Painting of Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and Ten Underworld Kings (1990)

This is a jijang-siwangdo, a painting of the Bodhisattva Ksitigarbha together with the Ten Kings, the judges of the underworld. Ksitigarbha is the bodhisattva who guides beings suffering the torments of hell to the Pure Land, and paintings of him typically also include the guardian deities of hell or its judges. At the centre of this painting the principal figure, Ksitigarbha, is depicted large, while the Ten Kings, the Four Heavenly Kings and the monk Domyeong are depicted smaller to the lower left and right, all rendered in delicate brushwork. This composition can be read as expressing, in visual form, the union of the cult of Ksitigarbha with the cult of the Ten Kings, with Ksitigarbha as the principal figure and the Ten Kings in a subordinate role. This painting is one of ten Goryeo Buddhist paintings of its kind surviving today, believed to date from around the fourteenth century, and is a valuable resource for the study of Goryeo Buddhist painting.

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Where it is

Region

Gwanak-gu, Seoul

Designation

Treasure · 보물