Abstract

The mirror of Ilwolseongsinmun is decorated with patterns of the sun, moon, and stars, and is today called Myeongdo, one of the tools of shamanism. This study focused on the background to its appearance and the process of change. Three types were identified after analyzing 90 remains, which are chartered products. Type A follows an astronomical representation that expresses the sun, moon, and stars in the original text and connects constellations with lines. The background to its appearance is the influence and prevalence of small astronomical charts and a decorative coin in the 17th century. Its appearance suggests that shamanism had started to deviate from the state’s institutional sphere, lost its political function, and had become civilian. Type B is schematic, and deviates from the astronomical representation of constellations consisting of the sun, moon, and the Big Dipper. It is a phenomenon that appears in the process of using everyday crafts as tools of sharmanism, where the space for shamanic rituals becomes a temporary and open place. Type C accepts the Western pentagram pattern introduced in the 19th century, expresses stars as pentagrams, and changes to today’s standardized Ilwolseong Newspaper, and continues to this day. In the late Joseon Dynasty, metal mirrors gradually disappeared due to the growing trend of using new glass mirrors; nevertheless, the mirror of Ilwolseongsinmun appears newly to be used in the performance of shamanistic rituals. As shamanism was privatized, performance elements were needed for visible effects, and they were constantly fused by accepting ritual acts and tools from other religions. Metal mirrors have long been used in the religious rituals of Buddhism and Taoism, based on the idea that “mirrors are the body.” In the process of completing today’s highly developed shamanic rituals, the mirror of Ilwolseongsinmun has also became a tool of shamanism, and it is understood that it was conceived and developed as a unique Korean pattern and form.