한국 검무의 발생 배경과 조선 후기 풍속화․기록화의 여성 쌍검무

Abstract

Images of sword dances in Korean art first appear in Goguryeo tomb murals dating from the fourth to the seventh century. The male shamans with swords that appear in murals in Anak Tomb No. 3 and Palcheong-ri Tomb tell us that the origins of Korean sword dancing lie further back in history than Hwangchangrang, the seventh-century Silla sword dancer mentioned in written records. In terms of the history of Korean painting as a whole, the most important depictions of a female sword dance is Hyewon Sin Yun-bok's Joseon-period work Ssanggeom daemu, produced in the 1810s. This type of female sword dance, which took the form of performance art, is found in works ranging from popular genre paintings to documentary paintings recording late-Joseon court and official events. The appearance of such works was particularly pronounced during the reign of Joseon King Jeongjo, who strongly promoted military culture with measures such as expanding the country's military and publishing Muye tongbo (“Illustrated Manual of Martial Arts”). The first known examples of female ssanggeommu (“double sword dance”) dancers, in which two women spar with a sword in each hand, appearing at a court event are found in Hwaseong wonhaeng dobyeong, a folding screen with paintings depicting a royal procession to the city of Hwaseong, and Wonhaeng eulmyo jeongni uigwe, a royal protocol recording the same event. These works both date from 1795, during the reign of King Jeongjo. After this, sword dances appeared alongside other dances such as the seonyurak, pogurak, bukchum and cheoyongmu in paintings depicting royal court and official celebrations during the reigns of kings Sunjo, Heonjong and Gojong. This tells us that ssanggeommu enjoyed considerable popularity in the 19th century. Such images from the late-18th to the early-19th century show two women sparring, while those from the mid-19th century show four women sparring in two pairs. Meanwhile, the shapes of weapons depicted change from real swords to those made specially for use in performance. Kim Jun-geun's genre painting album Gisanpungsokdocheop, produced in the 1880s-1890s, contains images of a sword dance in which two dancers spar with small swords. Changes in type of sword and dance are thus apparent both in late-Joseon court paintings and genre paintings of sword dances. Female ssanggeommu in the late-18th and early-19th century are rich in expression and evocative of sparring or sword-based martial arts, while those of the late-19th and early-20th century show a marked decline in skill of depiction, leaving the appearance of a performance rather than a martial art. This loss of martial spirit from sword dances in turn depicts the collapse of Joseon society itself.