Patterned Tiles from Oe-ri, Buyeo

The Patterned Tiles from Oe-ri, Buyeo are Baekje-period bricks excavated from an old temple site at Oe-ri, Gyuam-myeon, Buyeo County, South Chungcheong Province, carved with a variety of patterns and figures before firing. The set comprises eight tiles: a landscape-pattern tile, a landscape-and-phoenix-pattern tile, a landscape-and-goblin-pattern tile, a lotus-pedestal-and-goblin-pattern tile, a coiled-dragon-pattern tile, a phoenix-pattern tile, a cloud-scroll-pattern tile, and a lotus-flower-pattern tile. The tiles are close to square, each side measuring around 29 cm with a thickness of 4 cm, and each corner has a groove cut into it, suggesting that the tiles were linked together to decorate the floor or walls of a building. On the landscape-pattern tile, a mountain of three peaks rises beneath auspicious clouds at the top, with water shown below; the composition is regular and left-right symmetrical, creating a lyrical mood. The landscape-and-phoenix-pattern tile shows clouds and a phoenix, with a triple-peaked mountain rising at the top and a landscape scene carved below. The landscape-and-goblin-pattern tile depicts, against a landscape background, a goblin (dokkaebi) standing on a round rock above wave-patterned clouds, while on the lotus-pedestal-and-goblin-pattern tile a goblin stands on a lotus-shaped pedestal. On the coiled-dragon-pattern tile, an S-shaped dragon is carved within an oval band of strung beads. The phoenix-pattern tile shows a single phoenix in an elegant pose set within a circle. On the cloud-scroll-pattern tile, a small lotus-patterned centre is formed, around which eight cloud-scroll motifs form a circle. The lotus-flower-pattern tile has a lotus-bud pattern within an oval of strung beads, with a large seed-pod at the centre and ten petals arranged around it, each carved with a scrolling-vine pattern. In character and manufacturing technique these tiles were influenced by the Southern Dynasties of China, and in turn influenced phoenix-pattern tiles excavated in Osaka, Japan. The imagery on these patterned tiles is important material for understanding painting of the Baekje period.

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Where it is

Region

Yongsan-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물