Daeungbojeon Hall Altar Painting of Beopjusa Temple, Boeun

This painting is the altar painting hung behind the clay seated Buddha Triad (a Treasure) in the Daeungbojeon Hall of Beopjusa Temple. According to its inscription, it was produced by Geumhodang Yakhyo, and is presumed to date from around 1897. One painting each is placed behind the Rocana Buddha, the Vairocana Buddha and the Shakyamuni Buddha, and unusually the Four Heavenly Kings Painting is divided into two separate hanging panels; records show that the set has been repaired on three occasions. The five hanging paintings are hung on the wall behind the clay Buddha triad enshrined on the high altar of the Daeungbojeon Hall of Beopjusa Temple. They comprise a painting of the principal Buddha, Vairocana; two paintings of the flanking Amitabha Buddhas; and two paintings of the Four Heavenly Kings placed to either side of the triad — five paintings in all, in good condition. Of the altar paintings of the Daeungbojeon Hall of Beopjusa Temple, the earliest to be painted were the Amitabha Buddha Painting on the right of the altar and the Guardian King of the East and Guardian King of the South from the Four Heavenly Kings Painting, all painted in 1897. These were painted by Bonghwa, whose figures of the Buddha match in basic form those appearing in each scene of the Palsangdo, the Eight Scenes from the Buddha's Life, painted and enshrined at Beopjusa the same year by Geumhodang Yakhyo; in particular, the technique for colouring the auspicious clouds, combining a shading method with a gradation-wash method, is identical. The Vairocana Buddha Painting was painted in 1917, the sixth year of the Taisho era. It was painted by Boeungdang Munseong, a disciple of Geumhodang Yakhyo, together with Yeongseong Monghwa, Yeonam Gyeongin, Hyoam Jaechan and Buljon Beomhwa Jungnim; the shading technique used to bring out the volume of the faces of the Buddha and bodhisattva figures, and the somewhat awkward rendering of shadow, clearly reflect the painting style of Munseong and his followers. The paintings made in 1925 are the Amitabha Buddha Painting on the left of the altar and the Guardian King of the West and Guardian King of the North from the Four Heavenly Kings Painting. These two works are by Gosandang Chukyeon, a highly individual painter who began his career in Gangwon province and travelled the whole country, including the Gyeonggi region, painting Buddhist pictures. The faces of the attendant figures at the top of the Four Heavenly Kings Painting and the Amitabha Buddha Painting show the same intense shading technique found in the Sinjungdo, the Guardian Deities Paintings, of Yongjusa and Jeondeungsa temples and in other works by Gosandang Chukyeon. These paintings were restored in 2006, using a great deal of blue pigment and flat overpainting, which has left much of their original antique character diminished. The set of altar paintings in the Daeungbojeon Hall of Beopjusa Temple was produced at different times by three painters who each made a name for themselves in the modern period and who are treated as important figures in the recent history of modern Buddhist painting. These works also clearly reflect the adoption of Western painting techniques favoured by some painters in the modern Buddhist painting world, along with the resulting features of expression. The support material is cotton cloth. The dates and painters are as follows: the Vairocana Buddha Painting (centre) — the sixth year of the Taisho era (1917), by Boeungdang Munseong; the Amitabha Buddha Painting (left) — the 2952nd year of the Buddhist calendar (1928), by Gosan Chukyeon; the Amitabha Buddha Painting (right) — the second year of the Geonyang era (1897), by Bonghwa; the Four Heavenly Kings Painting (left) — the 2952nd year of the Buddhist calendar (1928), by Gosan Chukyeon; the Four Heavenly Kings Painting (right) — the second year of the Geonyang era (1897), by Bonghwa. It is already well known in the field of Buddhist painting that the altar paintings of the Daeungbojeon Hall of Beopjusa Temple, as well as the altar paintings in the other halls of the temple precinct, were produced by Geumhodang Yakhyo and his followers. Although these works belong to the modern period, the high reputation of the painters who made them, and their value as cultural heritage and objects of academic research, continue to grow.

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Where it is

Region

Boeun, Chungbuk

Designation

Provincial Tangible Heritage · 시도유형문화유산