Wooden Seated Amitabha Buddha of Gaesimsa Temple, Seosan

This Amitabha Buddha statue was found, through the ink inscription recording its repair on the Sealed Tablet for the Repair of the Amitabha Buddha Statue — a sacred deposit discovered inside the statue in 2004 — to have been restored by a Mr. Song, a naesi (palace attendant) who held, with acting rank, the post of jangsa (a secretary-level military post) in the Heungwiwi, one of the Six Guards of Goryeo, under the supervision of the Seungjaesaek, an office specially established for the sixth year of King Chungnyeol of Goryeo (1280) to carry out this Buddhist project. This shows that the statue itself was made earlier than 1280, the year recorded for its repair. The Seungjaesaek, which oversaw the project, is thought to have been an office established around the reign of King Chungnyeol of Goryeo to handle the printing of sutras, the repair of temples, the regilding and restoration of Buddhist statues, and Buddhist rites; the repair of this Amitabha statue is the earliest record of the Seungjaesaek's activities identified to date. This statue is dignified yet solemn in form, well proportioned, and carved with great refinement and sophistication. In particular, its clearly defined yet solemn, exotic-looking face, the drapery on the left shoulder rendered in a few short vertical lines, and the doubled O-shaped folds beneath share the stylistic idiom of the period with the Wooden Amitabha Buddha of Gaeunsa Temple, Seoul, repaired in 1274, the Wooden Seated Amitabha Buddha of Bongnimsa Temple, Hwaseong, presumed to date from the 13th century, and the Dry-lacquer Seated Amitabha Buddha of Simhyangsa Temple, Naju — yet it shows a far more robust and vivid carving technique than any of these. This suggests that it may be the oldest surviving wooden Buddha statue of the late Goryeo period, and it is regarded as the most accomplished of these works in terms of carving.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Seosan, Chungnam

Designation

Treasure · 보물