Miryang Unjuamchilseong Fortress Buddhist Painting

The back of this Chilseongtaeng (a Buddhist painting of the Seven Star deities) was finished with a sheet of backing paper on which a dharani [a Buddhist incantation] had been written in cinnabar. Through long neglect, however, the backing paper had been partly eaten away by insects, leaving part of the interior completely exposed. During the resulting survey, the bokjangmul — votive objects that had been sealed inside the painting during its consecration — could be examined. Among them was a dedicatory text (wonmun) written on paper dyed a dark indigo colour; together with a list of donors (yeonhwajil), it records that the painting was made and enshrined on a day in the eighth month of a byeongsin year. Given the nineteenth-century style of this Chilseongtaeng, the byeongsin year named in the text corresponds to either 1836 or 1896. Moreover, the master painter (geumeo) Jincheol, named in the text, was active in Gyeonggi Province in the late nineteenth century before moving to Gyeongsang Province, where he took part in producing Buddhist paintings for temples such as Jikjisa, Tongdosa, Eunhaesa and Haeinsa. The master painters who worked alongside Jincheol, including Bonghwa and Insun, also appear in connection with the Jijang Siwang-taeng (a painting of the bodhisattva Kṣitigarbha and the Ten Kings of the underworld) of Chwiunam Hermitage at Tongdosa Temple. That painting was made in 1896 and was designated a Cultural Heritage Material on 13 January 2005. This Chilseongtaeng is therefore presumed likewise to have been made at Chwiunam in 1896, and it holds documentary value as a work from the end of the nineteenth century.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Miryang, Gyeongnam

Designation

Cultural Heritage Material · 문화유산자료