충청도 서산지역 사찰의 책판 제작 활동에 관한 연구 - 開心寺․普願寺․伽倻寺를 중심으로 -

Abstract

Gaesimsa Temple, located at Seosan in Chungcheong-do Province, currently holds a total of 18 types and 421 blocks of wood-blocks, which include 2 type of wood-block engraved in Gaesimsa Temple, 14 kinds from Bowonsa Temple, 1 type from Gayasa Temple and 1 type from an unknown publisher. Most of these wood-blocks were originally engraved in Bowonsa Temple. The wood-blocks in Gaesimsa Temple are rectangular in shape and are unusually long horizontally. A significant number of them are either warped or misaligned. This is mostly due to the accelerated production process. The variance in the type of woods used for the wood-blocks reveals that some types of trees not usually considered for wood-block printing were also utilized to meet the increasing demand. In addition, the orders of block surfaces were often mixed up, probably to ensure faster and more efficient publication. These analyses also enable us to read the historical circumstance, and also let us understand the consciousness of the engravers who worked on these wood-blocks. Examining the 830 people who participated in the publication, as seen in the wood-blocks itself and the published materials, this study analyzed the personnel’s who participated in the process, their social status, and also their role conducted in the production of the wood-blocks. In addition, this study discovered that there were a number of people who overlapped from different Buddhist temples, indicating that these printing activities from each of the three temples were not isolated, but actually integrated and cooperative among each other.