Did you know in ancient Korea women were given coins featuring different sexual positions on their wedding day so they could learn the positions? That is just one of the many interesting things I learned at the Love Castle Sex Museum in Gyeongju, South Korea. Travelers always talks about the Seoul Sex Museum but it is utter shit compared to the Love Castle.
This quirky and offbeat museum covers sex over the course of nearly 2,000 years of Korean history plus a variety of modern sex exhibits and art from around the world. Visitors can easily spend a good hour exploring this museum. Or three hours if you are like me 😉
The Love Castle Sections & Exhibits
The Gyeongju Sex Museum is divided into a series of different indoor and outdoor galleries but not nearly 14. There are five sexy sections of the Love Castle: the hall of history, penis park, outdoor sculpture garden, adult artwork/antiques collection, and love road. Now let’s go for a tour, shall we 😉
Section #1
The Hall Of History
Step into the Love Castle past the pair of giant wooden penises and be thrust back in time nearly two millennia. From wooden dildos and coins decorated with different sexual positions to pornographic clay sculptures and pottery, this sprawling collection of ancient artwork, trinkets and what the fuck items laid out in chronological order.
See More 11 Mildly Disturbing Scenes at Love Castle Sex Museum
Beyond just wooden dildos and pornographic pottery, some of the more interesting historic items include:
Chunhwabyeoljeon — Korean sex coins
Byeoljeon are special coins representing the pinnacle of metal artwork in Korean history. Chunhwabyeoljeon are the sexual ones designed to bring wealth and fertility to their owners. These ancient erotic coins featured four sexual positions and were a traditional Korean wedding gift for daughters so that they could learn the basic sexual positions. Guaranteed to make the wedding night unforgettable!
Taboo Toewoo
Toewoo are traditional Korean clay sculptures (also known as togyeong or toyoing) that ranged basic dolls and decorations to charms for incantations, often included within the grave along with their owner. They became very popular during the Silla Dynasty of the 5th and 6th century. Although many coins were harmless animals, a lot of them were sexual sculptures and erotic artwork.
There is even a collection of erotic artwork from the 17th and 18th centuries. Chunwha, which translates to “spring picture”, is a genre of paintings depicting sexual intercourse between a man and woman, occasionally with a curious/jealous third person watching from the corner. Chunhwa is considered to heighten the elegance of erotic art by describing human sexual desire in a realistic and aesthetic way.
Soft-Core Chunwha
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And now onward to the next section of the sex museum!
Section #2
Penis Park @ Love Castle
Short ones, fat ones, big ones….they are all here! The “forest of phallic symbols” was built because of an old legend from Samcheok in Gangwon province and intended to wish all visitors of the sex museum prosperity and health. According to the legend:
In a seaside village a beautiful young virgin girl named Aerahng was engaged to a local fisherman. One day Aerahng tragically drowned at sea while her fiancee watched, unable to save her. Following her death there was a shortage of fish in the sea and this was attributed to Aerahng. To appease her spirit village locals “performed a ritual in front of a male phallic symbol” and soon the fish returned and the village became prosperous.
Not sure that I want to know what this particular ritual was, but there you have it, that’s the story behind the penis park of Love Castle. And here are the photos
Section #3
Sexual Sculpture Gallery
Survive your trip through the penis park and you’ll enter the sexual sculpture gallery. Each work of art has a name, more often than not it’s a humorous one ― for example, the dog wearing the strap-on watching his owners having sex is entitled “After You”
Section #4
Adult Antiques & Artwork
Male and female chastity belts. Antique pornographic porcelain figurines. Historic stone carvings and bronze figurines. Plus a few modern pieces of artwork created in similar fashion to these older artifacts from around the world. All of it can be found in this second building past the garden.
Skip The Animal Sex Section
Although the Love Castle focuses almost entirely on human sex, primarily in Korean history, there is one mildly disturbing theater that covers animal sex. Unless you have the urge to see pig penises and other disturbing up-close less than glamorous animal genitalia/fornication scenes that you can never un-see, I would recommend skipping this section.
Section #5
Love Road
When you reach the entrance to Love Road your journey through the Love Castle is nearly complete. Along this road are speakers playing audio clips of sex from different countries and a nice overhead view of the Love Castle grounds.
Don’t forget to add your love lock to the giant cock 😉
And finally, because no journey down Love Road would be complete without a little car sex, here is your very own car sex how-to guide
BONUS
Sexy Souvenirs
Skip the castle cafe but do stop in the rest area with the tables and restaurants right after it. In there you’ll find several adult vending machines with some sexy souvenirs to take home 😉 About 90% are for women, but there are a couple of items in there for men. I was able to get this nice souvenir for only ₩7,000~
Want to see more? Check out these mildly disturbing scenes from Love Castle Sex Museum:
How To Get To The Love Castle
Gyeongju, the former capital of the 1,000-year-long Silla dynasty, is now a sleepy little historic city in Southeast Korea about an hour north of Busan. Although Gyeongju is a semi-popular tourist destination because of its impressive history and many temples, the Sex Museum is located off the beaten path on the eastern outskirts of the city.
The easiest way to get to the Love Castle is via bus #10 or #11 — both stop directly in front of the Love Castle. The bus can be caught from Gyeongju city center, Gyeongju bus station, or even Bulguksa Temple.
Entrance fee is ₩12,000 ($10 USD) per person and the bus ride costs ₩1,250-1,500 (depending on where you hop on).
Oh wow I enjoyed reading this 😂
Looks like our ancestors sure knew what they were doing when it came to sex, ha-ha 🙂 Great blog post!
Damn right hahaha thanks 🙂