Buyeo National Museum: One Censer Holding Twenty-three Mountains and Thirty-nine Animals

It is rare for a museum to give one object a gallery. Buyeo National Museum does.

The permanent displays include a hall for the Baekje incense burner. A room for one censer. Whether it earns that is a question a few numbers settle.

Opening hours and location are on the place page for the museum.

At a glance

64 cm tall, 11.8 kg
Divided into body and lid, and into four parts counting the phoenix on top and the stand.
Twenty-three mountains on the lid
Twenty-three peaks in four or five overlapping ranges make a landscape of mountains behind mountains.
Five musicians, thirty-nine animals
Sixteen human figures including five musicians, and thirty-nine real-world animals.
Five holes
Five openings at the phoenix's breast and around the musicians let the smoke from the body rise naturally.

A pit, and 450 other objects

The circumstances of the find already say something.

It is a Baekje censer found in a pit west of a temple site between the Baekje Naseong wall and the Neungsan-ri tombs, together with more than 450 other objects.

A pit. It was not standing on display; it was buried, and not alone. The site sits between the boundary of the capital and the tombs of its kings — the temple ground between the Naseong wall and the Neungsan-ri tombs.

It was designated a National Treasure on 30 May 1996 and dates to the sixth or seventh century.

The world on the lid

The lid is not decoration; it is a landscape.

The lid shows twenty-three mountains in four or five overlapping ranges, a scene of mountains behind mountains.

What lives on those mountains has been counted. Five musicians playing a flute, a lute, a zither and drums; various warrior figures and a mounted hunting scene, sixteen human figures in all; and imaginary flying creatures including a phoenix and dragons, alongside thirty-nine real-world animals such as tigers and deer.

The rest of the landscape is counted too. Six trees and twelve rocks, mountain paths along the slopes, streams running between the peaks, waterfalls and lakes are rendered in constant variation.

That it includes paths, streams, waterfalls and lakes is the ambition of the thing. Terrain, water, living creatures and music, all inside 64 centimetres.

A phoenix above, a dragon below

The top and the bottom tell different stories.

A separately attached phoenix stands at the summit of the lid, wings spread, holding a wish-fulfilling jewel with its neck and beak; the softness of its long, slightly upswept tail may be called a Baekje characteristic.

That "a Baekje characteristic" is located in a tail is a nice detail. Wide regions share a form; the hand differs locally.

The lower half imagines from the other direction. The body suggests a lotus in full bloom, with twenty-six animals — a phoenix, fish, deer, cranes — set across the surfaces of its leaves. The stand is a single dragon holding the base of the lotus in its mouth, its head raised as if surging into the sky to bear the weight.

A dragon holds the lotus, the lotus carries the mountains, and a phoenix stands on the mountains. Read upward, the order is water, lotus, mountain, sky.

Where the smoke comes out

That this is a censer rather than a sculpture shows in the holes.

Five holes are pierced at the phoenix's breast and in front of and behind the musicians, so that smoke from the body could rise naturally.

Which means the smoke was designed to seep out between the mountains. The intention was to actually produce mist among the ranges, and finding where those holes are is worth doing while you are in front of it.

Its ancestry is recorded too. The censer appears to show the influence of the boshanlu censers popular in Han China. The form arrived from outside; the scale, the density and the curve of that tail were made here.

Walking Sabi in a day

Where the museum sits is useful for planning.

The address is 5 Geumseong-ro, Buyeo-eup, postcode 33156. That is in the town, with the Jeongnimsa site and Busosanseong both within walking distance.

So the Sabi capital can be done on foot in a day. The fortress gives you the terrain of the capital, the temple site gives you its axis, and the museum gives you what the capital made. No other Baekje capital puts all three in one small town.

⚪ Opening hours and admission are not stated in this article. The museum's visitor-information page does not carry its hours in the HTML the server sends, so rather than print a figure that was not verified, the field is left empty. Check the official site before you go.

Stand in front of it and count. Twenty-three mountains, sixteen figures, thirty-nine animals, six trees, twelve rocks. Knowing the numbers turns "elaborate decoration" into "a dense inventory". And once you have confirmed that the five musicians are each holding a different instrument, what the censer was trying to contain becomes obvious.

Worth pairing with this

Frequently asked questions

Where was the incense burner found?

In a pit west of a temple site between the Baekje Naseong wall and the Neungsan-ri tombs, together with more than 450 other objects.

How big is it?

64 cm tall and 11.8 kg. It divides into body and lid, or four parts counting the phoenix on top and the stand.

What is on the lid?

Twenty-three mountains in four or five overlapping ranges, sixteen human figures including five musicians, imaginary creatures such as a phoenix and dragons, thirty-nine real animals including tigers and deer, six trees and twelve rocks, plus mountain paths, streams, waterfalls and lakes.

Where does the smoke come out?

Through five holes at the phoenix's breast and in front of and behind the musicians, so that smoke from the body seeps out among the mountains.

What are the opening hours?

This article does not state them. The museum's visitor-information page does not carry its hours in the HTML the server sends, so the value was not verified. Check the official site before visiting.