범어사 극락암의 칠성도 조성과 만일회

Abstract

In 2015, restituted are Beomeosa Guekramam Chilseongdo Paintings that were once drained into foreign countries. Beomeosa Guekramam Chilseongdo Paintings were produced in 11 pieces, and three of them through Swiss auction and two of them through Seoul auction are brought back to the temple, Beomeosa. Three pieces knocked down in Koller Auktionen AG, Zurich, Switzerland include Chilseongdo cores of “the Tejaprabha triad(熾盛光三尊圖) ‐ Ilgwang Bodhisattva(日光菩薩) ‐ Wolgwang Bodhisattva(月光菩薩),” “the 5th Gwangdaljibyeon Buddha(光達志邊如來),” and “the 6th Beophaeyuhui Buddha(法海遊戱如來),” and afterward two pieces of “Choiseunggilsang Buddha(最勝吉祥如來)” and “Geumsaekseongchi Buddha(金色成就如來)” surfaced through September 15 Seoul auction. In summary, out of 11 pieces of Beomeosa Guekramam Chilseongdo Paintings, five of them are restituted, and two of the rest six pieces are owned by State L.A. County Gallery in L.A. County, California, USA. From the painting record of Beomeosa Guekramam Chilseongdo Paintings, it is said that 11 scrolls of Chilseongdo Paintings(七星圖) were produced at Yeonjiam, Manilhoe, Pyochungsa temple, Jaeyaksan mountain, Milyangbu province, in June 1861, and enshrined in Guekramam, Beomeosa temple, Geumjeongsan mountain, Dongraebu province. Chilseongdo(七星圖) is a painting that extensively embodies various stars including the Polar Star and the Big Dipper as Buddha, Manilhoe is a type of gye(契; fraternities) within the category of Yeombulgye. Yeombulgye was based on gye that produces pavilions and Buddhist paintings with Buddhist monks and Buddhist followers in the affiliated temples. Temple gye is a measure of overcoming financial difficulties within the temple owing to the Joseon’s policy of adored Confucianism and precluded Buddhism(崇儒抑佛策), and connotatively there were faith of Buddhism and pursuit of maintaining ties of gye(契) organization through gye. In other words, Manilhoe means the gye(契) in which members offered prayers for 30 years, made pavilions, and produced Buddhist paintings. Though Beomeosa Guekramam Chilseongdo Paintings are small‐scale paintings, inferring from the fact that they reach 11 scrolls with silk and natural inorganic pigments, there was a great deal of offering from the gye. Also, Haeseonggeumchal of Pyochungsa temple who was in charge of the whole preparation cost for Chilseongdo Paintings was a monk who received Ulamdang Gyeongui Monk of gye (戒) from Beomeosa temple. From this, we may surmise the reason why the enshrinement place of Chilseongdo Paintings that was produced in Manilhoe of Pyochungsa temple turned out to be Beomeosa temple.