Daeungjeon Hall Guardian Deities Painting of Jijangam Hermitage

The Guardian Deities Painting (Sinjungdo) in the Daeungjeon Hall of Jijangam Hermitage was produced in 1914 at Anyangam Hermitage on Samgaksan Mountain and was later moved here; it is now enshrined on the right-hand wall of the Daeungjeon Hall. The Anyangamji (Record of Anyangam Hermitage) notes that in February of the gapin year 4247 (1914) a ten-bay Daeungjeon Hall was built and the Chilseonggak and Dokseonggak shrines were rebuilt, and that in the fourth month of the same year three paintings — of the Seven Stars, the Guardian Deities and the Mountain God — were newly made and enshrined. According to the production record (hwagi) at the foot of the painting, Yeonui Jeonghyeon served as witness-certifier, Kim Jeong-gon as chanter of mantras, and the painting itself was made by the monk-painters Geumho Yak-hyo, Hyangam Seong-su and Yeonam Gyeong-in. The Jijangam Sinjungdo is divided into upper and lower registers. The upper register shows large figures of Brahma and Indra, and the lower register a large figure of Witaecheon (Skanda, the guardian deity who protects the Buddhist teaching), each surrounded by their retinues; the central figures as a whole are shifted toward the right of the picture, so that the composition is not symmetrical. In the upper register, Brahma and Indra stand side by side facing forward, their upper bodies tilted slightly inward so that the viewer's gaze is drawn toward the centre. They appear as conventional bodhisattvas draped in heavenly robes, each holding and supporting a lotus flower in a different hand; their robes bear no pattern and are plain. Their faces are rounded, close to square, with small, stylised features that give a neat, placid look, though the lack of expression and slightly imperfect symmetry lend them a somewhat awkward air. Between Brahma and Indra, two heavenly maidens offer fruit, and attendant deities beside them hold ritual tablets with hands joined in prayer; although neither sun nor moon is depicted, these are presumably the attendants of the Palace of the Sun and the Palace of the Moon, shown only from the upper body. To the right of Brahma are three heavenly maidens playing music and three young female attendants offering food, and to the left of Indra four heavenly maidens playing music and three more young female attendants offering food, together encircling the whole picture. These figures likewise have very small, expressionless features and are posed with little movement, very static. Clouds surround the figures from behind, setting them off from the sky, and generous expanses of sky and ground give the painting a sense of spaciousness. Witaecheon stands slightly right of centre in the lower register, wearing an ornate helmet trimmed with bird feathers, his arms folded in prayer with a gold-outlined trident laid across them. Small patterns are set over his gold-outlined armour, but it too is fairly plain, and his face is rounded and placid rather than fierce, as might be expected of a guardian deity, giving an impression of ease rather than authority. To his right stand three of the Eight Legions, including the Dragon King, and to his left four armed members of the Eight Legions, all lined up in attendance. The colouring has faded considerably but the overall impression remains calm: red predominates, with green and bright blue added in moderation. With no patterning and no showy ornament, the gold outlining painted onto the weapons enlivens what would otherwise be a plain picture. The blue-green and green garments are shaded in darker tones of the same colour family, and the faces of figures such as the Eight Legions are given deep shading around the eyes and cheeks; this shading technique came into fashion from the late nineteenth century, and the monk-painter Yak-hyo appears to have followed it. Yak-hyo is known to have learned this shading technique through repeated collaboration with the monk Chugyeon, and to have used it actively after producing the gwaebul (a huge Buddhist painting hung outdoors for great ceremonies) of Beomeosa Temple in 1905. The production record (hwagi) reads, in translation: newly produced and enshrined, one scroll of the Guardian Deities painting, on the eighth day of the tenth lunar month of the gapin year, the third year of Taisho (1914), at Anyangam Hermitage on Samgaksan Mountain, Goyang-gun, Gyeongseong-bu. Among those involved in its production: witness-certifier, Yeonui Jeonghyeon; chanter of mantras, the lay devotee Kim Jeong-in; also the lay devotees Oh Bo-gwang, Manwol Beop-won and Yi Gwang-myeong; hall attendant, the lay devotee Baek Yeon-sim; chief painters, Geumho Yak-hyo, Hyangam Seong-su and Yeonam Gyeong-in; tea server, the novice monk Gyeong-hyeop; kitchen supervisor, the lay devotee Kang Tan-tanyeon; overseer, Pyeongdeung Seon-ju; fundraiser and manager, Yanghak Hyo-sin. Among the major donors: the female lay devotee Heo, born in the eulmi year, known as Bohyesim; the female lay devotee Kim, born in the gyeongsul year, known as Deoksu-haeng; and the child Yi Hui-jun, born in the musin year. This painting is the work of the monk-painter Geumhodang Yak-hyo, the foremost Buddhist painter of the late Joseon period. It clearly displays the style of Buddhist painting of the early twentieth century, provides important material for the study of Sinjungdo paintings of the period, and offers valuable insight into the characteristic features of Yak-hyo's work.

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Where it is

Region

Jongno-gu, Seoul

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료