A Study of Costumes in the Palace Painting Depicting the Worship of Buddha during the Reign of King Myungjong

관중숭불도에 나타난 16세기 복식연구

The costume style of the Chosun dynasty changed greatly after Imjinwaeran (the Japanese Invasion of Chosun Korea, 1592∼1598). Most of the extant costumes come from the late Chosun, but some costumes produced be-fore Imjinwaeran have been excavated, and in addition, information on these older constumes is contained in contemporary literature. Of especial value in the study of pre-Imjinwaeran Chosun constumes is a mid-sixteenth century palace painting depicting the worship of Buddha, a painting in the collection of the Ho-Am Art Museum in Seoul. The present study of costume during the middle Chosun dynasty focuses on this painting, and compares it with other contemporary palace paintings, and with other contemporary palace paintings, and with Nectar Ritual Paintings. The following conclusion were drawn : * Concerning woman's hair styles of the time, married women wore a large wig. Un-married women braided their hair, and then either let it fall down their back or wore it coiled on top of their head. * The major characteristic of woman's costumes was a ample, tube-like silhouette, with the ratio of the Jeogori(Korean woman's jacket) and skirt being one-to-one. * The style of Jeogori in the painting was like that of excavated remains. Some Jeogoris were simple (without decoration), while some Jeogoris were worn with red sashes. Here we can confirm the continuity of ancient Korean costumes with those of the sixteenth century * Although the skirt covered the ankles, it did not touch the ground. Because the breadth of the skirt was not wide, it seems to have been for ordinary use. Colors of skirts were mainly white or light blue. * All men in the painting wore a headdress. Ordinary men, not Buddhist monks, wore Bok-du (headstring), Chorip (straw hat), or Heuk-rip (black hat). In this painting, men wore a Heukrip which had a round Mojeong (crown). * The men wore sashes fastened around their waist to close their coats, which was different from the late Chosun, in which men bound their sashes around their chest. That gave a ration of the bodice of the coat to the length of the skirt of one-to-one, which was consistent with that of woman's clothing. * In this painting, we cannot see the Buddhist monk's headdress that appeared later in the Chosun, such as Gokkal (peaked hat), Songnak (nun's hat), and Gamtu (horsehair cap). These kinds of headdresses, which appeared in paintings from the seventeenth century, were worn widely inside or outside the home. Buddhist monks wore a light blue long coat, called Jangsam (Buddhist monk's robe) and wore Gasa (Buddhist monk's cope), a kind of ceremonial wrap, round their body. We can see that the Gasa was very splendid in the early years of the Chosun dynasty, a continuing tradition of Buddhist monk's costumes from the Koryo dynasty.