Buddhist Billboard

Large Buddhist painting from Buseoksa. 1684. Hanging scroll 925x577cm. Colour on silk. National Museum of Korea, Seoul.

Apparently these types of massive scrolls (9 meters high, more than 5.5 meters wide each) where hung from buildings and/or frame structures to act as backdrops to monastery outdoor events, to be seen from far way and retold stories by the use of symbolic imagery.

From the guide book:

This hanging scroll, painted for the monastery Buseoksa in 1684, depicts the central part Sakyamuni Buddha preaching the Lotus Sutra on Mt. Gridhrakuta. The Buddha is surrounded by his ten great disciples, bodhisattvas, sravakas (voice hearers), the four heavenly kings and vajra-bearers. In the upper part, a Buddha triad is shown preaching, with Vairocana in the middle, Bhaisaiyaguru in the left and Amitabha in the right. The two Buddhas in the left and right from another triad in combination below, as the Buddhas of the three realms.

Unfortunately this image is of very poor quality and doesn't come close to showing the grandeur of this piece, since you are allowed only non-flash, non-tripod photography inside the museum (understandable). Maybe you know of a better image of this scroll? Please do let me know. The one in the guide book is terribly cropped but I might insert it to show the great detailing.

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The birth of a medium

The concept of placing a poster on a structure especially designed for it, rather than simply pasting it on a fence or the side of a building, had been the goal of industry leaders since 1871. This single development, while seemingly modest, was necessary in the effort to make the billboard a medium with an identifiable framework. The standardized structure allowed the advertisement to be replaced in the landscape or cityscape with a certain authority as a medium; this authority was not lost on existing –as well as potential- clients.

Page 14 The American Billboard: 100 years/ by James Fraser

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The public notice

This book tells the story of the public notice, a precursor to the modern day billboard.

Summoned by drum or trumpet to the market-place, the people saw the actual document unrolled – directly, presumably, from the actual hand of majesty – and heard its oracular pronouncement. With the reading done, and the text duly posted, they gathered round to see the document. It was almost as though the monarch himself had come among them.

Page 8 The Public Notice – an illustrated history / by Maurice Rickards

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