Page 125 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

Figure 3.9 Detail of catalogue 60, reverse

pot with a globular body, a large base, and a long neck that narrows at the top (cat. 60). As on
buncheong ceramics, however, the white slip brushed over much of the body makes a pleasing
decoration in itself, as well as presenting an arresting contrast to the dark clay body. This robust
bottle belongs to a group of Takeo Karatsu wares on which white slip is brushed over nearly the
entire vessel, iron pigment is used for the painted image, copper-green glaze accentuates certain
elements (such as the foliage), and a transparent glaze is applied over all. On one side of the
bottle is a large, contorted pine tree, roughly sketched and expressive; on the other side is a more
abstract image, possibly three rocks crowned with pine trees (fig. 3.9). The rapid, energetic brush-
work and the attractive splashes of color infuse the charmingly awkward-looking pine trees —
indeed the whole vessel — with vitality and presence.
The pine tree remains a popular motif on painted Takeo Karatsu ware throughout the Edo
period. Its appearance on Hizen stoneware can be traced back to the early products of the kilns
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of the Imari and Takeo regions, dating to between 1590 and 1610 (prior to the adoption of white slip
on Karatsu ware), on which iron-pigment designs were painted directly on the clay body. Like the
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pine tree motif itself, the decoration with copper green, a striking embellishment on Takeo Karatsu
ware, was not a revival of a buncheong vocabulary, as it does not appear in the earlier Korean
ceramic. Rather, the use of this glaze as a design element was undoubtedly inspired by the Oribe
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