Page 25 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

The shortage of bronze, for which there was a far broader demand than for gold or silver,
posed an even more serious problem. After the founding of the Joseon, the government required
a considerable amount of bronze for military purposes, coins, and printing type. In addition, the
Joseon had adopted the tenets of Neo-Confucianism as the state’s ideology; metal, long the tradi-
tional material for instruments and vessels used in Confucian rites and ceremonies, was now in
greater demand than ever. With metal at a premium, the state was obliged to collect bronze vessels
from government bureaus; this measure was not sufficient to resolve the situation, however, and in
time all private use and manufacture of bronzes was prohibited. 8
The government made every effort to propose alternatives, as evinced by the following royal
decree from the Taejong sillok (Annals of Taejong [r. 1400–1418]): “Instead of metalware, every person
in the nation must use ceramics or lacquerware.” By dint of such government initiatives, cere-
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monial ware made of metal, like the pieces illustrated in Sejong sillok (Annals of Sejong [r. 1418–50];
fig. 1.4), came to be replaced by ceramics, including buncheong; this substitution lasted much
longer in rural areas. Produced in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century for rites held in the
provinces, an elephant-shaped vessel (cat. 3) exemplifies the close relationship between buncheong
and metal ceremonial ware. This sculpture bears a small, round bowl for offerings. Since there
were no elephants in the Joseon, the figure’s shape presumably copied elephant-shaped metalware
that had been used since ancient times. While ceremonial buncheong ware conforms to tradition
and convention, it also exhibits entirely new characteristics unique to it. Note, for example, the
short diagonal lines and humorous touches such as the turtles carved on the body. Ceremonial types
are generally conservative; the fact that buncheong replaced bronze vessels for these functions
emphasizes the seriousness of the shortage of metalware at that time.
Metalware provided a model not only for buncheong but also for porcelain, which was produced
from the late fifteenth century. A fifteenth-century bronze cup has two foliated handles attached
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symmetrically on the sides and a base that is narrow and recessed on the inside; the shape of the
vessel, its handles, and its base display the texture and sharp contours of metalwork (fig. 1.5).
Similar features appear on a porcelain cup made in 1466 (fig. 1.5) and on an early sixteenth-century
buncheong cup (fig. 1.5, cat. 4). The restrictions placed on metalware in the early Joseon dynasty
invigorated the demand for and production of buncheong ware, and the country’s economic pros-
perity further spurred its development. It should be noted that the stylistic influence of metalware
on buncheong ceramics can be found in everyday tableware as well as in ritual ware; in certain
cases this influence continued into the sixteenth century.

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