뉴스레터

Goguryeo ancient wall paintings came to light since the exploration began in early 20th century. They were listed in the World Heritage during the organization's 28th general congress held in Soju, China in 2004.

World Conservation Union decides the list of cultural and natural heritages regarded as having excellent and common values within the criteria in accordance with the agreements adopted by the UNESCO's general assembly.

The application was first submitted in 2003 for the wall paintings in North Korea but registration was postponed. They were listed along with the `capital castles, tombs for royal and noble families'' in Chinese side. The Goguryeo cultural heritages in North Korea and China are major evidence of culture, funeral, living and faith of Goguryeo, in addition to their artistic merits. High points also include creative architect knowhow, and influence of funeral tradition penetrating into nearby areas.

Goguryeo paintings have come under growing public attention in the middle of historical controversy between Korea and China since they were listed in the UNESCO World Heritages in 2004, prompting expanded researches through conferences and exhibitions in many countries like Korea, China and Japan. The Northeast Asian History Foundation has been carrying out researches jointly with scholars from North Korea alongside an independent research. There has been growing interest in replicas of the paintings drawn by Edouard Chavannes, and Sekino Tatashi (關野貞), who first explored the paintings, and Oba Tsunekichi (小場恒吉), which have been preserved in National Museum, Tokyo University Museum, and Tokyo Art College Museum. An increasing number of papers were also published along with a series of international conferences on Goguryeo and its paintings.

There has been a growing need for more fundamental measures and approaches to ensure in-depth research and conservation of Goguryeo wall paintings in the future. And the Northeast Asian History Foundation initiated a project for ``Research of Goguryeo Paintings and Contents Development.'' The project has been designed to have experts in various fields - archeology, art history, conservation and contents development - get together to analyze research outcome and set future direction.

The current project includes a research into contents development for the Goguryeo paintings to enhance the utility of the paintings as global cultural asset. In addition, Japanese experts with great contribution in relevant research also participated to analyze the research of Gogureo paintings in Japan.

We could come with new facts on the number of wall paintings discovered up until now alongside comprehensive chronologies for them through the recent project. Research outcomes from South and North Korea, China and West Europe were compiled in respective areas - photo data, research trend, summary, theme study, research on thinking and symbolic aspects, relations between paintings in early and latter periods, study into individual paintings, relations among paintings of China, Japan and Central Asia.

Conservation area broke down into painting materials, painting knowhow, management & environment and conservative treatment. Lastly, we looked into development of visual data via 2D or 3D technologies-related contents, while presenting future direction of contents development.

The current research can be used as basic data for diverse studies in the future and contents development for the Goguryeo paintings and contribute in efforts toward publicizing Goguryeo's cultural assets globally.

Alongside such achievement, we also presented future research task. With China having attempted to regard Goguryeo as part of its history, the paintings are significant materials that can verify history and culture of Goguryeo. So it is very urgent to accumulate relevant materials for in-depth research going forward.

Investigation into Goguryeo paintings in North Korea is not feasible in reality. But it is necessary to take preparatory steps including raising relevant experts for research and analysis in case of acquiring chances to visit North Korea. Ahead of examinations into North Korea, it is also important to shed lights into the paintings of the Three Kingdoms and Joseon Kingdom eras in South Korea. Concurrently, there should be comparative researches with Takamatsu and Kitora ancient tombs together with those of China's Wi-Jin eras.

Based on accumulated data, contents development by experts is also needed. In contents development it is necessary for relevant experts from historical studies, archeology, art history, and conservation to have in-depth discussion on the objective and methods of the development. There should be efforts to come with database for academic purposes and cultural contents for public purposes that can be used for public relations through exhibition at home and abroad and publication of photo materials and other data.

Finally, as we can see from the research trend in Japan and China, we need to raise young generation researchers. Each nation has yet to see an increasing number of young scholars in the area political and financial reasons. International cooperation in exploration and studies of basic data will help prompt the participation of next generation scholars.