Only produced during the first two hundred years of the Korean Joseon Dynasty (1392 to 1897), buncheong ware began as ceremonial pottery for royalty and the upper class to mark major life events. At birth, for example, placenta jars contained the umbilical cord and placenta of the royal infant and, after death, epitaph tablets were buried with the body.[1] Meant to accompany the dead into the afterlife, these tablets possessed basic biographical information about the deceased and functioned as an introduction card for the spirit. While most buncheong pottery contained script, others were decorated with designs and – in some cases – drawings of elephants and tortoises to symbolize longevity.[2] As time progressed, buncheong ware became popular among the middle class and eventually the mass populace, resulting in its decline around the sixteenth century as it no longer held social prestige.[3]
Works Referenced
Lee, Soyoung. Art of the Korean Renaissance, 1400-1600. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009. 39.
Lee, Soyoung, and Jeon Seung-Chang. Korean Buncheong Ceramics from Leeum, Samsung Museum of Art. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011. 50.
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[1] Lee, 39.
[2] Lee and Seung-Chang, 50.
[3] Lee, 39.
[1] Lee, 39.
[2] Lee and Seung-Chang, 50.
[3] Lee, 39.
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