태백산산신 옥도검(玉刀鈐)과 삼척 오금잠제(烏金簪祭)

Abstract

Taebaek Mountain was one of the northern sites of the second-tier ritual of the five mountain gods celebrated in the national ritual of Silla period. The mountain god in question was the god of the northern peak, Okdogeum(玉刀鈐); originally, however, this god was the god of Guemgang ridge(金剛嶺), one of five mountain gods centered on the capital of Silla. As the national festival was reorganized and extended with the aim of expanding the nation's territory after the unification of the three kingdoms of Silla, the location of northern mountain god was moved to Taebaek Mountain. With the restructuring of the national festival centered on Gaegyeong(開京) during the Goryeo dynasty, the site of the ritual calling the Taebaek mountain gods was moved to Samcheok County in East boundary(東界) Goryeo. Here, the Taebaek mountain god was newly deified as the Oguemjam god of Princess Silla(新羅公主烏金簪神), where it was worshipped at the Taebaek Cheonwangdang ancestral shrine(太白天王堂). Within the framework of the Goryeo national festival, the Taebaek mountain god was bestowed with the expanded title of Mountain God. This festival was carried out by a priestly official(祭告使) during the early part of Goryeo and by a warehouse manage- ment official(監倉使) during the middle and late periods. During special circumstances during these later periods, however, the a priestly official was still dispatched. From the Goryeo period, Taebaek Mountain served as the center of the festivals of the Taebaek mountain God festival. During the Joseon dynasty, Taebaek Mountain was omitted from the national fes- tivals, but every year during the spring and fall, both the officials and ordinary citizens would hold a three-day folk ritual on the mountain at the local ancestral shrine using raw meat with blood as offerings. This ritual also involved the practice of dedication of items during a ritual, during which a cow was tied to the shrine and sacrificed in hopes of pleas- ing the deity. This brought out the conflict between Buddhism and Confucianism, and the ritual was, at times, abolished, but it was always reinstated. The Taebaek mountain god, Ogeumjam god(烏金簪神), was called during the Ogeumjam festival(烏金簪祭), part of the broader Samcheok Dano Festival. Starting every year on the first day of April and beginning with the purification ritual, the wel- coming god ritual and sending god ritual were carried out for the entire month. The sending god ritual in particular was hosted by the village chief three days before the Dano holiday, and involved all officials and ordinary citizens participating in the village exorcism ritual(대동굿). The shaman and other performers of the exorcism wor- shipped the Ogeumjam god. The performance of the festival throughout the admin- istrative region was called the Dano Commissioner(端午使). The officials and citizens faced the crisis of the abolishment of the Ogeumjam festival through the performance of different rituals such as the ritual involving the extinguishing of fire performed vari- ous times by Confucian officials. An adversarial relationship thus existed between these people trying to preserve the rituals and the Confucian officials seeking to ban them out of their sense of Neoconfucian ideals. The origin of the newly designated Taebaek mountain god, Ogeumjam god, as the god of the Ogeumjam festival, lay in its status as the northen mountain god, one of five gods celebrated in a second-tier national ritual of Silla. One could confirm this deity's transformation from Okdogeum from Guemgang ridge on the northern mountain cen- tered in the capital to Ogeumjam of Taebaek mountain worshipped in the second-tier festival of Silla and then to Ogeumjam god of Princess Silla. Likewise, the origins of the festivals of the Taebaek mountain god and the Ogeumjam festival can be dated to the Silla northern mountain god.