Clay Seated Vairocana Buddha Triad of Gwisinsa Temple, Gimje

This is a clay-sculpted triad centred on a Vairocana Buddha displaying the wisdom-fist mudra, flanked by a Bhaisajyaguru (Medicine) Buddha on the viewer's right and an Amitabha Buddha on the viewer's left. Large clay Buddhist statues were made in great numbers in the seventeenth century, following the Japanese invasions of 1592–98, and this triad, together with the treasure-designated Clay Seated Vairocana Buddha Triad of Beopjusa Temple, Boeun, and the treasure-designated Clay Seated Shakyamuni Buddha Triad of Songgwangsa Temple, Wanju, is a fine example of this trend. The triad is of very great scale, overwhelming the viewer; the benevolent, gentle facial expressions and the elongated, long-waisted body give the figures a highly elegant and dignified Buddhist countenance. In particular, the wisdom-fist mudra — the right hand grasping the left, with the tip of the left index finger extended toward the first joint of the right index finger — is a gesture found in Vairocana images of the Ming dynasty, and the elongated, long-waisted proportions were likewise a style popular in the early Ming period, revealing the influence of Ming-dynasty sculpture. A dedication document for the completion of Gwisinsa Temple's Nahanjeon Hall, written in 1633 during the Joseon period, records that the triad had already been made before that year, and according to the monk Jasu, whose sobriquet was Mugyeong, in his "Jeonju Moaksan Gwisinsa sajeok sain" (an account of the history of Gwisinsa Temple on Moaksan Mountain, Jeonju), the temple was rebuilt in 1624; the triad is accordingly presumed to have been made sometime between 1624 and 1633. The Vairocana Buddha triad of Gwisinsa Temple is valued as an important work both because it shows, in the first half of the seventeenth century, how the Ming sculptural style was absorbed and adapted into Joseon Buddhist imagery in an effort to create a new style, and because it demonstrates the great scale and outstanding technique of clay-sculpture carving.

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Where it is

Region

Gimje, Jeonbuk

Designation

Treasure · 보물