Najeongyeongham

Basic information

Designation

Treasure No.1975

Category

Craft

Era

고려 후기(13세기)

Designated year

2018

Location

용산구, 서울특별시— 서울특별시 용산구 서빙고로 137 (용산동6가, 국립중앙박물관)

Coordinates

No precise coordinates are available, so this item is not shown as a map marker. To be added later.

This Lacquered sutra case with Inlaid Mother-of-pearl Design is a rectangular box made of one-centimeter-thick conifer boards complete with a lid featuring beveled corners. The box was made to store scrolls of Buddhist sutras, including the works of the Tripitaka, during the Goryeo period (918-1392). Sutra boxes such as this one are believed to have been made in large quantities during the Goryeo period, but only a limited number remain today. In fact, fewer than twenty nacre-inlaid lacquerware artifacts from the Goryeo period have survived to the present day, and the sutra box is even rarer. This particular sutra box consists of a basic wooden structure of Goryeo period, and iron nails were used to make the frame. Then the frame was covered with cloth and pasted with bone ash before applying pieces of nacre according to a prearranged plan, followed by repeated lacquering. The elaborately applied floral nacre patterns exhibit rhythmical dynamism and harmony. This sutra box with nacre-inlaid decoration is the only extant artifact of its kind in Korea and is regarded as a fine example of Korea’s outstanding nacre inlaying art, which reached its zenith in the late Goryeo period.