Nectar Ritual Painting of Suguksa Temple

This Buddhist painting is a Gamnodo, a nectar ritual painting enshrined during a rite sending the soul of the deceased to the Pure Land, painted in 1907 through the patronage of Gang Jae-hui, under the superintendence of Gang Mun-hwan, Kim Jong-seong and Won Il-sang, with the supervising painters Boam Geungbeop and Duheum, and the master painters Hyegwa Bonggam, Gyeeun Bongbeop, Beomhwa Jeongun, Geumun Jeonggi, Unho Jaeo, Jaewon, Sangeun, Sangho, Gijeong, Beopyeon, Beomcheon, Haengeon, Hyeonsang, Jongmin and Wonsang. Measuring 261.0 cm across and 157.5 cm high, the lower part of the painting shows two hungry ghosts facing one another, and above them an altar laden with food and offerings together with the Seven Buddhas. Across the top of the wide picture the Seven Buddhas stand in a row with palms joined; to the left stand the Amitabha Triad, the disciples Ananda and Kasyapa, kings, nobles, generals and ministers, former kings and queens, and the Thunder God holding a drum, while to the right stand Ksitigarbha Bodhisattva and the Bodhisattva who Guides Souls, all upon clouds. Below the Seven Buddhas, tall poles are set up on either side of the altar hung with the three banners of the Trikaya Buddhas, inscribed "Homage to the Buddha of a Hundred Kotis of Transformation Bodies" (Sakyamuni), "Homage to the Buddha of the Pure Dharma Body" (Vairocana), and "Homage to the Buddha of the Perfect Reward Body" (Rocana), amid a profusion of flowers and offerings, the banners fluttering in the wind to lend a vivid sense of realism. On the altar are also placed tablets in the form of ancestral memorial tablets, inscribed with the titles of His Imperial Majesty the Great Emperor, His Highness the Crown Prince, His Highness Crown Prince Yeong, and His Highness Prince Uichin. Large vases placed on either side beneath the stone steps to the altar are filled with red and white peonies, vividly conveying how lavishly the altar was adorned at the time; to the right of the altar, monks are shown gathered beneath a white canopy chanting sutras, striking large drums and cymbals to conduct the rite, performing the Seungmu, and carrying or bearing large offerings toward the altar. At the centre of the lower picture, a pair of hungry ghosts kneel facing one another on a large scale, their flame-spouting mouths, thin necks and swollen bellies well depicted, though their expressions are somewhat comical. To either side, in scenes divided by trees, are realistically rendered secular scenes: men and women in Korean dress dancing or fighting, a scene of work at a blacksmith's forge, a clown performing a handstand to musical accompaniment while a jester dances with a fan, a game of juggling, and a shaman performing a ritual; scenes of people eating, drinking or selling goods seem to reproduce a contemporary marketplace directly. These genre scenes centre mainly on matters connected with funerals and rites for the dead, clearly showing the character of the Gamnodo as a painting for the rite for souls of water and land. On the right of the picture, beneath the flames of the Thunder God, are shown a figure with an umbrella and another pursued by a snake, scenes of deliverance from danger drawn from the chapter on Avalokitesvara's Universal Gate in the Lotus Sutra, together with scenes of farming, of study, of treating the sick, of groups playing with small drums, of people going to work or to market, scenes of criminals being punished, and scenes of war. The colouring makes broad use of red, yellow, white and blue-green, together with pink, blue-grey, gold leaf and gold pigment, the gold used for the body-halos of the Seven Buddhas and elsewhere in the picture giving a splendid, luxurious feel. This work shares its iconography with other Gamnodo paintings produced in the Seoul and Gyeonggi region in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, such as the Gamnodo of Heungguksa Temple on Suraksan Mountain (1868), of Gaeunsa Temple (1883), and of Bongeunsa Temple (1892). Although the overall composition appears somewhat crowded, the picture, rich in content, is well demarcated by landscape and cloud, and its genre-painting aspects are faithfully rendered. The human figures are somewhat lacking in formal accomplishment, but the assured brushwork and the rich portrayal of custom through varied colouring make this a notable work.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산