TRACES OF A LOST LANDSCAPE TRADITION AND CROSS-CULTURAL RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN KOREA, CHINA AND JAPAN IN THE EARLY JOSEON PERIOD (1392-1550)

Abstract

This dissertation traces a lost landscape tradition and investigates cross-cultural relationships between Korea, China and Japan during the fifteenth and mid sixteenth centuries. To this end, the main research is given to Landscapes, a set of three hanging scrolls in the Mori Museum of Art in Yamaguchi prefecture, Japan. Although Landscapes is traditionally attributed to the Chinese master Mi Youren (1075-1151) based on title inscriptions on their painting boxes, the style of the scrolls indicates that the painter was a follow of another Northern Song master, Guo Xi (ca. 1020-ca. 1090). By investigating various aspects of the Mori scrolls such as the subject matter, style, its possible painter and provenance as well as other cultural aspects that surround the scrolls, this dissertation traces a distinctive but previously unrecognized landscape tradition that existed in early Joseon times. The dissertation research challenges the An Gyeon-centered view of landscape art and gives an expanded perspective that furthers our understanding of early Joseon paintings. Through this process of examination and assessment of early Joseon paintings, this dissertation also touches upon the intimate political, trade and cultural relationships between China, Korea and Japan as materialized in the inter-Asian crisscrossing of art works and cultural trends during the fifteenth to mid sixteenth centuries. Especially, it shows the sharing of cultural trends between the Joseon and Ming courts, and also explores the frequent political and material culture exchanges between the Joseon court and the Ouchi clan of Japan. Lastly, this dissertation attempts to trace how early Joseon paintings were transmitted to Japan and lost their Korean identity in the process of authentication by Japanese connoisseurs during the Muromachi (1392-1573) and early Edo (1603-1867) periods. The result is an expanded view of the vigor and creativity of the early Joseon period and its significance in the larger history of Korean art and culture that can be achieved through art historical research conducted within an East Asian perspective.