7세기 중엽 일본 사천왕도상과 동아시아

Iconography of Lokapala in Japan in the mid-7th century and East Asia

This paper examines origin of the mid-7th century Lokapala images at Horyuji, which are very pivotal art works in East Asia in terms of studies on Lokapala s iconography from the 6th century through the 7th century. It seems to be that the origin of Lokapala s iconography and style at Horyuji was in the Liang dynasty during the Southern and Northern dynasties and Baekje of Korean Three Kingdoms Period transmitted them to Japan. Lokapala images at Horyuji characterized by some elements of armor such as neck, scarf on shoulders, a short wrinkled skirt and another longer skirt, which are only represented on spirit warrior images such as Lokapala made in the Liang Dynasty. It is reasonable to think that this distinctive iconography was transmitted to Japan by Baekje, which had close relationship with Liang according to previous scholarship. Horyuji s art has been studied in relationship with Baekje s Buddhist art. Because unfortunately none of Lokapala images produced in Baekje exist. direct comparative study between Lokapala images of Baekje and Japan is impossible. Therefore some iconographic elements and designs of Horyuji Lokapala images are compared with Baekje art in this paper. Warrior image inscribed on the sarira reliquary discovered inside the base stone of the nine-story wooden pagoda site at Hwangnyongsa site are also considered to be influenced by Baekje. It is because the nine-story wooden pagoda was built by Baekje architect, Abiji, and the warrior image inscriptions are closely related to those of the Liang dynasty in terms of iconography.