Goryeo celadon

Forms, use and context#

Inlaid decoration (sanggam) appears in the twelfth century. A National Institute of Korean History text links small celadon cups and cup-and-stands to tea offered at court and in Buddhist rites.

Body#

The Met attributes the grey-green colour to iron in the clay and to iron oxide, manganese oxide and quartz in the glaze.¹

Glazes#

Methods#

1. Inlay (sanggam, 상감 象嵌) Lines are cut into the half-dry body, filled with white or red clay, scraped flush, then glazed; white clay fires white and red clay fires black. The encyclopedia dates its use on celadon to the first half of the 12th century.³
2. Firing About or below 1150 °C in a reducing atmosphere, according to the Met.¹
3. Organisation Made through state-designated craft districts (자기소 瓷器所) that owed porcelain as tribute.⁸

Typical objects#

Tea cupKorean tea bowlcup-and-stand (탁잔 托盞)ewer with basinmaebyeong vasebowls and plates

Periods#

1. 918 – 1392The Goryeo dynasty, the span the Met essay covers.¹
2. late Silla – mid-JoseonKorean celadon in the wider sense was made from late Silla into the middle of Joseon.²

Kiln sites#

Ambiguities#

• Kiln counts differ: about 156 at Gangjin by village (encyclopedia) against 188 by surface survey (Gangjin County); Buan Yucheon-ri about 40 and Jinseo-ri 35 (encyclopedia) against 37 and 40 (Buan museum, 1993 survey).^5116712
• When inlay began: first half of the 12th century (encyclopedia, 상감) or the 1150s (NIKH). An inlaid bowl in the National Museum (National Treasure) is said, by tradition only, to come from a tomb with an 1159 epitaph.³⁸⁴
• Whether a given cup-and-stand served tea: the NIKH text says cup-and-stands were for offering tea, while the National Museum's object record calls its example a food vessel. Keep the use as the source states it, object by object.⁸⁹

Heritage listings#

Other recorded fields#

Tea context

• Note: The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture lists hot-water pots (탕호 湯壺), small bisaek cups (비색소구 翡色小甌) and celadon tea bowls (청자다완 靑磁茶碗) among Goryeo celadon tea wares, and says Goryeo tea drinking shaped the development of celadon.¹³
• Note: Cup-and-stands were used to offer tea to the king or officials; tea was offered at major state events and Buddhist rites. A celadon cup-and-stand with incised flowers comes from the tomb of King Injong (buried 1146).⁸
• Note: The National Museum of Korea says celadon ewers reflect the tea and alcohol customs of the period; ewers came with a basin filled with hot water.¹⁰
• Note: A plain celadon cup and stand in the National Museum of Korea (cup 5 cm high, 9.1 cm across; stand 14.2 cm across) has a near twin from the Sadang-ri kiln site at Gangjin; the record classes it as a food vessel and does not mention tea.⁹

In other traditions#

• Counterpart of Ru ware 中China. The Song envoy Xu Jing, in Gaeseong in 1123, compared Goryeo wares with the celadons of the Yue and Ru kilns.¹

Related#