This study is an attempt to analyze the interrelationship between the formative principles and aesthetic characteristics of Korean Mushindo: first, the interrelationship between the painting styles of Chosun-era portraits and Goseungjinyoung and the f...
This study is an attempt to analyze the interrelationship between the formative principles and aesthetic characteristics of Korean Mushindo: first, the interrelationship between the painting styles of Chosun-era portraits and Goseungjinyoung and the formative styles of Mushindo; second, the changing progress of painting style in accepting the changes of the contemporary era compared to those from the past; third, the reflection of Korean ideas on Mushindo. Through exploring such points, the purpose of this study was to find out the effects of the formative principles and aesthetic characteristics of Korean Mushindo on popular visual culture.
Korean Mushindo is the portrait of gods materially visualizing the reality of conceptual gods. It visualizes abstract and ambiguous gods of shamanism relying on the supernatural powers of the spirits. The elements constituting the village Gut (ritual / exorcism) wishing for the well-being and prosperity of the village, that is, the collective ideas of the villagers and the shaman who was responsible for the spirit guarding the village and its ritual were reflected on Mushindo. Mushindo is the portrait of spirits worshipped by Gangshinmu north of Han River in the past. If a portrait possesses character, Mushindo possesses deity. The fact that Mushindo has become to resemble the form of a portrait of a human being with clothing is because shamanism had a belief that gods had the same appearances as human. The fact that gods were described with social attitudes or characteristics of human confirms that not only the shamanism view on deity, but also the aesthetic and values of Koreans were reflected on them. Researches on Mushindo have been about folklorists describing it merely as one of shamanism tools or treating its symbolic side; however, now that many Mushindo paintings from may museums have been published since 1990s and reveals to the public, research results from relevant scholars are being released.
In this paper, the Mushindo currently enshrined at the Bugundang of Han River basin was examined from the viewpoint of visual culture and generally considered the Mushindo cases about the unity of formative styles and how various deities are differentiated. Along with this, the Mushindo of Bugundang in Itaewon-dong which was newly created in 1967 when Bugundang was in repair was compared to the Mushindo pieces currently being produced and supplied to examine the change in painting styles. In an effort to find the origin of Mushindo styles, the similarities and fundamental differences between Mushindo and Chosun-era portraits / Goseungjinyoung of temples. The painting styles were categorized into those of altar portraits or similar with large ares of red and smooth lines, those with elegant lines and stable coloring of skillfulness to those with contrasting flashy colors of folk, and those of Jeju Naewatdang which is clearly distinct from those of the land.
Mushindo, a visual culture of the village community unifying the members through Gut, followed a formative style and expressed a fantastic device friendly introducing the unreal world of gods so that anyone can recognize. Fantasy is what people in line with shamanism experience by going back and forth in the imaginary spatial movement from the world of unreality to reality and reality to unreality according to the lead of the Mudang, and lies within travelling through history to realize oneself as a cosmic being and coming back to reality to find one's identity again. Mushindo posses the characteristics of visual culture as a visual medium refreshing the experiences of such godliness.