제주도 효제문자도 연구

Abstract

The climate of a region influences its grass-roots culture as reflected, ultimately, in the capacity for production of the region. The culture is recreated, enjoyed, and exercised by the people in the region before it finally becomes a cultural ideology. Hyojemunjado (孝悌文字圖) – Ethics Character Picture – is a product of the grass-roots culture while reflecting the underlying foundation of the indigenous culture. As a part of the mainstream culture from the Joseon Dynasty, Hyojemunjado, was the educational means to establish a governing ideology to keep the reign of the monarchy. The Confucian virtues found in everyday life were expressed in graphic imagery and painted on afolding screen, Hyojemunjado. Regardless of the lifestyle, whether it is of the aristocrat or the commoner, a folding screen was an important household possession providing multiple functions as a windbreak, decorative furniture or a necessity item for the ritual and ceremonial events from wedding to funeral. Despite its educational origin, Hyojemunjado culture flourished and became a popular medium to portraythe charms and romanticism of the populace. But today, Hyojemunjado survives only as a genre of Korean traditional arts called Minhwa, meaning folk painting. Hyojemunjado of Jeju Island has left a legacy of a very distinctive style in contrast to those native to other areas of Korea. Although the Jeju style was also under the influence of the same force as on the mainland, itsstyle, composition, and colors are completely different from the ones that can be seen in other areas, manifesting the distinguished aestheticism of the Jeju people. A further surprise is that the styles of mainland China or Vietnamcan also be found in the Hyojemunjado character pictures of Jeju. This should not be irrelevant to the fact that these areas are located within regions easily accessed by water travel. The rich vegetation of Mt. Hallasan,and the unique natural environment of Jeju, also influenced the process of graphic imagery. The images, unique but different from the realistic ones, were created by mobilizing the imaginary power and the stored memories of various natural objects from trees and shrubs, flowering plants, and migratory or endemicbirds. This renders an opportunity to look at the modernity embedded in Jeju’s Hyojemunjado character paintings. They contain the elements of modern designs such as the abstract feature, geometric pattern, omittedgraphic imagery, and stylish and neat coloring. Such characteristics are the uniqueness of Jeju’s Hyojemunjado paintings, as they vary from the contents and the format accommodated in the classic Hyojemunjado styles of Korea’s mainland. Elegant colors expressed in a temperate touch, and the lucid mood of a water painting, can be concluded to be evidence of the painter’s efforts to conserve the valuable painting materials as they were very difficult to procure. In Jeju Hyojemunjado, the mounting of the screens starts right from the edge of the character pictures making the height of the screens relatively lower than those from other areas. It is because the screens had to be made to be fitted in the low ceiling of Jeju’s traditional houses as they were designed to cope with the wind and rain.