MISCELLANEOUS

MISCELLANEOUS

Video Guide Made Available in Sign Language

The NMK produced a video presenting in sign language 60 exhibits at the World Art Gallery in the Permanent Exhibition Hall and released it on the mobile application of the NMK. The video is available by selecting works on each exhibition room and clicking the sign language icon in the form of a hand. A sign language interpreter explains a work in less than one minute to help hearingimpaired visitors better enjoy exhibitions with easy and accurate information on the works on display. The video intends to present major exhibits in each exhibition room with easy-to-understand explanation of the shape, characteristics, and use of each work.

A Mini Concert at the Museum Roo

m of Quiet Contemplation, a display of two national treasure pensive bodhisattva statues placed side by side, is now winning the hearts of many museum visitors, touching them with strong impression and comfort. For greater pleasure of visitors, the NMK held a “Mini Concert at the Museum” on December 9, 2021. The concert presented Korean traditional music and dance performances reflecting the intrinsic value and symbolic significance of the national treasure pensive bodhisattva statues, and offered a rare opportunity to appreciate the beauty of old and modest things. The concert was meaningful in that it chose the exhibits as the theme of the performance, which is unprecedented at any museum around the world.

Hanging Board with the images of Taoist Immortals and the Inscriptions by Kim Jeonghui and Ruan Fu

Joseon Dynasty/ 19th century /Color on wood/ 34.9×115.8cm

Works on Permanent Exhibition at the Japan Gallery Replaced

The NMK replaces works at the Japan Gallery for public show from November 5, 2021 to April 1, 2022. This regular replacement presents for the first time to the Korean public Fight on Gojo Bridge between Young Yoshitsune and Benkei, a print by the Meiji-period Ukiyo-e artist Tsukioka Yoshitoshi 1839–1892. A pair of folding screen painting titled, Overview of the Territory of the Tokushima Clan, which gives a panoramic view of the territory of Tokushima Domain in the Edo period 1603–1868, are also shown for the first time at the Japan Gallery. The works on display include By the Window by Minami Kunzo 1883–1950, one of the leading painters of Western-style Japanese painting from the modern period. This replacement will provided visitors with a good opportunity to see prints, folding screen paintings as well as Western-style Japanese paintings from the modern period, which were not available for a long time at the Japan Gallery.

Publication of a Research Report

The NMK houses hanging boards (110 pieces from 104 items) from the late Joseon period as well as those made after Korea’s liberation from Japanese colonial rule. The collection includes hanging boards (82 pieces from 82 items) separated from their original location when palace and office buildings of the Joseon Dynasty were demolished during the Japanese colonial period. The NMK conducted exhaustive research of these hanging boards, produced high-definition images of the front and back of the boards, translated the inscriptions, and published the findings of the research in the Hanging Boards in the Collection of the National Museum of Korea. This book presents diverse types of hanging boards, including those indicating a name of a building, those inscribed with a king’s order, those hung on a pillar of a building (juryeon), and those hung below the eaves (pyeonaek), and includes valuable details about these boards.

Fight on Gojo Bridge between Young Yoshitsune and Benkei Meiji period

1881 By Tsukioka Yoshitoshi/ Woodblock print/ 37.0×24.0cm

Pensive Bodhisattva

Three Kingdoms period/ latter half of the 6th century /H. 81.5 cm /National Treasure

Pensive Bodhisattva (front cover)

Three Kingdoms period/ first half of the 7th century/ H. 90.8 cm /National Treasure

ARCHIVING HIGHLIGHT

Exhibition title Pensive Bodhisattvas: National Treasures of Korea and Japan

Venue

Special Exhibition Gallery

Date

May 24 – June 12, 2016

Contents

Korea National Treasure Pensive Bodhisattva and Japan National Treasure Chuguji Temple Pensive Bodhisattva

Organized to mark the 50th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan in 2015, this exhibition featured the two major pensive bodhisattva statues, one from each country. It was an opportunity for visitors to see the common features and differences in the two Buddhist images, which are of the same type but reflect the unique culture of each country. Crossing space and time, the Gilt-bronze Pensive Bodhisattva made in Korea in the latter half of the sixth century, which is a national treasure, and the Wooden Pensive Bodhisattva of Chuguji Temple, a national treasure of Japan, made in the latter half of the seventh century in Japanese style after studying pensive bodhisattvas transmitted from Korea, were shown together for the first time. The exhibition was first held at the National Museum of Korea for three weeks and then at the Tokyo National Museum in Japan for three weeks under the title Smiling in Contemplation: Two Buddhas from Japan and Korea, leaving an unforgettable impression on visitors in both countries.

On display in the Room of Quiet Contemplation, Permanent Exhibitions

A Contemplative Existence: Two National Treasure Pensive Bodhisattva Statues

The term banga sayusang 半跏思惟像 describes a particular posture in which a statue of the bodhisattva is posed. Banga refers to the half lotus position, whereby the foot of one leg is placed on the opposite knee, while the other one is left outstretched toward the ground. Sayu here means to be lost in deep thought out of anguish caused by the four afflictions that are the fate of every human being—birth, aging, sickness, and death. The half lotus position suggests a pause between halting the meditation practice or making progress on the path to enlightenment. It is difficult to know whether the figure is coming out of the full-lotus position, with one leg already down, or is assuming that position, with the other one leg already up. Therefore, the banga posture reveals the moment when the calmness of spiritual cultivation clash or intermingle with the disturbance of mental anguish. The faint smile on the slightly closed mouth indicates the very instant that eternal enlightenment is reached after deep thought. When we as viewers see this instantaneous smile, the countless concerns and thoughts in our heads will simply melt away.