Five-story Stone Pagoda, Mungyeong

This is a Goryeo-period stone pagoda held at the Gansong Art Museum. It originally stood in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province, but during the Japanese colonial period, when Japanese nationals attempted to move it elsewhere, the late Jeon Hyeong-pil rescued it and re-erected it at its present site. The pagoda consists of a five-storey body set on a two-tiered base, with almost every part surviving intact. On the four sides of the lower base a simple pattern is carved in relief, and on the upper base a pilaster-like carving is placed at each corner and in the centre. The body is made of alternating body stones and roof stones, one of each per storey, though the fifth-storey roof stone looks out of place, as if brought from elsewhere. Pilasters are carved at the corners of the body stone of each storey, and on the south face of the first storey a lock-shaped carving appears; the carving itself is small and shallow, seemingly a simplified representation of a door. The short, steep roof stones have four tiers of eave supports on the underside up to the fourth storey, reduced to three tiers from the fifth storey onward. At the top, a square dew basin and an overturned-bowl finial are carved from a single stone, decorated with a flower carving at each of the four corners. The distinct niche-shaped carvings on the lower base and the inconsistent number of eave-support tiers — four, then three — indicate that this is a stone pagoda of the Goryeo period, and the beautiful proportions between its upper and lower sections give it an overall sense of stability. A worship stone stands directly in front of the pagoda, completing its formal arrangement.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Seongbuk-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물