. The vermicular background texture derives from late 19th-century British sanitary wallpaper technology, used to mask ink irregularities from roller printing while adding decorative light-scatter across the wall surface. GOSATE’s reproduction digitally restores the original pattern, printed on premium non-woven base paper manufactured in Sweden. Available in three colorways: Original, Ivory, and Timber Green.   Roll size : 50cm by 10M Material : Non-woven paper Made in Sweden, Design in Korea