Page 46 - Catalogue of the Edward Morse collection of Japanese pottery MFA BOSTON

a6 " THE CATALOGUE
any feature in Japanese pottery worthy of note th'at is traceable to Korean
influence. The Kwannon and other forms in a hard, ivory-white glaze,
commonly attributed to Korea, are probably Chinese. The jars, and rarely
figures and plates, in a cream-white glaze, with a rough decoration in rich
brown, which the Japanese invariably designate as Korean, are regarded by
Dr. F. Hirth, of Pekin (with whom I had the opportunity of discussing the
matter in Berlin), as unquestionably Chinese. Indeed, the more one studies
authentic specimens of Korean pottery the more impressed he becomes
that, with the exception of the above-mentioned features, Korea gave to
Japan nothing beyond a number of industrious potters, who, in early
centuries, brought the lathe-turned mortuary pottery, and later the Mishima
decoration which the Japanese rapidly converted into a highly artistic
form.
It is to China that the Japanese, as well as all other nations, are
indebted for many of the methods of work and styles of decoration in por-
celain and pottery. Toshiro went to China in the twelfth century, Goro-
dayu Shonsui in the fifteenth century, and Gempin is said to have been a
Chinese fugitive and not a Korean. Korea was continually receiving, by
way of her inland sea and Manchuria, pottery and porcelain from China,
and these, readily finding their way to Japan from Korea, were naturally
believed to be Korean products.
The following ascribed dates to Korean examples have but little value.
Interviews with a number of intelligent Korean officials connected with the
embassy in Japan failed to shed any light on the question. I could not
find that any interest attached to the subject of antiquities. After pressing
an old Korean official for some information in regard to these matters,
"
he answered, somewhat pathetically, We are the only antiquities left in
Korea !

MORTUARY POTTERY (hard, gray, lathe-turned) (Case i)
The small collection of mortuary pottery was selected from a larger collection
made by Pierre Louis Jouy in Korea. These objects were found in burial mounds
in Torai, Urasan, and Taiku, north and west of Fusan, on the eastern side of the
Korean peninsula. The United States National Museum also possesses a selection
from the same collection, and in a description of it by Mr. Jouy, published by the
National Museum, he says, " Korea is one vast graveyard ; burial mounds and monu-
ments, of varying age and rich in archjeological interest, are a prominent feature of the
landscape. Although a tolerably thickly populated country, there are many sections
where the cemeteries occupy a quarter as much space as that used for agricultural
purposes." Associated with this pottery were " rings of copper heavily gilded, parts