As a potter of traditional white porcelain ware, Kim Jeong-ok’s position is unique in that his family has never abandoned the porcelain-making legacy that his ancestor, Kim Chwi-jeong, began approximately 200 years ago. However, it was Kim Jeong-ok’s grandfather who gained the nationwide reputation for his family. Recognized as a master potter by the Joseon court under King Gojong, his grandfather was sent to the city of Gwangju in Gyeonggi province, where the Joseon government was running a number of kilns to manufacture quality ceramic ware. By the time 40-year-old Kim Un-hi was sent to a government-run kiln nearly 100 years ago, he was already a top potter in the hamlet of Gwaneum in Mungyeong. His new workplace, the Bunwon Kiln in Gwangju, was the last kiln operated by the Joseon court to produce superior ceramic ware for exclusive use by the royal households. Here he fashioned white porcelain bowls and jars, and excelled all other potters. The glorious era of Joseon’s white ceramics, however, sadly came to a close in 1883 when the Joseon court decided to privatize their kilns and, subsequently, cheap mass-produced Japanese porcelain began to flood the kingdom. The breathtaking natural beauty of Joseon earthenware, the serene image of a solitary moon shining softly over a gentle hill, that had fascinated Joseon people for several hundred years gradually faded away along with the fated dynasty. Seeing the tragic end of the era and Joseon white porcelain, Kim Un-hi came back to his birthplace as a poor, frustrated artisan who lost his honorary title of Master Potter of Gwanyo (‘government-operated kiln’). Thankfully, however, his return gave his hometown a new opportunity to reflect on its years as the center of Joseon ceramics. The works he made during this period for the masses displayed outstanding features that one can only expect from a leading gwanyo potter, in which artistic imagination is interlaced with practicality to create dynamism and freedom of expression. Another misfortune afflicted Kim Un-hi when the Japanese colonial rulers revealed their intention to dominate the Joseon Dynasty’s ceramics industry by introducing a license system for private ceramics shops and kilns. Kim Un-hi had no choice but to close his workshop and, sadly, he died soon after at the age of 70. When Korea liberated from its colonial heads of state in 1945, his son, Kim Gyo-su, was able to rekindle the kiln that had been falling into ruin since his death. It was an instant success. The seizure of brassware by the Japanese invaders during the colonial period and the withdrawal of Japanese ceramics merchants from the Korean market after the 1945 emancipation meant there was a huge demand for porcelain. The booming ceramics market in the1950s resulted in great prosperity for Kim Gyo-su and his family. In the following decades, however, Kim’s family suffered from a huge drop in demand for traditional ceramic ware, a phenomenon caused by the arrival of cheap galvanized iron ware and plastic goods. The thriving ceramic workshops of Mungyeong began to close one after another, until only the Kim’s was left. Ironically, what helped Kim keep the family business going were the Japanese tourists who flocked to Korea following the 1965 summit talk between the two countries. These Japanese tourists arrived in droves at his tiny workshop hidden in a remote valley, and were amazed by what they believed was an incarnation of Ido Chawan, one of their most admired national treasures. Ido Chawan (or Jeongho Dawan in Korean) is a rustic tea bowl Japanese soldiers found during the Imjin Waeran (The War of the Ceramics) in the Joseon Dynasty. The tea bowl was later possessed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi, one of the most powerful feudal lords in Japanese history. He was so amazed by its graceful beauty that he only used it for special ceremonious meetings with powerful warlords. Since then, a number of Ido Chawan have been designated as national treasures across Japan, including one, it is said, that its owner would not sell even for the Osaka Castle, home of Hideyoshi himself. ‘Kizaemon’ Ido Japanese National Treasure The deep color of loquat, the deformed but dignified body that never loses balance, the potter’s fingerprint at its waist, the coarsely-wrought foot with mottled cream, freely-flowing lines and the maehwa design on the surface define the unique aestheticism of Ido Chawan, in which perfect harmony is achieved from its disharmonious parts. Opinions vary, even among well-informed scholars, as to the origins and purpose of the wonderful ceramic called Ido Chawan. Some say that it was used as a rice bowl by Buddhist monks, while others argue that it had a religious function. Still, many others insist that it was a tea bowl. Whatever its use, Kim Jeong-ok is a descendent of the brilliant Joseon potter who created this and many other magnificent works of art. Born as the third son of Kim Gyo-su, Kim Jeong-ok learned how to use clay and the potter’s wheel at a young age under his father’s tutelage. When he was 18, he decided to continue the family tradition and work with clay for the rest of his life. People praised his pieces and said that his father, a master potter, had taught him well. However, following his father’s death when Kim Jeong-ok was only 32 years old, business dwindled as both his Korean and Japanese customers suddenly stopped visiting the workshop. A time of discouragement and frustration ensued, after which he opened a new workshop at the side of a road in Mungyeong, hoping that traffic and increased exposure would help bring back customers. By this time, he made everything he could to eke out a living, from tea bowls and buncheong ware, to white porcelain and even fancy flowerpots. But his time of difficulty continued, and he realized that he needed to win prizes in national craft competitions to gain a similar reputation as his father’s. With high hopes and lofty expectations, he entered a tea bowl and a buncheong jar into the 1986 National Folk Craft Show, but unfortunately they did not gain any interest from the critics View the master's works