TRIC has successfully completed the world’s first digital reproduction of a mural using its proprietary Multi-Rotational Soil Jet Layer Printing technology, replicating the Mural Painting in Josadang Shrine of Buseoksa Temple—designated National Treasure No. 46 and the oldest surviving mural in Korea.
"Multi-Rotational Soil Jet Layer Printing technology" developed over five years by TRIC enables giga-pixel mural images, built at tens of billions of pixels, to be directly printed onto an earthen wall structure without tracing or post-processing—achieving a faithful reproduction of the original. This Buseoksa mural project marks the first real-world demonstration of the technology globally.
TRIC’s heritage physical replica team collaborated with the mural preservation team to scientifically analyze and reconstruct an earthen wall with identical composition to the original. Over 60 days, the wall was created and then fixed onto a honeycomb structure board made of duralumin—an aerospace-grade material—using natural gelatin glue to ensure long-term durability.
Each of the eight mural fragments was digitized into giga-pixel images and separated into 300 layered color channels for precise color management (CMS). The mural, which endured over 600 years since the late Goryeo period, was thus transformed into 20 gigabytes of high-fidelity digital data.
The finalized layered giga-pixel image was printed onto the earthen wall using a custom-built ultra-precision printer co-developed with HP. The printer sprayed pigment within a 0.01mm tolerance, with penetration control down to 0.02mm intervals and up to a depth of 1mm, coating individual soil granules at over 320° to ensure solid adhesion.
A non-acrylic coating was applied to the surface after the final print to eliminate unwanted gloss based on pigment characteristics, completing the reproduction with visual fidelity to the original.
Since June 2020, the completed replica has been on display at the Buseoksa Temple Museum, replacing the original mural, which is now undergoing preservation until 2026.
While similar digital printing-based mural reproductions have been attempted in Japan—by Tokyo University of the Arts and the Otsuka Museum—those projects relied on partial tracing and hand-painted mimicry, achieving only 50–70% fidelity and largely remaining manual processes.
TRIC’s project is recognized as a breakthrough that has surpassed the limitations of previous mural reproduction methods through fully digital and high-fidelity replication.
Building on this successful demonstration, TRIC plans to apply its digital mural reproduction technology to domestic and international projects—including the Bagan murals in Myanmar and frescoes in Italy—contributing to global mural preservation and conservation.
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