Korean Pottery

Korean pottery, objects made of clay and hardened by heat: earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain of Korea.

The influence of Chinese pottery on Korean pottery was so great that it is difficult to distinguish some Korean wares from those made in the northern provinces of China, especially of those made during the contemporary Han to Tang period. The wares of the Silla period (57 bce–935 ce) include some reminiscent of those of the Zhou dynasty. Specimens of stoneware obviously based on metalwork are distantly related to some of the Han bronzes. Patterns on these wares are geometric and incised into the clay before firing.

An olive-green glaze was introduced later in the Silla dynasty, probably about the 9th century. Roof tiles and finials have a brown or a green glaze and may be contemporary with the Han dynasty.

The wares of the Koryŏ dynasty (918–1392; roughly corresponding to the Chinese Song and Yuan dynasties) exhibit a much greater diversity and fall into rather more clearly defined groups. The attribution of certain black-glazed temmoku types is controversial, but it seems that at least some of them were made in Korea. Many celadons, too, have typical Korean lobed forms, based on the melon or the gourd. These are also to be seen in porcelain, much of which has a bluish white glaze. Some lobed boxes, usually circular, are decorated with impressed designs and are probably always Korean.

One of the difficulties in the study of Korean pottery is that practically everything has been recovered from tombs; few actual kiln sites have been discovered. Nevertheless, one such excavation at Yuch’ŏn-ni has disclosed shards of both the celadon glaze and of white porcelain from which it seems evident that white porcelain resembling both the yingqing and Ding types was made. The earliest vessels were probably fairly close copies of Chinese styles, while the distinctive Korean style followed rather later. A crazing of the glaze and a certain amount of flaking are characteristic. A mere handful of specimens, some fragmentary, of inlaid white porcelain have survived. They are best represented by a vase in the Natural Museum of Modern Arts in the Tŏksu Palace of Seoul that has panels of black-and-white inlay beneath a celadon glaze. Decoration on much Korean porcelain of the period is either incised (foliage being a frequent motif), combed, or molded in shallow relief.

Korean celadons have a stoneware body covered with a glaze varying from bluish green to a putty colour; some are obviously analogous to the celadons of Yuezhou. Characteristic of Korean pots are the stilt or spur marks to be seen on the otherwise glazed base; these are the points on which the pots rested in the kiln. Many of the forms are lobed. Perhaps the most important divergence from the usual Chinese celadon is the presence of inlaid decoration beneath the glaze of many specimens.

The designs were first incised into the clay, and the incisions were then filled with black and white slip. The inlaid patterns are diverse, but most of the subjects are floral; birds are to be seen occasionally. Isolated flowers with symmetrically radiating petals are also found, principally on boxes.

While most Korean wares of the Chosŏn dynasty (1392–1910) are distinctly rougher than those of China in the Ming and Qing periods, the decoration is often magnificent in quality. Most can be clearly distinguished from Chinese wares by their forms, which show distinct differences in almost every case. Lobed forms suggested by the melon are very characteristic, and the pear-shaped bottle differs in its proportions from that of the Chinese. The large rugged jars with high shoulders are not so precisely potted as similar jars from China, often showing a marked degree of asymmetricality. Twisted rope handles are also peculiar to Korea. Many of the ewers are obvious adaptations from metalwork.

Painting in brownish black beneath a celadon glaze, which had begun in the Koryŏ dynasty, continued in the Chosŏn dynasty. Inlaid decoration was also executed during the early part of this period, the pattern often being engraved by stamps rather than incised freehand. Sgraffito decoration, in which patterns were incised through a grayish white slip, is also seen occasionally.

Some excellent painted designs in an underglaze blue of variable colour but usually distinctly grayish in tone were executed on a rough porcelain body that is almost stoneware. The designs are particularly notable for great economy of brushwork and superb drawing. Their affinities are much more with Japanese pottery than with contemporary Chinese wares. A typical Japanese technique, “brush” (hakeme), or brushed slip, is used in conjunction with painted decoration in the early part of the dynasty, but later it is used alone. Korean influence on Japanese pottery was probably at its strongest during the ascendancy of the Japanese warrior Hideyoshi (1536–98), who invaded Korea.