• (The) Research of the performance art and culture
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• no.36
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• pp.751-781
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• 2018

Task of circling the pagoda of Waljeongsa(Woljeongsa Tabdori) is the major intangible cultural heritage with representativeness and historical meaning as a Buddhism culture, one of the Buddhism folk plays, which was firstly played after the liberation. Woljeongsa Tabdori holds significant designation importance in terms of Buddhism folklore heritage with Korean unique tradition and identity of Gangwon-do province. Temples are demonstrating Tabdori nationwide but Woljeongsa Tabdori is the unique case that systematically inherits the culture based on the designation of being intangible cultural heritage. That is why it is needed to focus on the cultural and internal value of Woljeongsa Tabdori. Tabdori is the integrated symbol of Buddhism respect and worship to the Buddha and pagoda. It is hard to presume the originality of Woljeongsa Tabdori: given the history of Woljeonsa temple, it lies into Goguryeo traditional play and Bokhui(Pagoda circling folk play) in Silla era. It fits into the courtesy of Circumambulating Stupa considering Moon in Goguryo mural, background of Odaesan Hwaeom thought/tripitaka and essence of Octagonal 9-story stone pagoda. At the first stage of Tabdori, Buddhist musical instruments such as Buddhism temple bell, singing bowl, cloud-shaped gong and wooden-fish. However, later, Samhyeon Yukgak has been added and then, Boyeom and Bakpaljeongjinga were singing: it could be interpreted that it was a pure Buddhist ceremony but it has become to have traditional aspect and been spread to the public. The origin of Woljeongsa Tabdori is related to the explanation of Circumambulating Stupa that experiences the glory of the ending ceremony. When a temple has a rite, the Buddhists make an offering to the Buddha. At that time, Buddhist prayer, sermon and chant are followed. After the rite, the Buddhists are circling the pagoda with the monks while praying for Buddhist charity and making their own wishes. It prays not only going after death to Nirvana of the one but also national prosperity and the welfare of the people for peaceful reign. As the temple holds bigger rites, many Buddhists gather and the Tabdori was a success. The scene of circling the pagoda and making own wishes in line with the Buddhist sermon was solemn. The idea on changes and convergence of Woljeongsa Tabdori requires strategic inheritance to promote the transmission while maintaining the paragon and purpose of designating the cultural heritage and reviving its identity. Korean Tabdori was held in Buddha's birthday in April and the mid-autumn day. Tabdori is a memorial service type Buddhist ceremony that once the monk holds the Buddhist rosary, circles the pagoda and sings the great mind and charity of the Buddha, Buddhists follow the step, lighting the lantern, circling the pagoda and praying for the gentle and easy death. Transmission education of the successor, diversified approach of the expert's advice and discourse on the revival of the origin should be reinforced in phases.

• Korean Journal of Heritage: History & Science
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• v.43 no.3
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• pp.208-241
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• 2010

This study was conducted to examine the chronology of Taesil Seokham(Taesil Stone Boxes) stored in Taesil of the Joseon Palace and classify the styles to discuss how these boxes have developed. By doing so, this study defined the archaeological styles of taesil seokhams in the chronological order. Although taesil seokhams are placed when taesil are first created, they do not have any texts engraved on them and it is difficult to gain information only from examining taesil seokham. However, Taejiseok(memorial stones buried in Taesil) and Agibi(gravestones buried in Taesil) were created along with taesil. These resources were examined and compared with literature records to find when each taesil seokhams was created. The critical elements to consider for the chronological arrangement were both the cover and container of the boxes and the transition of their style could be classified into four major stages. In detail, the Joseon Dynasty's taesil seokhams initially inherited the style of the Goryeo Dynasty to be formed into rectangular boxes. Through the transition of the mid and late 15th Century, the semi-circular cover with cylindrical container became the popular style in the late 15th Century. In the late 16th Century, the style of the previous period was further developed to add some decorative elements, such as projecting ornaments, but the ornaments were added for functional purposes rather than artistic purposes. However, the style went back to the semi-circular cover with cylindrical container in the early 17th Century. From the mid 17th Century, various styles appeared with ornaments only on the cover, cone-shaped cover with no ornament, or mortar-like container. However, a new style of cone-shaped cover with ornament emerged between the early and mid 18th Century and continued to stay until the mid 18th Century. In the mid 18th Century, the cover remained unchanged, but the container became a keyhole-shaped space with one side forming a "ㄷ" shape. However, in the late 18th Century, the most typical style of the semi-circular cover with cylindrical container reappeared to show that this is the most universal style. Last, in the mid 19th Century, the cover changed from semi-circular to rectangular with flat top. After this, the taesil seokhams began to disappear. In terms of style, it can be classified into four stages. In the early Joseon Dynasty, the taesil seokhams were underdeveloped and inherited the style of the Goryeo Dynasty (Stage I; 1401~mid-15C), but Joseon's unique style began to develop from the late 15th Century (Stage II; 1477~1641). After that, partial ornaments were added for adornment (Stage III; 1660~1754), but the typical style reappeared in the late 18th Century to finally degrade in the late Joseon Dynasty of the mid 19th Century (Stage IV; 1790~1874). This arrangement of style and chronology would greatly help archaeologists anticipate the time and owner of taesil seokhams even if only taesil seokhams are discovered without any records. * Tae(胎) : Placenta and umbilical cord * Taesil(胎室) : A facility(chamber) of burying Tae(胎) in rite when royal descendants are born.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.25-36
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• 2016

As the first public park in Korea, birth place of the march first independence movement, and a representative space of leisure of old men, Tapgol Park contains diverse symbolisms and meanings. In 2000, Seoul authorities selected the symbolism of the March First independence movement, and carried forward the sacralization project of Tapgol Park. They eliminated facilities, including vending machines, and restricted most of the leisure activities in the park such as drinking singing dancing, speech, playing chess, writing calligraphy, etc., and loitering. Also, they changed the park's design into a less available space with green areas and switched wooden benches to granite stone. Since the project finished, a representative phenomenon was the elderly men's exodus to Jongmyo Park, where the restrictions were not strong as in Tapgol Park. As a result, the numbers of users in Tapgol Park decreased sharply. However, overcrowded(more than 3000) Jongmyo Park is also in the middle of a sacralization project now. According to an investigation including observation and in-depth interview, most of the elderly men who use the parks almost everyday were in the low economic class. They just visit the parks everyday and chat with their peers, gaining comfort from each other. These phenomena can be interpreted as a social exclusion in society, which made the elderly men move to another place. Meanwhile, although fifteen years has passed since the project was completed, many people still regard the Tapgol Park as a place for elderly men instead of the birth place of the March First Independence Movement. This study focused on such problems and vague place identity, which is neither a memorial place nor a public park. The study discovery the fact they missed the symbolism that Tapgol Park was the first urban park of Korea. Also, it stresses that the monumentality does not need to be sacred, reverent, or inflexible. With this point of view, this study discussed public aspect and everydayness, which are included in most of the urban parks. Finally, this study suggests Tapgol Park as an urban park that has an identity that embraces the condition of monumentality, everydayness, and publicness all together.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Landscape Architecture
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• v.49 no.5
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• pp.97-111
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to analyze commemoration characteristics of the United States of America, the Commonwealth, and Germany through representative 14 military cemeteries of World war II in Western Europe. Based on the commemoration characteristics such as spacial characteristic, commemorative elements, and graves and headstone, the commemoration culture among U.S., the Commonwealth. and Germany were studied comparatively. The results are as follows. First, taking geometrical form with mainly square type, rarely circle and spiral patterned, most cemeteries were structured spatial central axis with symmetry, those cemeteries were styled neoclassical, but some of the U.S. cemeteries were modernistic, connecting spaces organically with curved line layout. Second, chapel, the wall of missing, the wall of battle map, and sculpture in the U.S military cemeteries, and 'the cross of sacrifice' and 'the stone of remembrance' as classical monument in the Commonwealth war cemeteries were commonly applied standardized commemorative elements, but commemorative monuments in German military cemeteries were restricted except monumental cross. Third, the symbolic cross of christianism was used all cemeteries to console and cherish the soul of soldiers, specially the Latin crosses in the U.S military cemeteries delivered political message as the american martyr for Western Europe and also the power of the U.S., but the cross in German and the Commonwealth war cemeteries were basically cherish and comfort individual spirit. Fourth, showing the power of victory with national patriotism, the U.S. strongly represented christianism and liberal democracy against communism, the Commonwealth showed imperialistic style, and German military cemeteries were quietly appeared as traditional style forwarding reconciliation and peace. This study suggest the war cemeteries have national identity with typical form and symbolic aesthetics. Further study will be required to materialize sublime commemoration in national cemeteries and to form advanced commemorative culture in Korea.

• MISULJARYO - National Museum of Korea Art Journal
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• v.98
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• pp.22-53
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• 2020

This paper analyzes the contents, characteristics, and historical significance of the dedicatory inscriptions (josanggi) on the Amitabha Buddha and the Maitreya Bodhisattva statues of Gamsansa Temple, two masterpieces of Buddhist sculpture from the Unified Silla period. In the first section, I summarize research results from the past century (divided into four periods), before presenting a new perspective and methodology that questions the pre-existing notion that the Maitreya Bodhisattva has a higher rank than the Amitabha Buddha. In the second section, through my own analysis of the dedicatory inscriptions, arrangement, and overall appearance of the two images, I assert that the Amitabha Buddha sculpture actually held a higher rank and greater significance than the Maitreya Bodhisattva sculpture. In the third section, for the first time, I provide a new interpretation of two previously undeciphered characters from the inscriptions. In addition, by comparing the sentence structures from the respective inscriptions and revising the current understanding of the author (chanja) and calligrapher (seoja), I elucidate the possible meaning of some ambiguous phrases. Finally, in the fourth section, I reexamine the content of both inscriptions, differentiating between the parts relating to the patron (josangju), the dedication (josang), and the prayers of the patrons or donors (balwon). In particular, I argue that the phrase "for my deceased parents" is not merely a general axiom, but a specific reference. To summarize, the dedicatory inscriptions can be interpreted as follows: when Kim Jiseong's parents died, they were cremated and he scattered most of their remains by the East Sea. But years later, he regretted having no physical memorial of them to which to pay his respects. Thus, in his later years, he donated his estate on Gamsan as alms and led the construction of Gamsansa Temple. He then commissioned the production of the two stone sculptures of Amitabha Buddha and Maitreya Bodhisattva for the temple, asking that they be sculpted realistically to reflect the actual appearance of his parents. Finally, he enshrined the remains of his parents in the sculptures through the hole in the back of the head (jeonghyeol). The Maitreya Bodhisattva is a standing image with a nirmanakaya, or "transformation Buddha," on the crown. As various art historians have pointed out, this iconography is virtually unprecedented among Maitreya images in East Asian Buddhist sculpture, leading some to speculate that the standing image is actually the Avalokitesvara. However, anyone who reads the dedicatory inscription can have no doubt that this image is in fact the Maitreya. To ensure that the sculpture properly embodied his mother (who wished to be reborn in Tushita Heaven with Maitreya Bodhisattva), Kim Jiseong combined the iconography of the Maitreya and Avalokitesvara (the reincarnation of compassion). Hence, Kim Jiseong's deep love for his mother motivated him to modify the conventional iconography of the Maitreya and Avalokitesvara. A similar sentiment can be found in the sculpture of Amitabha Buddha. To this day, any visitor to the temple who first looks at the sculptures from the front before reading the text on the back will be deeply touched by the filial love of Kim Jiseong, who truly cherished the memory of his parents.