Geungnakgupumdo Painting of Suguksa Temple

This work is a Guputaeng, a painting depicting the nine grades of rebirth upon the lotus platforms of the Pure Land, produced in 1907 by Gang Jae-hui as a royal votive Buddhist painting for His Majesty the Emperor and, below him, the Crown Prince, Crown Prince Yeong, and Prince Uichin and his consort. It was painted by the supervising painters (pyeonsu) Boam Geungbeop and Duheum and the master painters (geumeo) Jaewon, Gijeong and Sangeun, while Gang Mun-hwan, Kim Jong-seong and Won Il-sang served as superintendents (gamdong) of the project. The painting is divided into a grid of nine squares, each depicting an independent scene. This method of dividing the picture surface can also be seen in the Palsangdo of Gaeunsa Temple (1879), the Geungnakgupumdo of the Geungnakbojeon Hall at Heungcheonsa Temple (1885), the Palsangdo of Jijangsa Temple (1893), the Sixteen Arhats of Buramsa Temple in Gyeonggi Province (1897), the Geungnakgupumdo of Heungguksa Temple (late nineteenth century), the Geungnakgupumdo of Bongwonsa Temple (1905), the Sixteen Arhats of Suguksa Temple (1907), and the Palsangdo of Cheongnyongsa Temple (1915), and can be regarded as a characteristic compositional device of Buddhist paintings from the Seoul and Gyeonggi region of this period. At the centre of the picture is the Assembly of Amitabha in the Pure Land, surrounded by the nine-grade lotus ponds. Amitabha Buddha sits cross-legged on a high pedestal at the centre, encircled by bodhisattvas, the Ten Great Disciples, the Four Heavenly Kings, the Eight Kinds of Divine Beings, and heavenly beings, all arranged obliquely in three tiers. Whereas the Guputaeng of Heungcheonsa, Heungguksa and Bongwonsa fill the picture almost entirely with figures, the Suguksa painting places trees to left and right, giving the composition a far more spacious feel, while gilding on Amitabha's body halo and across the lower part of the picture lends a splendid effect. To the right of the Assembly is the Bodhisattvas' Scene of Approaching the Pure Land, showing a throng of bodhisattvas, child attendants and heavenly musicians gathering to join Amitabha's assembly, with pavilions and a pond inhabited by birds of paradise and lotus flowers in the background. To the left is the Sages' Scene of Approaching the Pure Land, showing heavenly musicians and seven sage-like disciples arriving to join the assembly, set against pavilions and a pond amid old pines, clouds and lotus flowers. Directly below the Assembly is a scene corresponding to the sixth of the sixteen contemplations prescribed in Buddhist scripture, the Total Contemplation, in which jewelled trees, pines, bamboo, oddly shaped rocks and a multi-storeyed pavilion are drawn large across the picture, fronted by a pond filled with fully opened lotus flowers, with elephants and golden-maned lions here and there. On the left, right and lower sides of this scene are depicted the nine grades of rebirth into the Pure Land, the Pure Land being divided into upper, middle and lower grades, each further divided into upper, middle and lower degrees. At the bottom centre, corresponding to the fourteenth contemplation, the upper grade shows a pond occupying half the scene, in which four reborn souls, one in official cap and robes and others in child form, sit upon fully bloomed white lotus flowers, while above them a standing Buddha descends on a cloud, casting radiant light upon them; around the pond, pavilions, oddly shaped rocks and trees mingle with four kirin and two birds of paradise. To the right of the Total Contemplation, the fifteenth contemplation, the middle grade, shows a seated Amitabha, right hand raised and left hand on his knee, welcoming four child-form reborn souls, his light illuminating them on lotus flowers in the pond, against a background of a multi-storeyed pavilion, rocks, trees, birds of paradise, golden-maned lions and a five-coloured golden pagoda; below this, another middle-grade scene shows two standing bodhisattvas on clouds welcoming three lay-form reborn souls, light streaming from the lotus flowers in their hands, with cranes and camels at play nearby. To the left of the Total Contemplation is the sixteenth contemplation, the lower grade: in the pond, two reborn souls in red and three unclothed sit with palms joined on white lotus flowers, while Avalokitesvara and Mahasthamaprapta Bodhisattvas ride clouds to welcome them, amid trees, pavilions, birds of paradise and rocks, the gilded roof of a two-storey pavilion adding to the splendour; in a further lower-grade pond below, no reborn souls are shown at all, in keeping with the Sutra of Contemplation on the Buddha of Immeasurable Life, which holds that twelve kalpas must pass before a lower-grade soul's lotus opens, the scene set among trees, rocks, cranes and deer. The Suguksa painting shows a composition very similar to the Geungnakgupumdo of Heungcheonsa Temple (1885), Heungguksa Temple (late nineteenth century) and Bongwonsa Temple (1905), works of this type that were popular in the Seoul and Gyeonggi region from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century. Since Boam Geungbeop, one of the monk-painters, had painted the Guputaeng of the Daeungjeon Hall at Bongwonsa Temple two years earlier, in 1905, the Suguksa work appears to have been produced from the same preliminary sketch. The colouring makes rich use of deep pigments together with gold, giving a splendid effect reminiscent of folk painting, and the brushwork is refined, with meticulous rendering of pattern and detail. Commissioned in 1907 by Gang Jae-hui for the Emperor and the imperial family, this painting employs the compartmentalised composition characteristic of Buddhist paintings of the Seoul and Gyeonggi region in this period, and its folk-painting-like background and colouring show well the dignity befitting a royal votive Buddhist painting.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산