Page 136 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

distinctive shape ties them to Korean prototypes, in particular the drum-shaped buncheong bottles
dating to the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. The later Japanese examples look like the earlier
Korean bottles cut in half. The cross certainly refers to Christianity, though the exact nature of the
connection and the function of these unusual bowls have yet to be identified. 45
In early Joseon Korea, stoneware decorated with white slip had developed as an alternative to
porcelain, yet its production ceased once the manufacture of porcelain expanded geographically
and socially. In Edo Japan, in contrast, stoneware with white slip flourished alongside the rise and
dominance of porcelain. This was especially true in Hizen Province, the center of porcelain manu-
facture, located in Kyushu, the island to which the majority of the Korean potters had been brought
following the Imjin Wars. Also during the Joseon, there existed a paradigm of center versus
periphery, with porcelain at first produced exclusively at the Bunwon kilns near the capital, Hanyang
(today’s Seoul), whereas buncheong was made in the regions. In a second phase, porcelain manu-
facture spread beyond the center to every region. In Japan, however, Kyushu, not Edo (today’s
Tokyo), was the heart of both porcelain and stoneware production.

Figure 3.14 Semioblong bowl with cross decoration. Japanese, Edo period (1615–1868); 19th century.
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Stoneware with inlaid design (probably Seto ware), H. 3 in. ( 7.6 cm), W. 5 ⁄2 in. (14 cm), D. 4 ⁄4 in. (10.8 cm).
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Colman, 1893 (93.1.125)
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