A POLYCHROME WOOD SCULPTURE OF AN ATTENDANT FIGURE (DONGJA)

This sculpture of a boy attendant is called Dongja in Korean. Dongja often depicted as a boy holding offerings to gods such as auspicious animals, fruits or flowers. It is likely that this figure was displayed as a part of an altar group forming the tribunal of the Ten Kings of Hell. In Buddhist belief, humans must cross into a kind of purgatory after death and appear in the underworld before one or more kings of hell (the Chinese codified a cult of the Ten Kings of Hell) to determine into which one of the Six Realms of Existence they will be reborn: various hells, hungry ghosts, beasts, bellicose demons, humans, or heavenly beings. Often depicted with Boddhisattva Jizo in Joseon Dynasty Buddhist paintings, Dongja is believed to assist the process of the purgatory.
For a very similar Dongja dated 17-18th century in the collection of Koryo Museum of Art, see Korai bijutsukan zohin zuroku / Collection catalogue of Koryo Museum of Art (Kyoto: Zaidanhojin Korai bijutsukan, 2003), pl. 139.