Gunsan Balsan-ri Stone Lantern

About this place

The Balsan-ri Stone Lantern is a work from the early Goryeo period, standing 2.5 meters tall, notable for its dragon-pattern carving on the shaft stone. It was removed from the site of Bongnimsaji Temple in Samgi-ri, Gosan-myeon, Wanju County during the Japanese colonial period by Shimatani. Its current location is in the garden behind the Balsan Elementary School building. The site where Balsan Elementary School now stands was once the home and farm of the Japanese farm owner Shimatani in the early 1900s, where a large number of cultural relics collected by the Japanese farm owner at the time are preserved. The lower pedestal is carved with eight lotus petals in a double-layered pattern (yeonhwa bognyeon), and the shaft stone (ganjuseok) features a humorous depiction of a grinning dragon baring its teeth. A stone lantern with a dragon carved on the shaft stone is the only example of its kind in Korea. The base stone (jidaeseok) is currently kept at the Jeonbuk National University Museum.