( fl c. AD 610). Korean painter and monk. In 610 he went to Japan, where, according to the Nihon shoki (‘Chronicles of Japan’), completed in 720, he spread knowledge of the art of colouring and of the manufacture of paper and ink, thus making a major contribution to the development of painting in Japan. He is also said to have taught the Japanese the use of the watermill and to have contributed to Japanese Buddhism through lectures in Buddhist doctrine. Tamjing is traditionally credited with wall paintings at Horyuji, the 8th-century temple at Ikaruga, near Nara, Japan. These paintings, which depicted four scenes of paradise presided over by Shakyamuni, Amitabha, Maitreya and Bhaisajyaguru respectively, were destroyed by fire in 1949. Copies of parts of the wall paintings have survived; from these can be traced the influence of western style in their chiaroscuro method and colouring. There is moreover some resemblance between the wall paintings and those found in the ancient tombs of Koguryo.

• Tamjing
  • Korea, §IV, 2(i)(b): Buddhist painting: Later Three Kingdoms to Unified Silla, c AD 300–918