A Life Devoted to Goryo Porcelain

After the rain stopped, the spring has come soundlessly. A gentle breeze blows just enough to open the blossoms. Whenever spring comes, though it visits us every year, it stirs up our emotions and makes us excited.  

When the bus we were riding on to meet the interviewee had passed through the overcrowded urban area, the peaceful scenery of the countryside came to us. The bus took us to our destination, Mudeung kiln, located in Yeonsan-dong, Pyongdong, Gwangsan District, Gwangju. Mudeung kiln is well-known to the villagers as a “celadon factory.” Stepping inside of Mudeung kiln, we can see the 4 buildings of work places and a separate house used both for dwelling and as an exhibition hall.

The master of this place, Jo Ki-jeong, welcomed us with open arms. He is a 68-year-old gentleman with gray hair. He has devoted half of his life to the restoration of Goryo porcelain. Therefore, he was designated in 1986 as intangible cultural property No.5 of Gwangju. We started our conversation over green tea. The teacup was celadon ware. Like the teacup, as the culture of enjoying green tea has been widely spread, people have become interested in pottery, especially in aesthetically pleasing products. 

We can take account of the Goryo celadon pottery, which is called Cheongja in Korean, one of the most traditional potteries of Korea. It was developed, and flourished, during the Goryo dynasty, from 918 to 1392 AD. It originated in China and then was fully developed and perfected by Korean artisans. Its mysterious color has frequently been a theme of literary works: some depicted its aesthetic color as the sky after the heavy rainfall; others said it resembled the color of deep water. Likewise, many artists from the past to the present have worshiped its color, though its color is not yet perfectly restored, despite the strenuous efforts of many ceramists trying to bring back its original color. But today, we sit face to face with this gentleman, who is well-known for his restoration of Cheongja.

He was born in Gwangju in 1937. After he graduated from elementary, middle and high schools in this region, he entered the College of Law, Chonnam National University in 1957. As we already know, Korea became rapidly industrialized after the war. Accordingly, it took on importance to collect information on traditional products and to understand their tradition, as the people then wanted Korea to be rich and powerful. This became a trend, appealed to public opinion and gained popularity among the students. He voluntarily joined the club, the Association for the Research of Korea. As a member of the club, he searched every corner of the South and North Jeolla province. Through this work, he found that broken pieces of porcelain were scattered all over this region. Thus he realized that the making of the porcelain once flourished in this region. Moreover he participated in the unearthing of Cheongja at Haenam and Gangjin and then the aesthetic aura allured him. However, at first he collected some data on Cheongja for people who devoted his or her life to the restoration of Cheongja. Heartbreakingly, he couldn’t find anyone! So he decided to devote himself to the job, the restoration of Cheongja. It changed his whole life. Even then he was a student of law who was preparing for a state examination.   

The job, however, was not easy because there were no written records of making the glaze. From the beginning to the end, he had to study it by himself. It was a series of painful days. He ran between the valleys to search for clues. At last he found glaze-like stuff at a collapsed old kiln. Grinding it to fine powder, he put it on the primary baked porcelain. After several days of repetition, he found the aesthetic color at last. That is how he got a reputation as a master of Cheongja.

But, before long he had to face the controversy over his theory of the glaze of Cheongja. There was an interesting theory that different enamels made of lye of trees makes different types of the porcelain. However, he proclaimed that the difference in porcelain color can be determined by the thickness of it or the rate of iron in it, not by the type of enamel itself. In brief, according to his explanation, if a spot gets more enamel on it, it becomes a green color; if not, it becomes white.

Then, how does Master Jo evaluate his past life? He opens his mouth after calm reminiscence. “All of my works are precious to me. What I really want is to represent perfect porcelain. The progress of my work has been accomplished by only 90%. I should complete the last 10%. Therefore, I will devote the rest of my life to finding the shape, as well as the color, which can conjure the spirits of ceramists. Besides, I will make porcelain that follows the trends of this era. The recent interest in good health and well-being is reflected in my recent works, but they are still related to the Goryo porcelain. Nowadays I developed some porcelain made from Cheongiseok (a state-of-the-art mineral material). It is said to emit FIR which is good for the human body and for getting rid of the smells.”

He has been involved in porcelain for about 40 years. Though he has won lots of prizes from the authorities, he has never been satisfied; he dreams of getting closer to the stage of perfection. Therefore he is still working on the study of pottery, as a pioneer in the new field of pottery. Like his pen name Gohyun (古賢), which means the past and present, he makes various efforts to bring back Cheongja, which is regarded as a property of the past, to the present public.