Ancient Korea or Tangun Korea was founded by Tangun early in the 30th century B.C. and its descendents built Koguryo, the first feudal state in Korea, in 277 B.C. At least 100 mural paintings believed to belong to the period of Koguryo have been found so far. Each mural painting created in the period of Koguryo vividly and truthfully reflects the life of the Koguryo people and details of the custom peculiar to the Korean nation.

Women’s coats with multi-colored sleeves, rainbow-colored pleated skirts and their hairstyles seen on a Twin Pillar Mural Painting and the Kamsin Mural Painting and those found in Susan-ri and Tokhung-ri were peculiar to Koguryo as they were completely different from other countries. Depicted on many of those paintings are Korean wrestling and Supakhui, traditional martial art games dating back to the period of Koguryo. Almost all mural paintings belonging to the period of Koguryo including mural paintings found on the interior walls of tombs in Yaksu-ri and Tokhung-ri and Tomb No. 1 in Jangchon, Dance Tomb and Hunt Tomb portray scenes showing Koguryo people on horses hunting animals with bows in high militant spirit.

They are listed as precious treasures of the Korean nation for their rich and diverse themes, vivid and truthful depiction and original state preserved until today. The paintings extensively and deeply represent politics, economy, military affair, culture, religious belief and all other aspects of life.

A drawing depicting a dwelling house in the Dance Tomb and a painting dealing with lotuses in the Twin Pillar Tomb and a drawing portraying a strong man in the Three Chamber Tomb vividly represent the objects by bold yet free strokes and by delicate and soft yet sharp and elastic lines. In the drawing of a mythological turtle in particular, thin lines were used to depict ganoid scales of a snake when it winds up its body around the turtle.

The drawings depicting four Gods and a yellow dragon found in Three Tombs in Kangso and in the Fourth and Fifth Tombs of the Five Tombs in Jipan mean the zenith of the mural paintings in Koguryo for their rich colors, truthful depiction, perfect combination of line and color and the skillful representation of the light and dark sides of glassy and glossy skins of animals when they get wet. These paintings have retained their distinct colors for thousands of years. They originated from Pyongyang.

The oldest tombs among the tombs having these mural paintings dating back to the period of Koguryo were found in areas around Pyongyang: The tomb with a mural painting in Kumok-ri is believed to date back to about the first to second century A.D. and Tomb No. 2 in Usan-ri was built before the second century A.D.

These tombs resulted in the appearance of the Mural Painting Tomb of King Ko Kuk Won in the mid-fourth century, the same style tomb in Yaksu-ri in late fourth to early in the fifth century, a similar tomb in Tokhung-ri early in the fifth century and three tombs with mural paintings in Three Tombs in Kangso in late Koguryo. They represented the climax in the development of mural paintings in Koguryo. More than 100 mural paintings are found distributed in areas around Hwanin, Jipan and Pyongyang, former capitals of Koguryo. Nearly 80 tombs with mural paintings including King Tongmyong’s Mausoleum, Twin Pillar Tomb, Four Gods Tomb in Honam-ri, Mural Painting in Tongam-ri and Kaema Tomb were surveyed and excavated.

Most of the tombs with mural paintings including the Tomb of King Ko Kuk Won, those tombs in Tokhung-ri, Yaksu-ri and Susan-ri listed as masterpieces for their thematic contents and portrayal are concentrated in areas around Pyongyang. The mural paintings belonging to the period of Koguryo that had developed with Pyongyang as centre reached the highest level of their development in the period of Koguryo. They had a strong impact on the development of drawings in Paekje, Silla, Kaya and other kingdoms of the same race and even surrounding countries and became a source and a model of mural paintings in Korea in medieval ages.

(Minju Joson, in KCNA, June 30, 2004)