<熊野觀心十界圖>의 도상과 연원에 관한 검토

Abstract

In premodern Japan, it was popular among Buddhist monks and followers to carry Buddhist paintings and explain the iconography of those paintings to the general public. This practice, known as etoki (絵解き), was a means of propagation of Buddhism, and Buddhist paintings served as visual means to propagate a certain Buddhist sect or explain Buddhist doctrines. Kumano Painting on Contemplation of the Ten Realms (熊野觀心十界図, J. Kumano kanshin jikkai-zu), the subject of this paper, also serve these purposes. Kumano Painting on Contemplation of the Ten Realms features a scene of a ritual with the Amitabha Buddha triad and Buddhist monks in the middle and diverse other scenes in the lower portion of the painting. This composition resembles that of nectar ritual paintings, known as gamnodo (甘露圖), from Joseon and therefore arouses researchers’ curiosity about its use and possible influence from Joseon’s nectar ritual paintings. A close examination, however, revealed that the painting mainly consists of three themes borrowed from existing Buddhist paintings including “hill of aging” from Japan, “ten realms of being” from China which was introduced to Japan in the twelfth century through the painting titled, Endon Kansin Painting of the Ten Realms (円頓歓心十法界圖, J. Endon kansin jihokkai-zu), and “nectar ritual” from Korea. It also features elements of Buddhist paintings of “six realms of being” (六道絵, J. rokudou-e) and “ten kings” (十王圖, J. juuou-zu) as well as figures from Japanese folk religion, which reflects amalgamation of Buddhism and Japanese folk religion. Kumano Painting on Contemplation of the Ten Realms was used by a group of Buddhist nuns, known as kumano bikuni (熊野比丘尼), who tried to educate women devotees by preaching about their sins. The painting features diverse scenes related to their propagation activities, which indicates that the painting was produced to meet the needs for education of lay people and combined several iconographic elements of Buddhist paintings circulated in Japan at the time in order to effectively serve its purpose.