Journal of Korean Art & Archaeology 2010, Vol.4 pp.62-91
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Matters of style and iconography, patrons and donors are key issues in the study of Goryeo Buddhist painting. But in this paper I would like to talk about some of the issues on the peripheries, examining three aspects in particular that have always interested me: the weave of the silk used for the paintings, the width of the woven silk, and the enshrinement of the finished work. First, it has been confirmed that all of the 160-odd Goryeo Buddhist paintings known to be extant were painted on silk. In almost all cases, the silk fabric is woven in plain weave, with a space after every two warp threads.1 Compared to ordinary plain weave, which has evenly spaced warp threads, this rib weave enables greater expression of depth and texture when colors are applied on the front or the back of the silk. Second, most Goryeo Buddhist paintings are painted on a single width of silk. This gives rise to several questions, such as “What does this imply in terms of the width of the silk, and what impact did it have on the composition of the painting?” Collating the figures on silk widths revealed that they varied in size from around 40cm wide to extra large widths up to 250cm wide. According to the widths the paintings could be divided into five groups, A-D and E for special cases. Analysis of these groups indicated that the iconography and composition of Goryeo Buddhist paintings were influenced by the size of the woven silk, and that pointed to the possibility that the court office called Aekjeongguk (掖庭局) was involved in the production of the larger works falling under groups C, D, and E. Last, it is impossible not to be curious about the system of enshrinement of Goryeo Buddhist paintings. As is well known, relics were enshrined with the sculptures of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas. In this light, did a similar system of enshrining votive offerings exist for paintings? It is believed that Buddhist paintings were generally commissioned by the royal family or members of the ruling class to hang in private shrines, but do we have any concrete knowledge of where the paintings were really enshrined? Taking the example of the painting of Amitabha preserved at Shōbō-ji in Kyoto, which first suggested the idea that votive offerings were made with paintings, the issue of the enshrining of votive offerings and the way they would have been enshrined was examined. In addition, examination of documents from the 13th and 14th centuries revealed that Goryeo Buddhist paintings were enshrined in various places such as Buddhist halls on palace grounds, royal shrines, shrines big and small near the homes or ancestral graveyards of powerful families and officials of the ruling class, built to pray for the repose of the dead or pray for blessings, temple halls, and private shrines in the homes of officials. Special cases include Mangwondang (萬卷堂), a Goryeo royal residence in Yuan. The places of enshrinement were studied in connection with the size of paintings.
The general perception of Goryeo Buddhist paintings is their beautiful coloring, fine gold decoration, the popularity and continuation of fixed iconographies, radical composition, and their high-class aristocratic ambience. Indeed, the style, iconography, and patronage by royalty and the ruling class are key elements of Goryeo Buddhist painting. These issues were addressed by Chung Woothak and Kim Junghee at the international symposium on "Goryeo Buddhist Paintings in the Context Of East Asia" held at the National Museum of Korea on October 28, 2010.
However, the objective of this paper is to discuss some of the questions I have always had about the subject of Goryeo Buddhist painting. That is, of the 160 some Goryeo Buddhist paintings known to be extant, it has been confirmed that all of them are painted on silk. How was the silk woven? And what effect did that have on the style of the paintings? Most Goryeo Buddhist paintings are produced on one single width of silk. This being the case, what did the width of the silk imply and what impact did it have on the composition of the painting?
Moreover, it was hard not to be interested in the system of enshrining the paintings. While votive offerings were enshrined with the statues of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, would not the same system have applied to paintings? It is believed that Buddhist paintings were generally commissioned by the royal family or members of the ruling class to hang in private shrines, but do we have any concrete knowledge of where the paintings were really enshrined? These are the issues that will be brought up in this paper, issues which deviate somewhat deviate from the mainstream discussion but are very closely related to it.
In order to answer the above questions, a preliminary approach will be taken to the subject. If we look at the issues surrounding Goryeo Buddhist painting, that is, the issues in the margins, at some point the resonance will be felt at the center and it is hoped that this will stimulate greater interest in Goryeo Buddhist painting and inspire young researchers to achieve various outcomes.
It has been confirmed that the 160 some extant Goryeo Buddhist paintings were all painted on silk. When the structure of the silk is photographed under a microscope, zoomed to 50 times the size, the following facts can be observed from studying the structure of the silk warp and weft threads.2 Most of the Goryeo paintings are done on fabric made with a variation on the plain weave (or tabby weave), in which the warp and weft threads are evenly balanced. In the variation, there is a space after every two warp threads while the weft threads are evenly spaced and heavier.3 The plain weave can be called Type A and the variation Type B.
Type A is the most common type of weave used in simple woven fabrics and includes cotton and linen fabrics.4 This type of weave was rarely used for Goryeo Buddhist paintings, but is not uncommon for the Buddhist paintings of the Joseon dynasty or the Ming dynasty of China.
As mentioned, Type B is a variation on Type A. The surface texture of the fabric has furrows in the warp direction.5 Such striped fabric is called dudukjik or mujik in Korean,6 and is commonly known as the rib weave or Oxford weave in English. It is understood that most Goryeo Buddhist paintings are produced on such rib weave fabric, which in turn can be divided into two sub-types.
In the first sub-type, Type B-a, the weft threads are almost twice as thick as the warp threads. Some paintings with this kind of silk are Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas (14th century) at Banna-ji in Tochigi; Amitabha Triad (I) and Amitabha Triad (III) (14th century) in the Nezu Museum in Tokyo; Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (14th century) at Nara National Museum; Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (14th century) at Tanzan Jinja in Nara; Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (14th century) at Shōjuraigō-ji in Ōtsu; Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (14th century) at Jōraku-ji; Kshitigarbha with the Ten Kings of Hell (14th century) at Okayama; Kshitigarbha (14th century) at Zendō-ji, Fukuoka; and Arhats (1235) at Tokyo National Museum.
Among them, the painting at Banna-ji is tightly and finely woven; on the other hand the works at Nezu Museum (I) and Nara National Museum are painted on fabric with thin warp and weft threads and wide intervals between the weft threads. The canvases for the other Nezu Museum piece (III) and the Hōdō-ji pieces are neatly and finely woven, but the intervals between the warp threads are wider than those of the weft threads. This structure in particular is almost identical in terms of thickness of threads and weave as that of the painting Shakyamuni Entering Nirvana in the collection of Nara National Museum, painted by Lu Xinzhong, a professional artist working in the Ningbo area of China during the Southern Song and Yuan period.7
In the second sub-type, Type B-b, the weft threads are more than twice as thick as the warp threads. Examples of paintings in this category include Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (1310) at Kagami Jinja; Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas (14th century) at Jōkyō-ji, Kyoto; Fifteen Thousand Buddhas (13th century) at Fudō-in, Hiroshima; Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas (14th century) at Tokugawa Art Museum; Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas (13th century) at Kōfukugokokuzen-ji, Saga.
As shown above, most Goryeo Buddhist paintings are done on silk in a variation of plain weave that is stronger and more durable than satin weave and gauze weave fabrics. Of course, it is less glossy than satin weave but smoother and shinier than ordinary plain weave. In addition, in the case of painting over or painting from the back, rib weave allows for stronger expression of texture and depth than ordinary plain weave.
In terms of thickness of the threads, some fabrics showed warp and weft threads of equal thickness (1:1), others showed warp threads thinner than weft threads (1: 1.5-2.0), and in terms of tightness of weave, relatively tightly-woven fabrics had narrow furrows between every two threads, and loosely woven fabrics had relatively wide furrows. In the case where the warp and weft threads are of even thickness and neatly woven, the silk has a smooth, even texture, enabling more stable color adhesion and finer brushwork.
Present location | Title | Canvas size (cm) | Number of threads per cm | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Height | Width | Warp | Weft | |||||
1 | Kōfukugokokugzen-ji | Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas | 153.5 | 86.5 | 2-ply | 26/cm | 1-ply | 27/cm |
2 | Kagami Jinja | Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara | 419.5 | 254.2 | 2-ply | 26/cm | 1-ply | 36/cm |
( Table 2 ) Number of warp and weft threads per cm on the silk of Goryeo Buddhist paintings9
Of the 160 some extant Goryeo Buddhist paintings, most comprise one single piece of silk rather than a number of pieces joined together. Of course, there are several cases where the painting is made of several pieces such as the Amitabha Triad (1330) at Hōon-ji; Fifteen Thousand Buddhas at Fudō-in; and Amitabha Triad (14th century) at Ōkura Shūkokan, but this is very rare. Generally the silks used for the paintings vary greatly in width, from around 40cm wide, for small works up to 250cm for very large ones.
The silk width distribution map (Table 3) for Goryeo Buddhist paintings reveals some interesting points.
First, the paintings can be divided into five groups according to the width of the silk. Group A consists of 30 some small works of around 40cm in width. This group notably includes the Five Hundred Arhats, a collection of 500 works produced between 1235 and 1236) and paintings of Kshitigarbha (Figures 1, 2).
( Figure 1 ) Five Hundred Arhats, dated 1236. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 53.9x37.7 cm, National Museum of Korea
( Figure 2 ) Kshitigarbha, 14th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 107.6 x 45.3 cm, Nezu Museum, Tokyo
Group B consists of 60 some medium-size paintings ranging in width from 50-60cm, accounting for one third of all the extant paintings. This group includes many paintings of Amitabha Buddha or Amitabha Triad (Figure 3) and Kshitigarbha with the Ten Kings of Hell, and a notable proportion of Water-Moon-Avalokiteshvara paintings (Figure 4), about half of the 50 known examples.
( Figure 3 ) Amitabha Triad, 14th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk , 123.0 x 55.8 cm, Tokyo National Museum
( Figure 4 ) Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara, 14th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 109.5 x 57.8 cm, Tanzan Jinja, Nara
Group C consists of more than 40 medium-large paintings 80-100cm wide. Most of them depict Amitabha either descending to the mundane world or preaching, as in the Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas (Figure 5). This group also includes some Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara paintings which show the Bodhisattva sitting in lotus position. Also included are some works carrying a definite date such as Amitabha Buddha (1286) (Figure 6) in the former Shimazu Collection; and the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (1323) at Sen-oku Haku Kokan in Kyoto.
( Figure 5 ) Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas, 14th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 143.0 x 87.0 cm, Tokugawa Art Museum, Nagoya
( Figure 6 ) Amitabha Buddha, dated 1286. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 203.5 x 105.1 cm, Former Shimazu Collection
Group D consists of some 15 works 120-200cm wide. Masterpieces of various iconographies such as Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas, Illustration of the Visualization Sutra (Figure 7), Illustration of the Sutra on the Descent of Maitreya, and the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara belong to this category.
( Figure 7 ) Illustration of the Visualization Sutra, dated 1323. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 224.2 x 139.1 cm, Chion-in, Kyoto
The last group consists of extra large paintings around 250cm wide. The major example is Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (1310) at Kagami Jinja, which was commissioned by royalty, the actual name of the patron being Sukchangwonbi Lady Kim, a concubine of King Chungseon of the Goryeo dynasty.10 This is a special category that actually only includes one painting.11
Several facts can be deduced from the above comparison of silk widths. The silk widths were related to the unit of measure for clothing and textiles, pobaek-cheok. Many studies have been carried out on changes in the actual size of this unit over time.12 According to records, the measurement system was revised in the 13th year of the reign of King Sejong, and the pobaek-cheok was equivalent to 44.75cm in 1430 (Oryeui, Five Rites), 46.73cm in 1431 (Jeonjesangjeongso, a study of the national land and taxation system of Joseon), and 46.80cm in 1485 (Gyeongguk daejeon, Grand Code for State Administration).13 This unit of measure was an important means of taxation, hence the need for standardization. There are few records, however, mentioning standardization or strict application of a different measure called pobaek-pok compared to pobaek-cheok. It is understood that the pok measure was applied to the looms that wove the cloth collected from all over the country for taxation purposes. Of course, while the width may have varied according to region, the differences were negligible.14
Succeeding the tradition of Unified Silla, Goryeo introduced new weaving techniques through exchange with foreign countries and produced a great quantity of high-quality textiles, which were used to make clothing for the nobility and as a trade item with other countries.15 Various types of fabrics have been identified through having been enshrined with Buddhist relics, namely various types of silk,16 which give an idea of Goryeo’s excellent weaving technology at the time.
In the Goryeo dynasty textiles were produced at government workshops, private workshops and at temples. In the case of government workshops, specialist weaving organizations were established in the capital and in the provinces with specialist craftsmen producing the fabric under a factory-type system. The craftsmen were divided into those affiliated with the central government workshop in the capital, Gaegyeong, and those who worked for provincial workshops.17
As far as the central government organization in charge of textiles is concerned there were many changes in the name and the titles of officials attached to it.18 But in most cases a high-level official with high pay was appointed to be in charge at Sanguiguk, the office in charge of the king’s clothing, and Aekjeongguk, which was in charge of making special textiles such as brocade, gauze, and damask. During the reign of King Munjong, the craftsmen affiliated with Sanguiguk included those in charge of embroidery, hat makers, shoemakers, sash makers, and belt makers, who manufactured clothing and textiles for the royal court. Craftsmen at Aekjeongguk included makers of brocade, gauze and damask, all special textiles of high quality. In addition, there was a separate office in charge of carpets and embroidery called Japjikseo, and another for dyeing called Yeomjikseo.19 There were also craftsmen affiliated to provincial offices such as Geumgibang, Japjikbang, and Gapbang, which made silk and twill, embroidered silk, and armor respectively. As such, many craftsmen worked in the field of textiles at the time.20
In addition to government craftsmen, nuns and slaves who produced textiles at Buddhist temples played an important role in the history of textile manufacture in the Goryeo dynasty.21
In varied ways, the government offices produced all sorts of high-quality textiles to send overseas as gifts and for the use of the royal court and nobility. Temples too had the capacity to produce high-quality goods, and in addition to monks' robes they also made goods to be presented to the court or took part in production of tribute goods, thus boosting the temple economy.22
Considering the data on the widths of Goryeo Buddhist painting canvases above, the following can be deduced from the standard unit for measuring fabrics, the system of textile production, and the variety of textile widths.23
First, The 30-40cm width of small paintings belonging to Group A is seen to be equivalent to the average width of silk fabric on the market at the time. Almost the same width is found in the clothing and fabric samples from enshrined votive offerings. If the Joseon artist Kim Hong-do’s Album of Genre Paintings is taken into account, it is highly likely that the average width of a bolt of silk was determined by the width of the shoulders of the women who worked the weaving looms. Fabric of this size was easily produced in private workshops or the home and easily distributed on the market.
Second, The 50-60cm width of small- to mid-sized paintings belonging to Group B is equivalent to the width of silk fabric that may have been distributed in the capital and provinces under the government workshop system. Therefore, the widths in Group A and Group B indicate fabric that was commonly sold on the market.
Third, Group C includes paintings with a width of 80-100cm, about twice the width of the silks used in Groups A and B, and covers the medium and large Goryeo Buddhist paintings. Although it is possible fabric of this size was made specifically for paintings this has not yet been ascertained. Of course, another possibility is that silk for paintings was imported from China. Through the painting Shakyamuni Entering Nirvana (157.1 x 82.9cm) by Lu Xinzhong, a professional artist working in the Ningbo area during the Southern Song and Yuan period, the size of silk for medium to large paintings that was on the market at the time can be guessed. But it is known that looms for fabric of Group C size existed because of the silk used to make ceremonial robes for the royal court. Therefore, it is possible that Aekjeongguk, the office in charge and paper and ink and high-quality silk and textiles for the court, was involved in its production.24 This is evidenced by the fact that Seo Gu-bang, an artist and official at Aekjeongguk, was in charge of producing the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (1323, 165.5 x 101.5cm) that is preserved at Sen-oku Haku Kokan, Kyoto. In fact, it is recorded that during the reign of King Chunghye (r. 1330-32) there was a silk storehouse at the palace and female craftsmen to weave silken fabric, which indicates that the court played a large role in the production of Buddhist paintings on canvases in the Group C bracket. As seen in the painting Amitabha Buddha (1306, 162.5 x 91.7cm), commissioned by a man named Gwon Bok-su and now in the collection of Nezu Museum, the Group C size was favored in commissions by powerful aristocratic families and civil and military officials. In the same line, many paintings of the Joseon dynasty were produced on a single large width of silk around 90cm wide, including the Birth of Shakyamuni (145.0 x 109.5cm) at Honkaku-ji in Kyoto, which was painted in the court style in the 15th century (early Joseon), and Shakyamuni Leaving Home (148.0 x 105.0cm) at the Museum of East Asian Art in Cologne, Germany, and the late Joseon Portrait of a Meritorious Official.25
Fourth, Group D refers to large paintings on silk 120-180cm wide, about the size of B and C together. Here too it is possible that Aekjeongguk was involved in production. As with Group C, Group D includes some exquisite paintings including two specifically dated works: Illustration of the Visualization Sutra (1323, 224.2 x 139.1cm) at Chion-in in Kyoto, and Illustration of the Sutra of Maitreya’s Attainment of Buddhahood (1294, 230.0 x 130.0cm) at Dōjō-ji in Wakayama. In particular, the Chion-in painting was commissioned by nine people including six high-ranking monks and three government officials. It is possible that high-ranking monks with greater power than civil and military officials at the time were the main force behind the production of the bigger Buddhist paintings.
Fifth, For the last group of very large paintings of around 250cm wide, it is not known whether the fabric was a product of Goryeo or China.26 For the production of Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara at Kagami Jinja, it is possible that Aekjeongguk established a special department to weave the silk for the painting, similar to the department established to produce sutra boxes and another named Sagyeongwon to promote the hand-copying of sutras.27 With the development of textile production, Goryeo had active trade with China, which accelerated as weaving technology became highly advanced.28 In the 14th century, between 1308 and 1351 in particular, institutional changes were made and official post of naebanjongsa was created inside Aekjeongguk, and the production and supervision of high-quality textile production was reinforced.29 Kim U, who took part in painting the Kagami Jinja Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara,30 had the post of naebanjongsa at Aekjeongguk where he worked as a painter, able to reproduce the court Buddhist painting on a supersized textile made of the finest quality silk. The weaving would have been done on an outsize loom by a number of craftsmen (men or women) working together to produce the fabric. Hence, in regard to this painting which constitutes a special commission, could it be a coincidence that Kim Yang-gam, father of Lady Kim who was the patron of the painting, was a third-grade official in charge of ritual implements?31
The size and trends for the canvases of Goryeo Buddhist paintings was continued in the following Joseon dynasty as seen in the silk canvas Buddhist paintings of the 15th century from early Joseon. While there are no very large canvases, the 40cm, 60cm, and 90cm widths all exist. Going into the 16th century, there is an even distribution of widths of Buddhist paintings on silk from 20cm up to 350cm. There is also a painting on one large piece of silk as wide as 230cm, Illustration of the Sutra of the Great Vows of Kshitigarbha (1575-77, 209.5 x 227.3cm) (Figure 8), which was also commissioned by the royal court. Apart from this painting, however, most of the works were painted on canvases made up of several 40-60cm pieces joined together, which is a major point of difference with Goryeo paintings. As for the paintings on hemp commissioned by ordinary people that began to appear from the mid-16th century, their painted surfaces are usually composed of several pieces of hemp 35-38cm wide joined together. More than 40 examples of such paintings exist, indicating a trend.
( Figure 8 ) Illustration of the Sutra of the Great Vows of Kshitigarbha, dated 1575-7. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 209.5 x 227.3 cm, Chion-in, Kyoto
The last thing to be discussed in this section is how the width of the silk appears to have placed limitations on the iconography and interfered with the composition of Goryeo Buddhist paintings. Rather than arising from the strict social hierarchy of Goryeo society, the strict two-level composition seen in paintings of the Amitabha Triad, Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas, and Kshitigarbha with the Ten Kings of Hell can be seen as the result of limitations placed by the width of the silk, which was invariably one piece of silk rather than many pieces joined together.32 The two-level structure is avoided in the case of illustrations for the Visualization Sutra or the Lotus Sutra, by placing the main icon in the center surrounded by the crowd. The same thing can be seen in sutra illustrations, which are wider than they are high. Several examples exist such as the Illustration of the Lotus Sutra (I) (1315) at Daijō-ji, Nagasaki; Illustration of the Avatamsaka Sutra (1337) at Horim Museum; Illustration of the Lotus Sutra (1340) at Nabeshima Hōkōkai, Saga (Figure 9); and Illustration of the Lotus Sutra (1377) at Horim Museum (Figure 10). This means the Buddha is surrounded by or flanked by Bodhisattvas. While the canvas may be wide, some works arrange the iconography by dividing the canvas into left and right sections, as seen in Geumgang bomun balwon hapbu byeonsangdo, a gold sutra illustration on white paper commissioned by two nuns, preserved at Seongbo Museum, Jikjisa Temple (1377) (Figure 11), or preserve the two-level structure. Thus, the two-level structure found on paintings on silk was strongly influenced by the width of the fabric. For illustrations of the Visualization, Maitreya and Avatamsaka Sutras this was avoided by placing the principal icon in the center and surrounding it with Bodhisattvas.33
( Figure 9 ) Illustration of the Lotus Sutra (Vol. 3), dated 1340. Folding book; gold on indigo paper, 20.2 x 43.6 cm, Nabeshima Hōkōkai, Saga
The enshrining of votive offerings along with Buddhist sculptures and paintings is easily confirmed in Joseon dynasty works. Many relic deposits were also found with images of Buddhas and Bodhisattvas from the preceding Goryeo dynasty also, but it is highly unusual to think of Goryeo Buddhist paintings in association with relic deposits, or votive offerings. In addition to most of the 160 extant paintings having been preserved outside of Korea, almost no such votive offerings have been discovered.
But would the paintings really have been enshrined without any votive offerings? If we presume they did indeed exist, how would they have been enshrined?
The definitive case suggesting the existence of votive offerings with Goryeo Buddhist paintings is the painting of Amitabha Buddha at Shōbō-ji in Kyoto (14th century, 184.0 x 86.5cm) (Figure 12). This is one of the bigger paintings, showing a solo image of Amitabha descending to take the soul of the dead to Paradise. According to a report on the restoration of the painting from 1999 when the mounting paper was removed from the back, a small piece of paper was found near the swastika on the left side of the icon’s chest (Figure 13).34 Seen as a votive offering, this piece of paper features a round dharani (a kind of talisman) 10.6cm in diameter, consisting of a Sanskrit character in the center and the Casket Seal dharani written in Sanskrit in a circle around it. This dharani has been found as part of the relic deposits in Goryeo Buddhist statues such as the Gilt-bronze Amitabha (1302) at Onyang Folk Museum; the Gilt-bronze Amitabha Buddha (1346) at Munsusa Temple, and the Iron Buddha (late Goryeo) at Illaksa Temple.35 The Munsusa Amitabha Buddha yielded a Sanskrit dharani written in a circle (37.6 x 33.3cm) and the Dharani of the Immaculate Buddha-Corona's Emitted Light (52.4 x 29.8cm), which are considered to be votive offerings. The votive offerings in the Illaksa Iron Buddha include two mandalas, the Diamond Mandala (44 x 32.5cm) and the Garbhadhatu Mandala (30 x 32.5cm), which appear to have been published and enshrined in the late Goryeo dynasty.36 The Casket Seal dharani in the Shōbō-ji painting is similar to the Illaksa Diamond Mandala, and almost identical to the Casket Seal dharani at the top of the Dharani of the Immaculate Buddha-Corona’s Emitted Light at Munsusa Temple (Figure 14).
( Figure 12 ) Amitabha Buddha, 13th -14th century. Hanging scroll; color on silk, 184.0 x 86.5 cm, Shōbō-ji, Kyoto
( Figure 14 ) Left: Votive offering dharani in Sanskrit (1345) from the Gilt-bronze Amitabha statue at Munsusa Temple
Right: Votive offering dharani in Sanskrit almost identical to that at Munsusa Temple
As the dharani found on the Shōbō-ji painting is the only example of a votive offering enshrined at the time the painting was produced, it is undoubtedly a very important item for study. The painting gives us an idea of the way votive offerings were made with Goryeo Buddhist paintings.
Aside from this, the idea that votive offerings were hung from the paintings or embedded in the painting cannot be excluded. The possibility that the votive offerings were hung is be surmised from 16th century Joseon Buddhist paintings. Although no votive offerings from a 16th century painting remain extant, there is a depiction of a pouch for votive offerings hanging on the surface of a Buddhist painting in the Ten Kings of Hell (1586) at Kokubun-ji, and Shakyamuni’s Ascension to Nirvana (1589) (Figure 15) at Yakushi-ji in Nara. In both examples the pouch is in the “three mountain” form, and the Yakushi-ji example has a noticeably stronger craft-like decorative feel.
( Figure 15 ) Left: Nectar Ritual Painting, dated 1589. Hanging scroll; color on hemp, 150.2 x 169.3 cm, Yakusen-ji, Hyōgo
Right: Nectar Ritual Painting (detail)
Moreover, records on Joseon Buddhist paintings of the 16th century such as Shakyamuni’s Ascension to Nirvana (1589) at Senkō-ji, and Kshitigarbha with the Ten Kings of Hell (1582) at Tanjō-ji in Chiba specifically mention a mirror and silk pouch as votive offerings,37 supporting the idea that a pouch may have been hung on the paintings.
A pouch motif is depicted on these two paintings and relics very similar in appearance to the motif have been found: a bronze pouch at Jijangsa Temple in Uiseong, Gyeongsangbuk-do Province dating to 1722 (late Joseon),38 and a pouch and mirror at Namjangsa Temple in Sangju (Figure 16).39 From these relics it is evident that the basic appearance of the pouch had not changed greatly in the 200-year period from the 16th century to the 18th century. In reverse, it can be argued that the votive pouch would not have suddenly appeared in the 16th century, but was depicted in 16th century Buddhist paintings because real examples of such had existed in the preceding period.40 This leaves room for the idea that votive offering pouches were hung with paintings in the Goryeo dynasty.
Lending even greater weight to this idea are the Goryeo dynasty mirrors, round and square. More than 40 relics have been excavated from various places including tombs, pagodas, mountain fortresses, and among the buried deposits off the coast of Sinan.41 Of the mirrors whose place of discovery is not known, some have a knob and some do not (Figure 17). Of those that do, the knob has a hole in it either at the top or in the middle. It is possible that the mirrors measuring 10-20cm in diameter with knobs and a hole were hung with a string on Buddhist paintings as a votive offering. Notably, the votive offering pouch at Namsangsa Temple dating to 1788 was found with a round mirror tied to it with a string of beads. Another item to be noted is the mirror without a knob featuring a design of the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (diameter 11.4cm) (Figure 18), which was enshrined in the statue of Shakyamuni at Cheongnyangsa Temple (985, Song dynasty). This suggests that mirrors enshrined with Buddhist images had no knob, unlike those that were hung with paintings.
( Figure 18 ) Votive offering mirror enshrined in the statue of Shakyamuni at Seiryō-ji (Northern Song, dated 985), D: 11.4 cm
Further investigation should be carried out to ascertain whether the bronze mirrors featuring Buddhist designs, both round and square, were really intended for ritual purposes, as is generally believed.42 The possibility that they were hung on paintings as votive offerings should at least be considered.
Another way the votive offerings might have been enshrined with paintings is to be embedded inside the roller at the bottom of the mount. While the likelihood is actually very low, special cases should be taken into account. The Lord of Hell (98.0 x 85.0cm) from 1798 in the collection of the National Museum of Korea has four square notches in the roller (sangchuk), which yielded votive offerings such as a dharani, colored thread and colored paper, grains and metal.43 While this method of enshrining offerings is very rare, it is also gaining credence as a newly discovered method.44 Confirmation is difficult, however, since the Lord of Hell is a painting from late Joseon, and there are no extant Goryeo paintings with their (original) roller, let alone votive offerings enshrined in the roller.
Thirty Goryeo Buddhist paintings come intact with a record of their production. These records indicate that the patrons of Buddhist painting can be divided into royalty, aristocracy and officials, monks, and communities of Buddhist believers called hyangdo, which existed in the late Goryeo dynasty. If we consider that the final category consists of commoners, then it is possible that a wider range of people commissioned those paintings which carry no records.
Among these Goryeo Buddhist paintings produced with the involvement of all classes, some mention places of enshrinement like the Kagami Jinja painting which names a specific temple,45 while some papers mention temples in Gaegyeong as places of enshrinement for paintings and wall paintings based on historical records.46 Moreover, it is surmised that the paintings would have been hung in the personal shrines or temples of the aristocratic officials.47
The following is a closer examination of the places of enshrinement of Goryeo Buddhist paintings based on records from the 13th and 14th centuries.
a) Buddhist paintings were enshrined in the Buddha hall and shrines within the royal palace to pray for the prosperity of the nation and the happiness of the people, as well as the longevity of the royal family and their peaceful repose after death. During Yuan control over Goryeo, in the reigns of King Chungnyeol (r. 1275-1308) and King Chungseon (r.1298, 1308-1313), Goryeo temples in and around the capital, Gaegyeong, became prayer shrines for the Mongol Yuan dynasty and Buddhist activities were frequent.48 High-class Buddhist paintings of the Groups C and D would have been produced and enshrined on those occasions.
• 12 paintings of Avalokiteshvara enshrined in Buddhist worship halls within the palace (1275, the 1st year of the reign of King Chungnyeol):49
“In the eulhae year, 12 paintings of Avalokiteshvara were enshrined in the palace and Buddhist sermons were held to pray for blessings for the emperor.”
• Transformation Buddha enshrined in the palace (1304, the 30th year of the reign of King Chungnyeol):50
“The king called the monk Sogyeong to the place and held a ceremony to enshrine the Transformation Buddha and to recite the Avatamsaka Sutra, and the king and Sukchangwonbi [Lady Kim, concubine] accepted the Bodhisattva precepts….”
• Likelihood of Buddhist paintings enshrined at Yuan shrines at Goryeo temples such as Hyeonseongsa, Bojesa, Myoryeonsa, Sinhyosa, Mincheonsa, and Heungcheonsa.51
• Epitaph of Wang Hu (1349, the first year of reign of King Chungjeong):52
“In 1325, the eulchuk year, when King Chungwon died in Yuan, he [Wang Hu] put on his mourning clothes and carried the bier back to Goryeo. Even after the funeral he held memorial rites to the king at the foot of the tomb…and repaired Haeansa Temple nearby to pray for the repose of the king’s soul.53 The king had ground silver and gold into powder to copy the Heart Sutra but had not managed to finish even half of it, and left behind many other sutras as well. With his private funds, Wang Hu had the project finished.…”
b) Powerful families including the families of military and civil officials built temples big and small near the graves of their ancestors to pray for the repose of their souls or to pray for the nation and the royal court. It is likely that paintings of the Groups A, B, and C were enshrined at these temples, featuring iconography related to Pure Land Buddhism, (rebirth in the Pure Land) or paintings praying for good fortune in this world. The construction of private shrines was limited by law but in the late Goryeo period the king, officials and monks continued to build private shrines, so King Chungseon, upon his coronation vowed to put a stop to evil practices in this field.54
• Cheonggyesa, Temple of Jo In-gyu (1275-1308, the reign of King Chungnyeol):55
“When the temple was built for the king there were so many sutras written in gold and Buddhist images painted it was difficult to count them all.…”
• Epitaph of Lady Heo, wife of Kim Byeon (1324, the 11th year of King Chungsuk):56
“The grave is on the southern slope of Mt. Daedeoksan. After the funeral a house was built in the southwest to face the grave, and not one ri away a temple named Gameungsa was built to pray for the repose of the soul. The family gave the monks all their money and treasures to have the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment copied, written with a mixture of gold and silver. In addition, not a few other Buddhist works were carried out.…”
• Epitaph of Lady Yu, wife of Yi Deok-son (1326, the 13th year of King Chungsuk):57
“A temple named Seonjeoksa was built on the eastern slope of Mt. Daedeoksan near the graves of the ancestors, and rites to pray for the repose of the soul and for good fortune have been held for several years now. Lady Yu fell ill in the ninth month of 1326…a monk was called and her head was shaved and she was given the [Buddhist] name Mokjin.…”
c) Buddhist paintings were enshrined in temple halls. In Goryeo temples, the halls mainly featured murals, but paintings of the Groups B, C, and D would have been hung in the smaller temple halls and hermitages.58 A painting of Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas was enshrined at Sujeongam, a painting of the White-Robed Avalokiteshvara was enshrined at Gukcheongsa Temple, and it is likely that a painting of Amitabha Buddha would have been hung at Boamsa Temple.
• Painting of Avalokiteshvara at Gukcheongsa Temple (1313):59
“A temple was built on the southwestern slope and was named Gukcheongsa…In the summer of the gyechuk year, the second year of the Huangqing reign of Yuan…a large gold statue seemed to soar out of the ground and all who saw it could not help exclaiming… and in front of a picture of the White-Robed Avalokiteshvara always hanging on the wall he spread out a piece of black silk one ja wide and burned incense as he bowed three times and held up his head….”
• Painting of Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas at Seodae Sumjeongam, Mt. Odaesan (1339-1344):60
“A painting of Amitabha with Eight Great Bodhisattvas was newly produced by Ra-am and Ryugong and hung on the northern wall of the Buddha hall. The hermitage is now complete with the old censer, kundika and other utensils.…”
• Wonders of the Lotus Sutra, written by the Monk Yowon during the reign of King Chungye (r.1339-1344):61
“There was a temple by the name of Boamsa in the northwestern corner of Mt. Deoksan in Songgyeong…Some 40 people including elderly retired officials and men of leisure gathered together to form Beophwasa Temple…On the 15th day of every month they carefully prepared food and made offerings and held rites in the hall of Amitabha, staying up all night to pray to be reborn in the Pure Land, and an endless number of people came voluntarily with the same purpose until death.…”
• Forty Avalokiteshvara paintings commissioned by Baek Seon-yeon (1116, the 20th year of the reign of King Uijong):62
“Baek Seon-yeon commissioned the production of 40 Buddhist images and 40 paintings of Avalokiteshvara to match the king’s age, and on the Buddha’s birthday he lit lanterns in the temple hall and prayed, and the king came to watch in secret in the cover of the night.”
d) Government officials enshrined Buddhist paintings in home shrines, which served as a private place to worship and hold rites. Influential people in the provinces also hung up paintings of Amitabha Buddha in the Pure Land in their homes and prayed before them.63 The paintings would have belonged to the Groups A and B, depicting Amitabha or some other Buddhist deity.
• The Amitabha Sutra (1304) from Wangnangjeon (The Story of Wangnang):64
“There was a man named Wangnang from Gilju. At the age of 57 the ghost of his wife, who had died eleven years earlier, suddenly appeared one night and told Wang ‘Five ghosts are coming to get you tomorrow morning, so hang a painting of Amitabha high on the western hall in the middle of the house and sit in the east, facing west, and pray to Amitabha…The old man An who lives to the north of our house faces west and bows down fifty times at dawn each morning, and makes it his duty to hold rites to Amitabha on the day of the full moon of each month…’”
• Bakchubu yugadanggi (Record of Park Chu-bu’s House Yugadang), by Yi Gyu-bo (1168-1241):65
“Many members of the ruling class came and built houses…In general, the houses had three main rooms. Two of them were wood-floored halls…and the other was reserved for Buddha, as a place to hold rites to the Buddha complete with all the necessary implements. So when one entered the room the mind became clear. Therefore, the room was called Jeongnyeodang [shrine of calm thought]….”
e) Finally, there were individual cases where the paintings were enshrined in special places. The first case is the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara painting commissioned by the royalty of Goryeo and now preserved at Kagami Jinja in Japan. The painting today measures 419.5 x 254.2cm, smaller than was to being with, but it is still the largest of all extant Goryeo Buddhist paintings.66 Considering the size of Joseon Buddhist paintings hung behind the principal icon in the main temple hall, however, it can be said that the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara at Kagami Jinja is the only known Goryeo Buddhist painting that would have been big enough to be enshrined in the main hall of a large temple.67 In regard to where the painting would have been originally enshrined, Mincheonsa Temple and Heungcheonsa Temple in the capital area, Gaeseong, have been mentioned.68
Another special case refers to the Group C painting that may have been enshrined at Mangwondang, the house built by King Chungseon in the winter capital of Yuan at Dadu (present-day Beijing). Built in 1314 during the first year of the reign of King Chungsuk, this house was where the future king Chungseon studied and spent time with the Chinese scholars.69 The house had been well known as a gathering place of Confucian scholars, but it has been revealed that the house was more of a Buddhist gathering place. Regarding the name, researchers such as Kim Gwang-cheol and Kim Sang-gi have suggested that Mangwondang is an alternative name for Jemigideok, the formal name of the house.70 The posthumous poetry anthology of Yi Je-hyeon titled Ikje nango, famous for its mention of several place names, does not mention Mangwondang but does mention a place called Jemigideoktongsogae (濟美基德痛掃漑).71 Moreover, the scholar Lee Gae-seok sees "Jemigideok" as the Chinese-character version of the original Mongol name, which in Romanized modern Mongolian would be jimyi-g-tei (濟美基德: : silence), tun (痛: : to meditate), and suu-gai (掃漑: : to be seated). Therefore, Mangwondang means “to sit meditating in silence.” In addition, he has pointed out that the Jemigideoktongsogae mentioned in Yi Jae-hyeon’s Ikjenango can be understood in the same context such as "Pyehobunhyang Gyeongilhweja (閉戶焚香 竟日跪坐)," the names of which suggest the burning of incense and Buddhist meditation respectively. Therefore, he argues, the name Mangwondang means “a room to keep silent and practice Seon meditation” but has been wrongly understood. According to a letter written by Jeong Mun-hae (1249-1318), who was invited to the Yuan capital, even by 1312 the garden of Mangwondang was already filled with the sound of Buddhist music.72
While it is not certain whether Mangwondang was the same place as Jemigideoktongsogae or was a large place that encompassed the latter, it is highly possible that it was a place for Buddhist sermons and Seon meditation complete with a Buddhist painting and all the necessary implements, and was hence also a place where the Goryeo attendants to the king could go to find solace. As is well known through various records, King Chungseon was a devout Buddhist who was especially fond of reading the sutras and carried out various acts showing his faith such as turning a palace into Mincheonsa Temple to pray for the soul of his mother and making offerings to 3,000 priests.73 Therefore it is considered very natural that Mangwondang was a very Buddhist place in nature.
In this paper, 160 extant Goryeo Buddhist paintings have been studied from three aspects: the weave of the silk used for painting, the width of the silk, and the place of enshrinement.
First, most of the paintings are on silk woven with a space after every two warp threads. This rib weave allows for greater expression of depth and texture than ordinary plain weave.
Second, in terms of width, Goryeo Buddhist paintings range from small works about 40cm wide to very large works as much as 250cm wide. The paintings were studied by dividing them into five groups according to width: A, B, C, and D, and E for special cases. Analysis showed that the width of the silk influenced the iconography and composition of paintings, and it is thought likely that the larger works (Groups C, D, E) were managed by the court office called Aekjeongguk.
Lastly, in terms of enshrinement, the votive offerings that might have been enshrined with the paintings were studied along with the places where the paintings would have been hung originally. Taking the example of the Amitabha preserved at Shōbō-ji in Kyoto, which first suggested the idea that votive offerings were made with paintings, the issue of the enshrining of votive offerings and the way they would have been enshrined was examined. In addition, examination of documents from the 13th and 14th centuries revealed that Goryeo Buddhist paintings were enshrined in various places such as Buddhist halls on palace grounds, royal shrines, shrines big and small near the homes or ancestral graveyards of powerful families and officials of the ruling class, built to pray for the repose of the dead or pray for blessings, temple halls, and private shrines in the homes of officials. Special cases include Mangwondang, a Goryeo royal residence in Yuan. The places of enshrinement were studied in connection with the size of paintings.
This paper hence represents a departure from the usual subjects of iconography and style of Goryeo Buddhist paintings to take a preliminary approach to peripheral issues, which will be supplemented through further research.
See Xu Zheng, “Monochrome Woven Silk,” in Textiles from Dunhuang in UK Collections, Zhao Feng ed. (Shanghai: Donghua University Press, 2007), 160-163; “Another type [of silk], used for painting, was woven with about 50 warps/cm and 40 wefts/cm, with space after every two warps (fig. 42).”
Data regarding the structure of the canvases of Goryeo Buddhist paintings comes from Chung Woothak’s “Study of Goryeo Buddhist Paintings from the Perspective of Optical Science,” Goryeo sidae ui bulhwa (Seoul: Sigongsa, 1996), as well as my own research results (with further revision by the Editor).
Plain weave fabric is the most basic structure of traditional textiles. Most traditional cotton and hemp fabrics are made with the plain weave with a balance of warp and weft threads, while silk and woolen fabrics were made with woven plain variations such as warp rib weave, weft rib weave, and basket weave. Sim Yeon-ok, Five Thousand Years of Korean Textiles (Ancient Textiles Research Institute, 2002), 69.
Note that the “furrows” are furrows in appearance only: the surface of the woven silk is smooth. Illustrations B-a and especially B-b show very clearly how the extra space between every two warp threads (the exact space that would be occupied by a third warp thread in tabby weave) leaves the weft threads exposed for longer, and creates horizontal rectangular cells in which a greater amount of pigment can be lodged, whether from the front or from the back. All the silk paintings found at Dunhuang, with a single exception, use this type of weave, although the density of the threads varies, up to 72 threads per cm in the warp, and up to 40 per cm in the weft.
In regard to photography of the silk sample, my thanks to those concerned at Nara National Museum, Saga Prefectural Art Museum, and Jeongjae Cultural Heritage Research Institute.
This table is based on data published in Saga kenritsu hakubutsukan bijutsukanbō 64 (Mar. 1984): 2.
Hirata Yutaka, “Painting of Avalokiteshvara Holding a Willow Branch at Kagami Jinja,” Annual Journal of the Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (Nara National Research Institute of Cultural Properties, 1968); idem, “Kagami jinja shozō yoryū kannongazō saikō,” Yamato bunka 72 (1984); Kang Hui-jeong, “Reinvestigation of the Origin of the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara Iconography,” Misulsa yeongu 5 (1994); Ide Seinosuke, 2001; Kim Junghee, “Study of Production of Buddhist Paintings for the Goryeo Court and Paintings Commissioned by Royalty,” Gangjwa misulsa 17 (2001); Chung Woothak, “The Journey of the Kagami Jinja Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara,” Bulgyo misul sahak 8 (2009).
Aside from the Kagami Jinja Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara (1310), this group could include the Saikyō-ji Shakyamuni’s Ascent to Nirvana (285.0 x 237.5cm), but due to the uncertainty of its country of origin and the fact that its canvas is comprised of eight pieces of silk joined together, it has been left out of this discussion.
Major studies on the pobaek-cheok include Park Hong-su, Collected Papers of Park Hong-su: Weights and Measures and Treatises on Gugak (Committee for the Publication of the Anthology Commemorating Park Hong-su’s Sixtieth Birthday, 1980); Lee Eun-gyeong, “Study of the Pobaek-cheok of the Joseon Dynasty,” Boksik 16 (1991); Han Eun-hui and Yu Song-ok, “Study of the Pobaek-cheok Used in Korean Dress,” Boksik 15 (2001); Lee Jong-bong, “Study of the System of Weights and Measures of the Korean Medieval Period,” Korean Folk Culture Series 23 (Hyean Chulpansa, 2001).
This issue is not suitable for detailed discussion in this paper but does require further research.
Jo Hyo-suk, “Study of Goryeo Textiles and their Production,” Boksik 15 (1990): 95-96; idem, “Study of Korean Textiles—Focusing on the Goryeo Dynasty” (Ph.D. diss., Sejong University, 1993), 8; Sim Yeon-ok, 2002, 16.
For writings and photographs regarding excavation of Buddhist votive offerings of the Goryeo Dynasty, see Jo Hyo-suk, “Study of Goryeo Dynasty Textiles,” Boksik 20 (1993): 105-124; Sudeoksa Seongbo Museum, Korean Votive Offerings to the Buddha—With True Heart and Min (2004); Lee Seon-yong, “Study of the Composition and Textiles of Votive Offerings” (master’s thesis, Dongguk University, 2005).
Jang Gyeong-hui, “Study of the White Robes of the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara,” Misulsa yeongu 5 (1994): 38. The names of the government offices in charge of textile production from the beginning of the Goryeo dynasty through the reigns of kings Chungnyeol, Chungseon, and Gongmin are organized in the following table:
Period | Name of textiles office | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Early period | Aekjeongwon 掖庭院 | ||||
King Seongjong r. 981-997 | Aekjeongguk 掖庭局 | ||||
King Mokjong r. 997-1009 | Sanguiguk 尚衣局 | ||||
King Munjong r. 1046-1083 | Sanguiguk 尚衣局 | Aekjeongguk 掖庭局 | Japjikseo 雜織署 | Doyeomseo 都染署 | Jangyaseo 掌冶署 |
King Injong r. 1122-1146 | Sanguiguk 尚衣局 | Aekjeongguk 掖庭局 | Japjikseo 雜織署 | Doyeomseo 都染署 | Jangyaseo 掌冶署 |
King Chungnyeol 34th year (1308) | Naealsa 內謁司 (officials promoted in rank) | Jigyeomguk 織染局 (offices integrated and personnel expanded) | |||
King Chungseon (r. 1298, 1308-1313) | Jangbokseo 掌服署 | Aekjeongguk 掖庭局➝ Hangjeongguk 巷庭局➝ Aekjeongguk 掖庭局 | Japjikseo 雜織署 | Doyeomseo 都染署 | |
King Gongmin (r. 1351-1374) | Sanguiguk 尚衣局➝ Jangbokseo 掌服署➝ Sanguiguk 尚衣局➝ Jangbokseo 掌服署 | ||||
King Gongyang (r. 1389-1392) | Integrated into Gongjo, the office of public works |
It is surmised that Geumgibang was an office created by combining two offices in charge of silk production during the Silla Kingdom. Japjikbang produced the same kind of textiles as its counterpart in the capital, Japjikseo, and Gapbang produced leather armor and leather garments. Smaller offices called “-so” accounted for a fixed proportion of provincial workshops, and it is known that lower-class people little better off than slaves belonging to the local government office worked at Saso and Juso to produce silk yarn and silk respectively. Little concrete information on Saso and Juso can be found, but it is surmised that these offices were established in areas near the capital, Gaegyeong, or Pyeongyang, where the silk shops were, or areas that produced silk fabric such as Gyeongju, Andong, and Seongju. Jo Hyo-suk, 1993, 15; Sinjeung donggungnyeoji seungnam (新增東國輿地勝覽, Augmented Survey of the Geography of Korea), vol. 7, “Yeoju.”
In the second year of the reign of King Chungnyeol (1275), a nun presented the queen (Princess Jeguk) with a white ramie robe finely made and decorated with a flower design. Astonished at the quality of the weaving, the queen sent for the nun. Jo Hyo-suk, 1993, 15; Goryeosa (高麗史, History of Goryeo), vol. 89, “Yeoljeon (Biographies),” “Queen Consorts II.”
Changes in the pobaek-cheok measure used for silk in the Northern Wei and Sui dynasties of China were accompanied by changes in the pobaek-pok and gave rise for the need to unify systems regarding silk fabric. It is doubtful, however, that any uniform system of measure was actually used across the board. It is known that the gyeonpo-pok (silk measure) was 61.72 cm during the Northern Wei dynasty and the pobaek-pok 53.4cm during the Sui dynasty. Han Eun-hui and Yu Song-ok, 2001, 137; Opinions vary on the pobaek-cheok as well, and in the Joseon dynasty the width varied according to period as seen in various documents and relics: Orye cheokdo, 1430 (the 12th year of King Sejong); Gyeongguk daejeon, 1485 (the 16th year of King Seongjong; Gae cheokdo, 1750 (the 26th year of King Yeongjo); and the law on weights and measures of 1902 (the 6th year of Gwangmu). See Han Eun-hui and Yu Song-ok, 2001, 142; Lee Eun-gyeong, 1991, 121.
Hirata Yutaka, 1984, 6; Kim Junghee mentions the possibility of the fabric being woven in Korea. Kim Junghee, 2001, 141; n. 61.
Kikutake Junichi and Yoshida Hiroshi, Korai butsuga (Tokyo Ashai Shimbunsha, 1981), 28; Hirata Yutaka, 1984, 5; Moon Myung-dae, “Background to the Production of Goryeo Buddhist Paintings and their Contents,” Goryeo bulhwa (Seoul: Joongang Ilbosa, 1981), 248; Jang Gyeong-hui, “Investigation on the Source of the Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara,” Misulsa yeongu 8 (1994): 15-16; Chung Woothak, 1995, 140.
Moon Myung-dae suggests that the background to the two-level structure of the paintings arises from the distinction made between the aristocracy and powerful families with the common people, or between the military officials and the civil officials. Moon Myung-dae, 1981, 213.
Moon Myung-dae, Goryeo Buddhist Paintings (Youlhwadang, 1991), 59; Ahn Hwi-Joon, History of Korean Painting (Sigongsa, 2000), 269.
Conservation work was carried out from April to November 1999. The piece of paper discovered at the time was removed temporarily and returned to its original place after the painting was restored. Report on Restoration of the Painting of Amitabha at Shōbō-ji (Sakata bokujudō, 1999).
The following table comes from Park Eunkyung, Joseon jeongi bulhwa yeongu (Seoul: Sigong Art, 2008), 463:
Lee Jong-su, “New Examples of Bronze Votive Offering Pouches—Focusing on Contents of Votive Records,” Misul jaryo 69 (2003): 133-142.
Yeonghon ui yeojeong - joseon sidae bulgyo hoehwa waui mannam (National Museum of Korea, 2003), pl. 45.
Park Eunkyung, “Gamnotaeng: Joseon Dynasty Painting for Suryukjae,” Gamno (甘露, Nectar) 2 (2005): 257-258. It has not yet been clearly confirmed when votive offering pouches began to appear on Buddhist paintings.
For materials on bronze mirrors, including Goryeo mirrors, see Gwak Dong-seok, “Study of the Iconography of Goryeo Mirrors,” Misul jaryo 44 (1989); Lee Nan-young, Study of Goryeo Mirrors (Sinyu, 2003); Jeong Ji-hui, “Study of Goryeo Mirrors with Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara and Mirrors at the Seoul Museum of History,” Gangjwa Misul 24 (2005).
Gwak Donghui and Jeong Ji-hui argue that mirrors decorated with Buddhist iconography should be distinguished from ordinary bronze mirrors. Gwak Dong-seok, “Reinterpretation of Kikutake Junichi and Yoshida Hiroshi’s Interpretation of the Iconography Inscribed on Square Mirrors and Chinese Cundi Avalokiteshvara,” Misul jaryo 48 (1991): 75-76; Jeong Ji-hui, 2005, 12. Jeong, however, says that mirrors with holes in the knob would have been hung up. Such mirrors are surmised to have had a large range of purposes such as ritual implements in tantric Buddhist rites, for private prayers and protection, and later as funerary items. Jeong Ji-hui, 2005, 32-33.
Jeong Myounghee, “Study of the Lord of Hell in Terms of Place of Enshrinement and Rites—Based on the Lord of Hell from Seongbulsa Temple at the National Museum of Korea,” Misul jaryo 78 (2009): 107.
There have been rare cases of votive offerings enshrined in the wooden rod at the back of a painting. Jeong Myounghee, 2009, n. 14.
Mincheonsa Temple and Heungcheonsa Temple in Gaegyeong have been discussed as the original place of enshrinement of the Kagami Jinja Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara; see Chung Woothak, 1988, 142; Lee Yeong, “Origin of the Goryeo Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara at Kagami Jinja,” Presented at the 72nd Korean Medieval History Society Conference (Sep. 26, 2008).
Yun Gi-yeop, “Goryeo Temples as Yuan Prayer Shrines in the Period of Yuan Control of Goryeo,” Daedong munhwa yeongu 46 (2004): 166-168. Regarding temples of the Goryeo court, see Jeong Eun-wu, Study of Late Goryeo Buddhist Sculpture (Munye chulpansa, 2007), 16-25.
Goryeosa, vol. 28, “Sega (Powerful Families),” no. 28, the first year of the reign of King Chungnyeol,” “王召僧紹瓊于宮中 點眼佛 讀華嚴經 王與淑昌院妃 受菩薩戒 希愈與承旨崔崇言...”
Goryeosa, vol. 104, “Yeoljeon (Biographies),” no. 17, Han Hui-yu, “王召僧紹瓊于宮中 點眼佛 讀華嚴經 王與淑昌院妃 受菩薩戒 希愈與承旨崔崇言...”
Yun Gi-yeop, 2007, 167. The enshrinement of Buddhist paintings is suggested in the Buddhist activities and works carried out at prayer temples and the production of hand-copied sutras during the reigns of Kings Chungnyeol and Chungseon. Goryeosa, vol. 33, “Sega,” no. 33, the 34th year of the reign of King Chungnyeol, October; ibid., vol. 34, “Sega,” no. 34, the 4th year of the reign of King Chungnyeol, August; Goryeosa, vol. 34, “Sega,” no. 34, 5th year of the reign of King Chungnyeol.
Kim Yong-seon ed., Collection of Goryeo Dynasty Epitaphs (Hallym University Institute of Asian Culture Studies, 2001, Third edition), 545-546.
Haeansa, a prayer temple at Mt. Bongmyeongsan in Gaeseong, is where the portraits of Goryeo royal ancestors were enshrined. It also functioned as a prayer shrine for King Uijong and the Council of Generals (Jungbang). Jin Seong-gyu, “Goryeo Dynasty Prayer Temples,” Yeoksa gyoyuk 36 (1984): 112.
Goryeosa, vol. 129, “Yeoljeon,” no. 42, “Choe Chung-heon,” ““…後代 將相群臣 無僧尼等 無問山川吉凶 營立佛宇 名爲願堂 損傷地脉 灾變屢作…”; ibid., vol. 84, no. 38, “Hyeongbeop (Criminal Law),” “...太祖 創立禪敎寺社 皆以地鉗 相應置之 今兩班 私立願堂 虧損地德 又共議寺社住持 率以貨賂濫得 並令禁斷....”; Kim Yun-gon, “Temple Fields and Farmers of the Goryeo Dynasty—Focusing on Unmunsa Temple and Tongdosa Temple,” Minjok munhwa nonchong 2&3(1982): 163-164.
Jin Seong-gyu, 1984, 125-126; Gajeong seonsaeng munjip (稼亭先生文集, Collected Writings of Gajeong), vol. 3, “Record of the Construction of the Home of Jo Jeong-suk”; Dongmunseon (東文選, Selected Writings of the Eastern Kingdom), vol. 70, “Record of the Construction of the Home of Jo Jeong-suk.”
Chung Woothak, “Buddhist Painting,” Gangjwa misulsa 1(1988): 116; Park Eunkyung, Joseon jeongi bulhwa yeongu (Seoul: Sigong Art, 2008), 146.
Dongmunseon, vol. 68, “Record of the Miraculous Sarira of Shakyamuni in the Main Hall of Seokcheongsa Temple.”
Moon Myung-dae, 1991, 216; Dongmunseon, vol. 80, “Record of Renovation of Seodae Sujeongam at Mt. Odaesan.”
I referred to Lee Seung-hui’s records on Wonders of the Lotus Sutra as reference, and reconfirmed the content of the sutra. However, my interpretation differs in some parts. Two woodblock print copies of the sutra exist, one from 1534 during the reign of King Jungjeong of the Joseon dynasty and the other from 1625 during the reign of King Hyojong, meaning a time difference of more than 100 years between the two. Oh Ji-yeon, “Forms of Faith in the Wonders of the Lotus Sutra,” Cheontaehak yeongu 11 (2008): 5, n. 6.; Oh Hyeong-geun, “Historical Significance of Yowon’s Wonders of the Lotus Sutra,” Hanguk cheontae sasang yeongu (1983).
Goryeosa, vol. 122, “Yeoljeon,” no. 35, “Baek Seon-yeon,” “善淵 嘗准王行年 鑄銅佛四十 畫觀音四十 以佛生日 點燈祝釐於別院 王乘夜微行觀之.”
Go Ik-jin ed., Hanguk bulgyo jeonseo (韓國佛敎全書, Collection of Korean Buddhist Texts)(Dongguk University Press, 1986), 611; Hong Sunpyo, 2009, 39. In his lecture on “Journey of Water-Moon Avalokiteshvara Paintings from Tang and Jin at Kagami Jinja” (held at Tongdosa Seongbo Museum in May 2005), Chung Woothak briefly mentioned Wangnangjeon in his discussion of the function of Buddhist paintings. Active debate is under way regarding the classification of Wangnangjeon as a Buddhist novel in the context of Korean literature. Several woodblock print copies of the story exist at Hwaeomsa Temple (1637), Donghwsa Temple (1753), Haeinsa Temple (1776), and Seonunsa Temple (1787). They are printed in Chinese characters and have a hangeul version as an appendix. See Sa Jae-dong, Study on Korean Buddhist Novels (Jungang Munhwasa, 1994), 74-90, 331-358.
Dongguk isangguk hujip (東國李相國後集, Collected Works of Minister Yi), vol. 11, “Record of Yugadang, the House of Park Chu-bu.”
It is believed that the painting was originally larger than it is now, considering the measurements recorded in Inō Todataka’s Sokuryō nikki (測量日記, Journal of Measurements) (1812); Hirata Yutaka, “Kagami jinja shozō yoryū kannongazō saikō.” Yamato Bunka 72 (Feb. 1984): 5-6; Ide Seinosuke, 2001, 96; Chung Woothak, 1988, 139.
Regarding the scale of Buddhist paintings enshrined in the main hall of large temples of the early Joseon dynasty, see Park Eunkyung, 2008, 143-148.
Kim Gwang-cheol, “Yuan’s Political Situation in the Early 14th Century and the Exile of King Chungseon,” Hanguk jungsesa yeongu 3 (1996): 320-321; cited from Kim Sang-gi, “Yi Je-hyeon’ s Life in Yuan as an Attendant to King Chungseon,” Dongbangsa nonchong (1974): 230.
Kim Gwang-cheol, op. cit., 320; Ikje nango (益齊亂藁, Writings of Ikje), vol. 9, “Sega,” “...皇慶癸丑...王旣謝兩王位 留京師邸 稱病不朝 請所居堂名 濟美基德痛掃漑 閉戶焚香 竟日跪坐...唯酷嗜浮圖法 捨本國舊宮爲旻天寺....”