i68 Beginnings or Porcelain 



regard to the adoption of the latter on the part of the Koreans; 1 and 

 as the greater part of the pottery of this period is turned on the wheel, 2 

 while that of the preceding ages was fashioned only by hand, it is safe 

 to assume that the introduction of the wheel is due to Chinese 

 influence. 



P. L. Jouy writes on the Korean potter's wheel as follows: "The 

 Korean potter's wheel consists of a circular table from two to three 

 feet in diameter and four to six inches thick, made of heavy wood so 

 as to aid in giving impetus to it when revolving. In general appearance 

 it is not very unlike a modeller's table. This arrangement is sunken 

 into a depression in the ground, and revolves easily by means of small 

 wheels working on a track underneath, the table being pivoted in the 

 centre. The wheel is operated directly by the foot, without the aid 

 of a treadle of any kind. The potter sits squatting in front of the 

 wheel, his bench or seat on a level with it, and space being left between 

 his seat and the wheel to facilitate his movements. With his left 

 foot underneath him, he extends his right foot, and strikes the side of 

 the wheel with the bare sole of the foot, causing it to revolve." 8 



A Japanese tradition credits the celebrated Korean monk Gyogi 

 ff ;§? (a.d. 670-749) 4 with the invention of the potter's wheel. W. G. 

 Aston, 5 W. Gowland, 6 and F. Brinkley 7 have rejected this legend 

 as unfounded by pointing out that the wheel was known in Japan 



1 Hou Han shu, Ch. 1 15, and the writer's Chinese Pottery, p. 127. The Wo-tsu 

 in Korea interred in the graves pottery vessels filled with rice. In this respect 

 the Chinese account is of interest, that all the Eastern barbarous tribes, Tung I 

 T|f ^ availed themselves of dishes and platters (tsu tou <§| t£) for eating and 

 drinking, with the sole exception of the Yi-lou or Su-shen (T'ai p'ing huan yu ki, 

 Ch. 175, p. 4 b). See also Kiu T'ang shu, Ch. 199 A, p. 1. 



* P. L. Jouy, The Collection of Korean Mortuary Pottery (Report of the U. S. 

 National Museum, 1887-88, pp. 589-596, particularly p. 591). 



1 Science, Vol. XII, 1888, p. 144. Mrs. Bishop (Korea and Her Neighbours, 

 Vol. I, p. 93) says, "The potters pursue their trade in open sheds, digging up the 

 clay close by. The stock-in-trade is a pit in which an uncouth potter's wheel 

 revolves, the base of which is turned by the feet of a man who sits on the edge of 

 the hole. A wooden spatula, a mason's wooden trowel, a curved stick, and a piece 

 of rough rag, are the tools, efficient for the purpose." A Korean drawing showing 

 a potter at work is reproduced in Int. Archiv. f. Ethnogr., Vol. IV, 1891, plate III, 

 fig. 6. 



* His life is briefly summed up by E. Papinot, Dictionnaire de geographie et 

 d'histoire du Japon, p. 152. J. J. Rein (Industries of Japan, p. 457) states only 

 that GyOgi was the first to introduce the wheel into Japan, which may well be the 

 original tradition, and that this event took place in a.d. 724. 



• Nihongi, Vol. I, p. 121. 



• The Dolmen and Burial Mounds in Japan, p. 494. 

 7 Japan, Vol. VIII: Keramic Art, p. 9. 



