Page 118 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

Catalogue 59 Tea bowl. Probably
Korean, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910);
probably first half of the 17th century.
Stoneware with stamped design,
1
1
H. 3 ⁄4 in. (8.3 cm), Diam. of rim 4 ⁄8 in.
1
(10.5 cm), Diam. of foot 2 ⁄2 in. (6.4 cm).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, The Howard Mansfield
Collection, Gift of Howard Mansfield,
1936 (36.120.502)

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clay and inlaid with white slip (Japanese: hori-mishima). The elements of purposefully exaggerated
technique and consciously simplified style in the execution of the decoration may signify a
pronounced awareness of early buncheong ware.
The self-conscious, emphatic modes of design in these ceramics may also reflect the shift in
the fashion of tea ceremony wares that occurred at the turn of the seventeenth century and the
following years. A changing of the guard within the tea world’s leadership, from Rikyu to Furuta
Oribe (1544–1615), brought with it an aesthetic revolution, one that celebrated the bold and the
willfully skewed. At the forefront of this new trend were the avant-garde ceramics from the Mino
kilns known as Oribe ware (named after the influential tea master), which featured distorted or
otherwise distinctive shapes, flamboyant designs, and dramatic color contrasts (see figs. 3.4, 3.10).
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Figure 3.4 Clog-shaped tea bowl with decoration
of plum blossoms and geometric patterns. Japanese,
Momoyama period (1573–1615); early 17th century.
Stoneware with iron-black glaze (Mino, black Oribe
type), H. 3 in. ( 7.6 cm), W. 5 5 ⁄8 in. (14.3 cm), Diam. of
1
foot 2 ⁄4 in. (5.7 cm). The Metropolitan Museum of Art,
New York, Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry Collection,
Bequest of Dr. and Mrs. Roger G. Gerry, 2000
(2002.447.28)

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