40 
KERAMIC STUDIO 
KOREAN KERAMICS 
Randolph I .''Gears 
HE Land of Morning Calm, as 
Koreans often call their native 
countrj^ was for man^- centuries 
noted for the high class of its art 
productions. Persia and Arabia 
I^rolDably contributed to its cele- 
brity in this direction, and' doubt- 
less those countries derived in turn 
inspiration from the artists of the 
little kingdom. Indeed the art- 
workers of Persia and Arabia are said to bear unmistakable 
signs of Korean originality and skill. At the time when 
Korea, ceased to be called "Korai" — a little more than five 
hundred years ago^ — the potter's art still flourished there. 
But later, when "Korai" had been changed to "Cho-sen," and 
the people of the new capital, Seoul, had become embroiled in 
Jouy and others. These threw a new light on the ancient 
keraraic industry of Korea, and also furnished valuable infor- 
mation regarding the kinds of pottery that have been made 
there in modern times. 
It is true that the pottery manufactured even at the present 
day in Korea has certain points of resemblance in common 
with her products of bygone centuries; and 3ret it seems proper, 
at any rate for the purpose of the student, to separate the sub- 
ject of Korean keramics into two divisions: the one, dealing 
with the ancient ware; the other, embracing the pottery made 
since the Japanese invasion. 
Unfortunately the art has deteriorated, and while the 
older forms may still serve as the basis of the modern products, 
the latter are not to be compared with the fine specimens 
obtained from ancient Korean tombs, or with still more beauti- 
ful pieces which were doubtless regarded as too choice to be 
entombed, and were fortunately preserved for the delight of 
future generations. 
Korea has been described as one vast graveyard, with 
KOREAN MORTUARY POTTERY 
a bitter war with the inhabitants of the old capital, Song-do, 
the manufacture of pottery declined; and when, towards the 
end of the sixteenth century (at the close of the Japanese 
invasion of Korea, 1 592-1 597) whole colonies of potters and 
porcelain workers were taken to the victors' home, Korean art 
ceased to exist in Korea, save as a mere remnant of its former 
excellence. By slow degrees, however, the manufacttrre of 
potterj^ and porcelain was renewed, but the choicest Korean 
skiU had been transplanted to Japan. 
Comparatively little is known of the subseciuent products 
of Korea's factories until somewhat over a quarter of a centur}' 
ago, when the little kingdom was released from her long period 
of vassalage to Japan, and was at last recognized as an inde- 
pendent and sovereign nation. 
A few years later, in 1882, largely through the eriergies of 
Commodore Shufeldt, Korea opened her ports to the United 
States of America, and in the following year a large number of 
Korean potter j' objects, now on exhibition in the National 
Museum at Washington, were collected by the late Mr. P. L. 
burial mounds and monuments of varying age and archaeolo- 
gical interest constituting one of its most prominent landscape 
features. In some sections of the country cemeteries occupy 
fully one-fourth as much space as that used for agricultural 
purposes. Isolated graves of persons of special prominence are 
also not uncoimnon, and these are generally surrounded bj^ 
groves of evergreens, arranged in the shape of a horse-shoe, 
^\dth the mound, from four to five feet high, in the center. 
Here in these groves have lain for centuries numerous ex- 
amples of the ancient Korean's best art in pottery. Here 
from time immemorial they had been placed with the bodies, 
in the belief that the spirits of the departed would have need 
of them. Other articles were buried with the pottery, such as 
gilded rings of copper, bronze horse-trappings, and objects 
of stone, including arrowheads made of slate, and daggers of 
slate or shale with the handle and blade in one piece. 
Much of the early pottery was unglazed, while some was 
slightly glazed {vernis) earthenware of archaic shape. The 
pieces were either niodeled bj^ hand, patted into shape bj^ the 
