Page 33 - Korean Buncheong Ceramics, Samsung Museum Collection (great book)

Buncheong Ware: the art of humor and unconventIonalIty

develoPMent of bunCheonG w are throuGh historiC al doCuMents
The few celadon kilns operating in the late Goryeo transitioned to making buncheong ware, with
the number of kilns increasing in the early Joseon. According to the Sejong sillok jiriji (Geographical
Appendix to the Annals of Sejong; 1424–32), there were 324 kilns in total, 139 for porcelain and
185 for stoneware, suggesting the rapid increase in production of buncheong ceramics throughout
the country soon after the establishment of the Joseon dynasty. The same source also indicates
that most of the kilns — 237 kilns, or 73 percent of the total — were located in the center and
south of the country, in the four major provinces: Gyeonggi (34 kilns), Chungcheong (61 kilns),
Gyeongsang ( 71 kilns), and Jeolla ( 71 kilns). 20
The rapid increase in the number of buncheong kilns between the late fourteenth and the
early fifteenth century reflects a surge in demand for buncheong ware from all levels of society
within a very short period of time. This growth did not last long, however. The changes in the
number of kilns in Gyeongsang Province are recorded in three official documents, Sejong sillok
jiriji, Gyeongsangdo sokchan jiriji (Supplement to the Geographical Appendix of Gyeongsang
Province), and Dongguk yeoji seungram (Augmented Survey of the Geography of Korea) (see table 1).
Sejong sillok jiriji shows a clear reduction in the number of kilns within some forty-five years,
from 1424, the year in which surveys of the kilns and of Joseon geography were begun, to 1469, when
Gyeongsangdo sokchan jiriji was completed. Moreover, the decline in the number of kilns producing
stoneware — that is, buncheong — was even steeper during the seventeen years between 1469 and
1486, the period in which Gyeongsangdo sokchan jiriji was compiled. In Gyeongsang Province, there
were seventy-one kilns by 1432, but just six by the late fifteenth century. As mentioned above, with the
establishment of the official court kilns of Bunwon about 1466, the palace and government offices
started using only porcelain made by these kilns, which directly contributed to the closure of many
buncheong kilns (while a few were converted to the manufacture of porcelain). 21

Table 1 Changes in the Number of Kilns in Gyeongsang Province, 1424–86
1424–32 1469 1478–86
type of Sejong number Gyeongsangdo number Dongguk yeoji
ceramics decreased decreased
sillok jiriji sokchan jiriji seungram
Porcelain 37 12 25 21 4
Stoneware 34 2 32 30 1

Earthenware - - - - 1

18