고구려 벽화고분의 帷帳의 설치와 기능

Abstract

Based on the current research methodology of Chinese funerary arts, the present paper aims to understand the composition and placement of Koguryo tomb murals as the three dimensional incorporation of the architectural and decorative elements. Various architectural elements such as a platform, nail holes on walls, a coffin bed, and a niche in a Koguryo mural tomb must have been installed in a tomb with the consideration of the decorative scheme of the tomb. Thus, the function of decorative motifs of Koguryo tombs within a funerary space was studied with the case study of a cloud motif with a character ‘wang’ and nail holes in some Kogoryo tombs. And then, I explored the excavated examples of a screen, a curtain, a stone bed, a ritual platform, a stone bed with a screen, and house-shaped sarcophagi of Chinese tombs to understand how a curtain and a nail hole might have been installed and functioned in Koguryo Regarding the function of the decorated curtains in Koguryo tombs, it can be compared with the silk paintings covering a coffin or a chamber wall from the Warring States to the Han, which functioned as a painting helping the deceased to ascend to heaven. Second comparable example is the Tenjukoku Shūchō Mandala which might have functioned as a funerary instrument for the Prince Shotoku. The last case is the Tomb of King Muryong from Paekche which were constructed with lotus flower motif bricks. Archaeologies recently re-examined the King Muryong tomb and discovered several nail holes on the chamber walls, a sacrificial platform, and silver implements for installing a curtain. In a funerary art, an architecture and a decoration are usually incorporated to represent a ritual space for the spirit seat of the deceased. Among Koguryo mural tombs, the Tomb of the Heavenly Kings and the Earthly Spirits would be the best example showing such function and relationship between an architecture and a decoration. The entire tomb chambers present a ritual space for the deceased inside a wooden house surrounded by a hanging curtain decorated with a lotus and turtle shell motif. Its structural and decorative features remind us of the house-shaped sarcophagus in the Tomb of Song Shaozu. It helps us assume that Koguryo mural tombs might have shared the ritual symbolism of a wooden or stone shrine embodied in a house-shaped sarcophagus or a stone screen bed discovered in Chinese tombs.