The National Museum of Korea’s “Dress Like a Museum Exhibit” Cosplay Competition Captures Even the Most Ancient of Hearts
The National Museum of Korea’s cosplay competition featured a flurry of teams dressed up as national artifacts, treasures, and exhibits with so much quirkiness and charm it spread rapidly across social media, drawing viewers across the globe.
September 19 marks the third year of the National Museum of Korea’s annual costume competition. About 5,000 onlookers pack into the Museum’s open plaza to root for their favorite costumes depicting various Korean heritage treasures, artifacts, and staples from 13 participating Korean heritage museums. Over the last three years, demand and interest in the event grew so significantly that 2026 was the first year competitors were required to preliminarily qualify for the National Competition via one of four regional preliminaries.
This year’s competition, dubbed “2026 NMK Cosplay Play” welcomed 275 entry teams, totaling 643 participants overall. Twenty-five finalist teams were selected to compete in the National Competition after the regional preliminaries in July.
Twenty-three-year-old nursing student Jeong Eunsul took home the grand prize for her rendition of “White Porcelain Carp-Shaped Water Dropper Painted in Underglaze Cobalt Blue.” A full-body-painted Jeong competed lying on the ground, feet in the air, in order to mimic the shape of the artifact. Including Jeong, five teams were awarded the competition’s grand prize of 3 million won, but the total prize pool across all participants, including regional and finalist awards, combined to a total of 40 million won. Each competing team took to the runway in the likeness of everything from multi-headed Bodhisattvas to a prehistoric stone dagger. A team of three office workers lay down in tandem, in smiling harmony as Silla-era roof tiles.
Originally launched in 2024 to increase interest in the museum and highlight Korean heritage, the competition grew rapidly in both domestic and international online interest, with participating team counts growing sevenfold since the inaugural 2024 competitor pool of 36 teams. Likewise, while the original competition restricted entries to artifacts from the National Museum of Korea, 2026 opened entries to the collections of 13 participating Korean heritage museums.
The success and virality of the competition, praised for its clever combination of Otaku-cosplay culture and Korean heritage, places a spotlight on even the most obscure pieces of Korean history on a platform unlike any other. In his opening statement, National Museum of Korea Director Yoo Hong-June promised onwards and upwards for the still-fledgling competition, “Next year,” he remarked, “We will prepare an even grander event.”
Prospective 2027 competitors should keep an eye on the Museum’s page for their next recruitment notice.