Political practice” beyond the rituals: The use of gendered and religious discourses in Korean Buddhist court images (1270 -1598)
Résumé
Beyond ritual practice, the Buddhist images that were produced at the Korean royal court
carried another use, both religious and political. Over a long period, Buddhist court art has been
supported mainly by women. Korean court women used Buddhist images not only for ritual
purposes, but also to enter the political arena and thus promote both a gendered and a religious
discourse. We will start this article by presenting two contexts of political patronization of
images by Korean Court Women: firstly, the support of Empress Ki to Korean Buddhism and
the Koryŏ community in Yuan Capital Dadu; secondly, the long period of restauration of a
Buddhist culture in Chosŏn court from Buddhist King Sejo to the politic of Queen Munjŏng.
Then, we will briefly introduce the representation of patrons and the feminization of characters
in Buddhist painting from the last century of Koryŏ to the middle of Chosŏn period, before
concluding with the question on the development of a gendered discourse in Korean Buddhist
images.