조선시대 어진에 사용된 綃 문헌연구

Abstract

Cho (綃) is plain silk fabric woven with untreated raw silk. In the Joseon dynasty, cho was used as the background cloth material of kings’ portraits. The making of kings’ portraits was a national ritual; sometimes a temporary government state agency was established for the occasion, with the procedure recorded in detail in uigwe (The Royal Protocols of the Joseon Dynasty), which are still available. In this study, we examine the various names for cho used in the portraits of kings through uigwe and the Joseon dynasty annals and deepen our understanding of the looms and craftsmen for its weaving. The cho used as the background fabric for kings’ portraits was given various names, according to the era. The length and width were measured and recorded based on the pobaeck-cheok(布帛尺), a ruler used for tailoring clothes or measuring fabrics in the Joseon dynasty. After determining the actual quantity of cho that was used in the production and converting it to the unit of measurement (cm) currently used, it was possible to get a better idea of the width and length of the portraits. As a result, one can observe that the width of the portraits diminished noticeably proceeding into the modern era. We decided to investigate the looms of Japan and China instead that were used around the same time. Records of looms with a different structure were found in the Japanese “GiJikHwiPyeon(機織彙編)” of 1868 and Chinese “PyeonMinDoChan (便民圖纂)” of the Ming dynasty. Through these examples of Japan and China, we suspect that there were looms with similar structures in the Joseon dynasty. In the list of artisans who participated in making kings’ portraits, there is a record of cho artisans (綃匠). The names of the artisans recorded vary and we can speculate that broad cho was an extraordinarily superior fabric weaved by masters with the finest techniques.