WOODEN A-UN LION FIGURES, Pair, Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897 CE)
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A pair of wooden A-un lion figures from the Joseon Dynasty.
A pair of wooden lion figures with the forelegs thrust forward and the body held low in a crouch. The Agyo figure has its mouth open; the Ungyo figure has its mouth closed. Both present a horizontally elongated body with a large head, the forelegs, torso, and tail rendered in broad planes. Dimensions: Agyo — width 14cm, depth 32.5cm, height 19cm; Ungyo — width 14cm, depth 32cm, height 19.5cm.
The open-mouthed figure presents a face with a wide-open mouth, a rounded, prominent nose tip and a heavy jaw. The eyes are set deeply, the mane is formed of bead-like curls, and the forelegs extend powerfully forward. The closed-mouthed figure, by contrast, shows a composed expression with the mouth shut, and the carving around the brows, nose and mouth retains a more pronounced three-dimensional quality. The expressions differ between left and right, and seen together as a pair the contrast between open and closed is clearly evident.
The body is elongated, and fine chisel marks running with the grain remain along the back. The toes of the forelegs, tail, mane, and ears are simply carved, yet strong incised lines at key points effectively capture the lion’s form. This is not a smoothly finished, realistic sculpture but a vernacular wood carving in which the character of a guardian beast is emphasized. The rough wood surface, broad chamfers, and remaining chisel marks directly contribute to the figure’s presence.
In Joseon woodcarving, one finds guardian beasts—lions, tigers, and dragons—used in temples, shrines, and sites of popular devotion. This example, too, is formed less as a finely finished carving than as a figure that safeguards its setting with a forceful expression and a low, crouching pose. The broadly splayed forelegs, the proportions that emphasize the head, and the elongated body convey a rustic vigor characteristic of Joseon woodcarving.
The wood is thoroughly dried and shows overall shrinkage, surface abrasion, insect damage, cracks, and losses. Around the faces and manes there are accretions resembling soil or old fills, and in places there are darkened, sunken areas contrasted with sections where the bare wood appears lighter. The Agyō figure exhibits pronounced wear around the face, while the Ungyō figure has a crack extending from the head into the torso. The legs and tails are also damaged, but the pair retains its overall form.
A matched pair of A-un wooden lion figures from the Joseon dynasty. The dry patina of the aged wood, the bold, unadorned carving, and the differing expressions on the left and right are all well preserved.
w14 x d32 x h19.5cm（吽形）
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Its aesthetic placed emphasis not on surface splendor or technical virtuosity, but on forms and modes of being that quietly support a person’s inner life. Vessels and furniture were not simply tools for use; they may also have served as a kind of “place of self-cultivation,” ordering one’s daily conduct and state of mind. A plain jar in a scholar’s study, a simple desk, an undecorated brush rest—these were objects before the eye, but also mirrors of one’s posture and thought.
It is no accident that crafts from the Joseon period possess a presence that “does not say too much.” They were made to accompany the inner life—not to overwhelm the viewer, but to breathe alongside us and quietly restore a sense of order.
In white porcelain, for example, such “unintended phenomena” as the slight flow of glaze, variations in the clay body, or slight irregularities of form were accepted as they were. They embody a spirit of broad acceptance, unlike the modern aesthetic that treats perfection and uniformity as the highest values. This view reconsiders the boundaries between nature and human making, beauty and imperfection, object and mind; it is not an exaggeration to say that it existed beyond the frame of craft as the spirit of an age.
If we were to name it, the beauty of Joseon is not a “beauty of display” but a “beauty of resonance.” Its beauty lies not solely in the attraction of the object itself, but in the opportunity it gives us to reconsider how a person ought to be through the object. For this reason, an object must not speak too much; it must contain intervals, open space, and silence. I cannot help feeling that such thought runs beneath the making of these objects.
These values eventually crossed the sea and took deep root in Japan. In the world of chanoyu in particular, Joseon white porcelain and buncheong ware were already being used by the Momoyama period. Their simple, quiet character—different from the solemn grandeur of Chinese karamono—came to be embraced. The tea aesthetic of “clearing the mind before what does not speak” resonated deeply with the silence and imperfection held in Joseon vessels, nurturing a gaze that found in them the spirit of wabi-sabi.
With the arrival of the modern era, thinkers of the Mingei movement such as Yanagi Sōetsu and Kawai Kanjirō found in Joseon vessels “the power to purify a person” and “a form of life as it ought to be.” At a time when craft was being forgotten, these objects were welcomed not merely as old vessels but, with profound sympathy and respect, as presences reflecting a way of living itself.
When I, living in the present day, encounter the crafts of Joseon, I am moved once again by their stillness. They contain the thought of an age that asked how a person should live and how one should be. That thought has not faded; it continues to resonate clearly even now.
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