조선후기 경상도지역 佛石製 佛像의 등장과 유행

Abstract

Unlike other regions of the country, Gyeongsang Province created overwhelming numbers of stone Buddha in the late Joseon period. This is critical information to understand the regional characteristics and diversity of Gyeongsang Province during the time. The purpose of this study is to design a draft for researching the stone Buddha during the late Joseon period; by understanding the overall status and characteristics of stone Buddha. In the late Joseon period, the stone Buddha were made with zeolites that were produced from the surrounding areas of Guryongpo. In the Buddhist sculpting, the zeolite is called as Buddha Stone because its usage of creating a Buddha statue. It is assumed that the term was already widely used in the early 19th century. The stone Buddha in the late Joseon period shows similarities with those of early Joseon period, interestingly the patterns as such as iconography, mudra,and storage also has strong relevance. In terms of appearance of zeolite based stone Buddha, we shall not exclude the possibility of upper time limit as far as Goryeo period considering the Goryeo period's stone bodhisattva statue excavated out of Goseung County, Gangwon Province; however. The extensive trend of stone Buddha statue for Gyeongsang Province began in 1648 with the stone statue in Yaksajeon(Hall of healing, Bhaisajyaguru), Tongdo Temple and full scale production started in the 1670's and 1680's. Gyeongsang Province's wide trend of stone Buddha is assumed to be related with a worsening of lumber shortage. During the time, Gyeongsang Province had the largest share of forbidden deforestation areas. Therefore, it was inevitable situation to look for other resources such as Buddha Stone which was produced out of Gyeongsang Province that could replace the lumber usage. There were many Buddhist sculptors in the late Joseon period; however,only 10 or so stone sculptors are known today. It started with Nahheum who created Yangsan Wonhyoahm's stone Buddha statue and was followed by Dowoo, Nokwon and Seungil who were active in the 1650's and 1660's. In the 1670's and 1680's, Gyeongok, Seungho, Saeknan, Choongok, Mhail and Gyeongtan were active. Based on their activities, these monk sculptors could be classified into three groups. First group is those who continuously created the stone statue using the zeolite after having a training period to create either the wooden or stone Buddha statue in the regions of Gyeongsang Province and representative sculptors are Nahheum, Gyeongok and Seungho. Second group is those who created a stone statue for awhile and returned back to create a wooden statue and representative sculptors are Nokwon, Dowoo,Saeknan, Choongok, Mhail, and Gyeongtan. Third is Seungil, he peculiarly created both of wooden and stone statues. Seungil was a member of Hyeonjin School which was continuously active in the Gyeongsang Province and played a leading role within the region from the 17th century after the Japanese invasion of Korea. The zeolite stone Buddha statues has a differentiating characteristic to other stone sculptures, for example, granite. The cause is that it has a distinctive sculpting method of injecting sufficient moisture into the stone. In other word,the stone is softened and it could be sculpted as a lump to emphasis on the mass in order to expose crudeness and weight. Also, in terms of expressing on the dress wrinkles and face, it has a characteristic of exposing a flat structure or details like a thin layer.