조선 왕실에서의 왜장병풍 제작과 그 문화사적 의의

Abstract

The folding screen has been one of the most representative formats in painting throughout East Asian art history. However, its historical development has shown their respective trajectories in China, Japan, and Korea, depending on its difference in materials, appearances and uses. Korea has more tended to produce portable folding screens decorated with paintings and calligraphy, which can be easily relocated and reassembled as an indoor ornamental article. During the first half of the Joseon dynasty, paintings were mounted in four different formats: 1. folding screens, 2. handscrolls, 3. hanging scrolls, and 4. albums. Among these, the format of folding screens increasingly dominated mountings of royal court paintings for rituals or interior decorations during the 18th and 19th centuries. My study first pays attention to a phenomenon in which the terminology “Waejang folding screen” newly appeared among the royal protocols regarding the national wedding ceremony for royal family members since the 18th century. Waejang literally means “the Japanese mounting” or “mounted in the Japanese style” referring to hinge-connected screens, compared with “gakjang” which refers to isolated panel screens. It is commonly known that the Joseon court artisans already attained a level of technique high enough to produce hinge-connected panel screens before the 18th century. So why did the Joseon court begin to use the terminology “Waejang” for wedding ceremony folding screens only after the 18th century? To answer this question, this study examines a list of 250 pairs of Japanese folding screens sent to the Joseon court as diplomatic gifts by the Japanese government in order to see how these screens were understood by Joseon intellectuals, particularly regarding their origins, uses, and functions compared with their Korean counterparts. To get a fuller picture of the phenomenon, this study also consults the literature of scholars such as Seo Yugu (1764-1845) who compiled an encyclopedia with entries regarding folding screens. In conclusion, this study argues that the Joseon court and elites had a common acknowledgement that Japanese screens were produced mostly for decorative purposes rather than for conveying historic or moral themes. As a result, some scholars such as Seo Yugu even misunderstood that the format of folding screens itself originated from Japan, not from China, as shown in Seo’s entry on them in his encyclopedia. To provide an auspicious wedding space for royal family members, court artisans created a dazzling stage with the eyecatching screens by appropriating “decorative” and “hinged-connected panels” from Japanese screens. This is what the late Joseon people called “Waejang folding screen,” the format that attached more weight to aesthetically useful “decorativeness” than to Confucian “edification.”