On the Process of Adopting and Consolidating Images of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Eastern Asia

Abstract

The cult of the Virgin Mary in the East Asian region proved pivotal in the spread of Christianity as it drew on traditional cultural elements where the image of the Mother was of defining importance within the mentality and aesthetic outlook. The value paradigm of modern East Asian society is largely based on the Catholic version of the visual image of the Virgin Mary, which draws on local religious traditions. The aim of the paper is to study the process of acceptance and consolidation of images with the Blessed Virgin Mary in East Asia, with a particular focus on this process in Korea. The object of the study is photographic reproductions of religious paintings of Korea, Japan and China, taken from earlier scholarly studies and systematically used in this paper, as well as images of the Virgin Mary collected by the author from temples in Busan, Seoul and Maegok. The application of a historical-comparative approach with synchronic and diachronic methods, as well as sociological, hermeneutic, semiotic, culturological, iconographic and iconological approaches allowed us to draw conclusions about similar processes of the spread of Christianity in Korea, China and Japan, based on the visualization of the Virgin Mary image and attitude to her as the successor to the image of the Mother in popular traditions.