Busan is good

Busan Fishing Village Folk Museum to Host Special Exhibition “Nakdong Gim, a Busan Specialty, Connecting the World”

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Busan Metropolitan City’s Busan Marine Natural History Museum will open its 2026 special exhibition, “Nakdong Gim, a Busan Specialty, Connecting the World,” tomorrow, September 29, in the special exhibition hall on the second floor of its branch museum, the Busan Fishing Village Folk Museum, located at 128 Haksa-ro, Buk-gu.

The exhibition traces the journey of a familiar sheet of gim from its growth in the sea, through the hands of fishers, to the dining table, and ultimately to its emergence today as a food enjoyed by people around the world.

A wide range of materials has been brought together in one place, including findings from surveys and research on fishing village folk materials in the Busan area, as well as content from the National Research Institute of Maritime Heritage, the National Institute of Fisheries Science, including the Seaweed Research Center and the Food Safety and Processing Research Division, the Jeonnam Institute of Maritime and Fisheries Science, and the Busan Fisheries Resources Research Institute.

The special exhibition is also Korea’s first comprehensive exhibition on gim to spotlight the roots of K-Gim, which is attracting global attention. Divided into three sections, it presents some 100 exhibits encompassing fishing village life and culture, folk traditions, specimens, and videos.

Part 1, “A Gift Shaped by the Sea of Busan: The Birth of Gim,” first explores the marine environment and the ecology and varieties of gim. It then examines the roots of today’s K-Gim culture through gim as a local specialty of the Busan region during the Joseon Dynasty and through various accounts of its origins.

Part 2, “The Journey of a Sheet of Gim,” follows the process of making a single sheet of gim, examining gim cultivation and production methods and technologies as well as traditional gim-production tools. It also presents the livelihoods of coastal communities that depended on Nakdong Gim, including harvesting, auctioning, processing, and distribution, allowing visitors to view gim as part of a fishing cultural heritage that embodies both the sea and the lives of fishers.

Part 3, “The Global Rise of K-Gim,” explores Korea’s food culture associated with gim and the future of the gim industry. Through familiar food traditions, including meals featuring fresh gim eaten by residents of island villages along the Nakdong River in the past and nostalgic gimbap enjoyed as a special picnic-day treat in the 1970s and 1980s, the exhibition shows what gim has meant in everyday life. It also invites visitors to consider gim’s present as it expands from a staple side dish in Korea into a global K-food product, as well as how gim may evolve in the future amid climate change.

The exhibition also features a variety of hands-on activities using gim.

Children can take part in interactive programs including a Gim Detective Lab, where they uncover the secrets of gim with “Nakdong-i,” a character inspired by Nakdong Gim, a Busan regional specialty, as well as activities featuring various recipes made with gim and a stamp activity.

Admission is free for all visitors. For further information, visit the Busan Marine Natural History Museum website at https://busan.go.kr/sea or contact the museum’s Exhibition Team at 051-550-8886.

Jeong Myeong-wan, Director of the Busan Marine Natural History Museum, said, “Gim is such a familiar food to us, but each sheet carries the taste and aroma of Busan’s sea, the experience of fishers, and the work of countless people.”

He added, “Through this exhibition, we hope visitors will gain a deeper understanding of the history of Busan’s Nakdong Gim and fishing village culture, while also discovering the present and future of Korean gim as it reaches dining tables around the world.”