봉정사 극락전 벽화조사 (I)

The mural painting investigation of Kuknakjon at Pongjongsa

In 1972, the mural painting of Kuknakjon, which is National Treasure No. 15, at Pongjongsa was taken to pieces. From 1999. 9. 8 to 1999. 9. 15,we were precisely investigated with infrared vidicon television, video camera and so forth. The result of investigation shows that contents of the mural painting consisted of paintings of flowers and birds, paintings of Taoist hermits with supernatural powers and old historic figure paintings (In the investigated mural paintings, there were paintings about pheasant or magpie on splendid peony, figures such as Lee tae baek(이태백) and Baek lakchon(백악천) known as old chinese poets, Chang yang(장량) and Hwangsok kong(황석공) known as old historic figures and Paebok(백복), and Choksongja(적송자) known as Taoist hermits.)It is noted that the mural painting was under the influence of the later Choson culture included Taoistic and folk artistic than buddhistic contents such as painting of Bodhisattva, Arhat and apsara. Later, each mural painting will be more investigated in respect of Buddhism art historic value, and we'll make conservative treatment plan based on its result.