• Journal of the Korean Institute of Traditional Landscape Architecture
• /
• v.30 no.1
• /
• pp.39-45
• /
• 2012

The purpose of this research is to look into the tea-drinking pictures of the Joseon Dynasty in order to find the unique landscape traits of tea-drinking spaces of the era. A number of tea-drinking pictures were drawn during the Joseon Dynasty period and in most cases, the names of the painters are stated as well. These factors make tea-drinking pictures a seminal source that illustrates the landscape traits of the last Dynasty of Korea. For those pictures contain the main components of landscape such as the tastes of 'Yangban'(noblemen), natural characters, and space traits. Since tea was first introduced in Korea during the Three Kingdom Period, tea-drinking culture has a long history in the country. There have been various studies about tea and many study results have been presented. Few research, however, have looked into tea culture from the point of landscape. Under the premise that tea-drinking pictures of Joseon Dynasty can be a cultural code that explains Korean tea-drinking culture, this thesis looked into those pictures from various angles and analyzed them in order to elucidate the attributes of scenery components of tea-drinking spaces that Koreans have forged and developed, and following results could be found. The Landscape components illustrated in tea-drinking pictures of the Joseon Dynasty can be divided into the element of architecture, the element of water, stone and plants. First, for the element of architecture, it was found that tea-drinking took place in anywhere in Korea without specific tea-drinking buildings or gardens unlike the case of Japan. This has to do with traits of Koreans who were not bound by formality and truly loved nature. Second, for the element of water, water contributed to making harmonious landscape. Third, for the element of stone, it was clear that stone had a practical role in providing comfortable place for lying and enjoying tea-drinking and scenery. Fourth, plants made elegant figure in the landscape and were planted in accordance with their inner meaning. Tea-drinking pictures of the Joseon Dynasty elucidates that when it comes to tea-drinking, Koreans were not obsessed with a formality of tea-drinking, or a set of tea ceremony, which is profoundly different with Japanese, and Koreans did not put a limit on a place for tea-drinking because for Koreans any place they sat could be a great place for tea-drinking.