 A diplomatic statement is ""he was known to have an artistic personality that was characterized by individualism and obstinacy"", while an understatement would be ""his contemporaries described him as a carefree drunkard, a characterization that corresponds to the Chinese image of the eccentric artist"".Nevertheless, (or precisely for this reason), Gim Myeong-guk has been in charge of many official artistic tasks.He was member of both the large-scale Tongsinsa send to Japan by King Injo (1595–1623–1649).