대승사 木刻極樂世界九品會圖의 조형성과 상징성

Abstract

This paper studies the transfer of Daeseung-sa Wooden Relief of Nine Different Grades of Rebirth in Amitabha’s Pure Land (1675, hereafter the wooden relief) from Buseok-sa Temple to Deaseung-sa Temple, and how the transfer affected the wooden panel. In doing so, this study examines a monk group and monk-sculptors who were involved in creating conditions to produce the wooden panel as well as its iconography and symbolism. Although the sculptor of the wooden relief was not recorded on the dedicatory inscription, based on the fact that Monk Jonghyeon(宗現) was in charge of supervising the productions of both panels with the same theme of the nine grades of rebirth in Amitabh’a Pure Land enshrined at Daeseung-sa and Yongmun-sa (1684) respectively, it is assumed monk-sculptors Daneung(端應) and Takmil(卓密), who participated in producing theYongmun-sa panel, are also responsible for this panel. In addition, this study emphasizes Master Soyeong Singyeong(昭影神鏡) who led the production of Daeseung-sa wooden relief, and illuminates his relation with the monk-sculptors Daneung and Takmil. It is believed that the role of monks with influence with in Buddhist sangha would have been essential in adopting the new medium of carved wooden picture or hubulmoggaktaeng(後佛木刻幀) on the main altar. Master Soyeong Singyeong renowned in the Gyeongsangbuk-do Province in the latter half of the 17thcentury introduced this new medium depicting the same theme to some temples of the region and his two versatile disciples Daneung and Takmil realized his idea into the masterpieces. This wooden relief at Daeseung-sa, the oldest example to have survived, set the pattern for latter examples as seen in Yongmun-sa and several other moggaktaeng produced in the latter half of the 17th and the early half of the 18thcenturies. This wooden relief depicts Amitabha as the main image for worshipping in the center surrounded by The Eight Great Bodhisattvas, Ten Disciples, Four Heavenly Kings, dragon kings, etc. in a systematic order. The complex Daeseung-sa pantheon is carved elaborately and yet with clarity whose iconography is positively identified in the in scription attached to each figure. The nine possible grades of rebirth in Buddha’s Pure Land expounded in the final three of “sixteen contemplations” of the Sutra of Meditation on the Buddha of Infinite Life are inscribed on the lotus flower in the lower section of the panel. Inscriptions and the trigrams on the lotus-shaped altar and frame related with Buddhist cosmology and fundamental principles of the East represent the omnipresence of Amitabha Buddha beyond space and time and the “contemplations” as the main practices for rebirth in the Buddha’s Pure Land.