Korean Ceramics Book

Very charming story of how a japanese collector came to love korean ceramics.

Korean ceramics book.

This is one of the best books on korean ceramics in english. It does however cover contemporary korean ceramic artists. Korean ceramic history begins with the oldest earthenware dating to around 8000 bc. In the early stoneware riutual vessels used in korea and japan were very similar due to a shared culture.

Through a continued mutual exchange with china korea developed a ceramics style that captured the korean spirit. The book is written from the viewpoint of the different worlds korea experienced from pre history to the present day with the changing needs for and utility of the ceramics themselves. It gives a behind the scenes view of how influenced the japanese were by korean ceramics. Book is a little bit on the small side and generally leaves out the early history of korean ceramics beginning only in the koryo period except for one or two examples.

When there is decoration it covers less of the vessel and takes either the form of the incised motifs of the previous period or applied clay bands. Influenced by chinese ceramics korean pottery developed a distinct style of its own with its own shapes such as the moon jar or maebyeong version of the chinese meiping vase and later styles of painted decoration. Korean ceramic trends had an influence on japanese pottery and porcelain.