민천사 금동아미타불좌상과 고려후기 불교조각 = On the Koryo Seated Bronze Image of Amitabha Buddha from Minchun - sa Temple - site at Kaesong

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

This paper investigates the seated bronze image of Amitabha Buddha excavated at the temple site of Minchun-sa(旻天寺) in 1926. Minchun-sa monastery was first built by the royal patronage of King Chungyol(忠烈王, r. 1274∼1308), who donated one of his royal palaces to be a Buddhist temple in 1277. His son, King Chungson(忠宣王, r.1308-1313), again donated a royal palace to extend this temple in 1309 for the benefit of his dead mother, Mongol princess Chekook`s, afterlife. The bronze Buddha image, whose present whereabout is unknown, has been assumed to be one of the three thousand images cast by the order of King Chungson in 1313, the rest of which no longer exist. The fact that this Minchun-sa bronze image strongly conveys iconographic and stylistic similarities with Buddhist sculpture and painting made in the southern part (Jiangnan, 江南) of China, the former political and cultural center of Southern Song(南宋), shows that even during the years of Mongol occupation the tradition of Song Buddhist art was still dominant in Koryoˇ art. Textual evidence exhibits that the cultural and religious relations between Koryoˇ and Southern China were continuing and that Song culture was highly esteemed in Koryoˇ regardless of the political situation of the time. Furthermore, the Minchun-sa image represents the style of Buddhist art of the early 14th century at Kaesong, the capital city of the Koryoˇ dynasty, which was the Koryoˇ cultural center of that time. This image can be counted as the stylistic and iconographic norm of early 14th century Buddhist art. Compared with the several bronze images of the first half of the 14th century extant in South Chungchung province(忠淸南都), the Minchun-sa image is so similar in its style and iconography with them (except for the fact that former are fuller and rounder and a little more plump than the latter image) that they seem to have had close links with each other. Though the bronze images of South Chungchung province, especially the seated bronze Bhaisajyaguru Buddha(藥師佛) of Changgok-sa(長谷寺) at Chungyang(靑陽), are more delicate and advanced in style and technique, they have close links with the Minchun-sa image. It is presumed that sculptors at the capital Kaesong also participated in the execution of Buddha images for the local projects. As was seen in this paper on the Minchun-sa image, extant Buddhist images of the early 14th century are mostly Amitabha(阿彌陀佛) and Avalokitesvara(觀音) images. The execution of many images of Amitabha and Avalokitesvara shows the religious tendency of the time. There was great demand for these images in the 14th century for Koryd people, who underwent severe Mongol invasion and political and social changes, were heavily reliant upon the Buddhist cult of praying and chanting(念佛信仰) the name of Amitabha and Avalokitesvara.