Mok Seated Amitabha Buddha of Jeonggaksa Temple

This statue is a small Buddha image 29.2 cm high, identified as an image of Amitabha Buddha by a regilding votive text. Its slender face, slightly elongated upper body and short lower body in the seated cross-legged posture are features typical of wooden Buddha statues of the early 18th century. At the top of the tall usnisha, whose boundary is indistinct, are a large, round usnisha jewel at the crown and a half-moon-shaped central usnisha jewel much larger in proportion to the head than usual — both characteristic features. The snail-shell curls of the hair are somewhat thick and large, similar to those of the Buddha statue in the Nahanjeon Hall of Jeongsusa Temple. The face is rather oval and compact; the nose is short and straight, retaining much of the earlier tradition of a projecting nose, and the narrow eyes and small mouth give an overall impression of quiet refinement. The face closely resembles that of the Amitabha Buddha statue of Simgoksa Temple, made in 1716. The upper body forms a somewhat elongated rectangle, flat except for the rounded volume of the shoulders, with the belly slightly protruding. The lower body, seated cross-legged, is short and set slightly high, giving, together with the upper body, a neat and composed impression — a form again very similar to the Mok Seated Amitabha Buddha of Simgoksa Temple, also made in 1716. The right hand is raised and extended forward with the thumb and middle finger touching; the left hand is extended forward above the left knee, likewise with thumb and middle finger touching, forming the mudra of the lowest rebirth of the middle grade, one of the nine grades of Amitabha's gestures of welcome. The robe covering both shoulders falls in a U-shape across the chest and is draped over the shoulder above the right wrist in a half-moon fold; the finish of this outer robe shows that it is worn by the double-robe method, with an inner robe beneath it. The garment forming parallel lines across the chest is the innermost undergarment, notable together with the heavy folds falling from the right wrist; below the knees, three long folds converge towards the ankles. This method of dress is again very similar to that of the Simgoksa statue. This wooden statue was most recently regilded on 19 April 1916, and has since been regilded once more. The 1916 regilding is recorded in detail in the following votive text: Regilded in the fourth month of the byeongjin year, the fifth year of the Taisho era [1916]: one image of Amitabha Buddha. Sponsor: the monk Gyeongje Jisu. Witness: the monk Daewon Wongak. Painter: the monk Bogyeong Bohyeon. Abbot: the monk Yeonwol Changhwan. By this merit, may it extend to all; may we, together with all sentient beings, be born in the Land of Bliss, together behold Amitayus, and together attain Buddhahood. The painter who regilded this statue, Bogyeong Bohyeon, was a renowned Buddhist painter active in the late Joseon and early Japanese colonial period. Stylistically this Amitabha statue is an unusually elegant and graceful example of an early 18th-century wooden Buddha statue, and, with the early 20th-century regilding votive text also surviving, it provides important material for research into Buddhist statuary of the latter half of the Joseon period. For these reasons this statue is designated a Seoul tangible cultural heritage.

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Where it is

Region

Seongbuk-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산