Development of Goryeo Celadon

Development of Goryeo Celadon

Goryeo Celadon is an indispensable cultural legacy of Korean History when it comes to a source of Korean cultural pride. Goryeo Celadon, with its unique and exclusive technology, played a significant role in entrenching Korea as the most influential pottery producing country, and is still remained as the proudest art created by Korean ancestors. The outstanding quality of pottery created by Korean ancestors even enticed China who admired themselves as the best pottery producers since they were the pioneers of porcelain production, and this historical context suggests how Goryeo Celadon was an invaluable art piece in the history. Korean traditional crafts have been exchanged and interacted closely with Chinese and Japanese crafts. The cultural exchange contributed in establishing East Asian art history, further forming each nation's identity. Korea, China, and Japan have been interacted each other by exchanging political and cultural elements for a long period of time. During the time, the exchange of pottery was also realized naturally during the process of cultural and political interaction, influencing each country in terms of cross-cultural influence and cultural hybridity. Goryeo's unique and exclusive method and philosophy of developing a new paradigm by accommodating other outstanding cultures within the Celadon facilitated Korea to become the hub of hybridization of pottery culture in the East Asia, and

The beginning of pottery in the East Asia was originally occurred in, Walju, China during the period of Han, with the name of Hwedo. Chinese pottery makers learned the basic process of pottery manufacture, and Chinese finally earned technique for making a perfect celadon. "Celadon is identified with a type of stoneware, which contains a percentage of iron in the glaze recipe or clay body and is fired in a reducing atmosphere kiln"(Choi). The technique of manufacturing a perfectly crafted celadon had never exposed to anybody rather than those craftsmen who invented celadon. However, in the early 11th century, the ruling classes in Goryeo possessed a long-felt need in Chinese Celadon since any art piece in the period could not reach the quality of Chinese Celadon in terms of its beauty, detail, and scarcity (Han). At the time, the number of imported Chinese Celadon was relatively few than the number of people who wanted it in Goryeo. The competition for Chinese Celadon in Goryeo was so fierce that craftsmen of Goryeo began to manufacture Celadon by themselves with their own technique.