Vessels of Distinction

Ceramics in the early Joseon were ubiquitous, whether as vessels for everyday life or for special purposes, such as burial or Confucian rites. A variety of ceramics were made during the early Joseon period, but the two principal types were porcelain and buncheong ware. A distinctive kind of stoneware produced only in the first two hundred years of the Joseon dynasty, buncheong evolved from the inlaid celadon of the fourteenth century (during the Goryeo dynasty). Buncheong ware was initially used by royalty and the upper class, including as ceremonial vessels for burial. Regional kilns were required to present their best products to the central government. With the introduction of porcelain, however, buncheong's consumer base spread to nearly all social classes.

Porcelain was a highly restricted and coveted luxury item. Spurred by Chinese imports and know-how, kilns devoted to manufacturing the highest quality white porcelain and cobalt-decorated porcelain for the court (known as Bunwon kilns) was established near the capital around 1460. By the sixteenth century, the demand for porcelain became widespread, and regional kilns produced porcelain for local consumption. In the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, alongside China and the Islamic world, Korea was a participant in an international revolution in ceramics—the rise and dominance of porcelain—which would later spread to Japan and Europe. Whereas porcelain from these other parts of the world was actively traded, Joseon porcelain, throughout the five hundred years of the dynasty, was made essentially for the domestic market.

See "Chosôn Punch'ông Ware: Between Celadon and Porcelain" or "In Pursuit of White: Porcelain in the Chosôn Dynasty, 1392–1910" on the Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History to learn more.

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