JAR, Blue-and-white porcelain with grass design, Joseon Dynasty (1392–1897 CE)
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This piece is an 18th-century blue-and-white porcelain jar from the Buninri official kiln of the Joseon Dynasty. It features a harmonious oval shape with a gently rounded body and a stable, straight neck, adorned with a grass motif that encircles the shoulder. The delicate interplay of light and shadow on the softly rounded jar, along with the exquisite balance of pale blue and white porcelain, creates a poetic ambiance. The muted light blue hue reflects the scarcity of cobalt pigment during that era, adding to its charm.
The technique of underglaze painting was introduced to Korea from China during the Yuan Dynasty around the 15th century and was initially reserved for royal court offerings. From the 18th century onward, mass production became possible at official kilns, leading to the emergence of a style that elegantly simplifies floral motifs, as seen in this jar. The unadorned beauty of its form speaks volumes, distinguishing it from the ceramics of contemporary China and Japan. Historical records indicate that painters dispatched from the capital decorated the body with patterns during the late Joseon period. The stability of the pictorial composition and the restrained brushwork are characteristic features of the Buninri official kiln. The modest yet confidently rendered underglaze decoration intertwines Confucian restraint with the poetic essence of nature, presenting a unique world reflective of the Joseon spirit.
Subtle stains, known as crazing or rain leaks, are scattered throughout the body and beneath the glaze, revealing traces of nature that have gradually permeated over time. The rim exhibits careful, old repairs, while the base reveals a rustic sandy texture mixed with feldspar, reflecting not only the kiln's precision but also the artisanal background. Elements that might be perceived as flaws transform into expressions of wabi-sabi, resonating with the spirituality of the Joseon Dynasty.
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Its aesthetic placed emphasis not on surface splendor or technical virtuosity, but on forms and modes of being that quietly support a person’s inner life. Vessels and furniture were not simply tools for use; they may also have served as a kind of “place of self-cultivation,” ordering one’s daily conduct and state of mind. A plain jar in a scholar’s study, a simple desk, an undecorated brush rest—these were objects before the eye, but also mirrors of one’s posture and thought.
It is no accident that crafts from the Joseon period possess a presence that “does not say too much.” They were made to accompany the inner life—not to overwhelm the viewer, but to breathe alongside us and quietly restore a sense of order.
In white porcelain, for example, such “unintended phenomena” as the slight flow of glaze, variations in the clay body, or slight irregularities of form were accepted as they were. They embody a spirit of broad acceptance, unlike the modern aesthetic that treats perfection and uniformity as the highest values. This view reconsiders the boundaries between nature and human making, beauty and imperfection, object and mind; it is not an exaggeration to say that it existed beyond the frame of craft as the spirit of an age.
If we were to name it, the beauty of Joseon is not a “beauty of display” but a “beauty of resonance.” Its beauty lies not solely in the attraction of the object itself, but in the opportunity it gives us to reconsider how a person ought to be through the object. For this reason, an object must not speak too much; it must contain intervals, open space, and silence. I cannot help feeling that such thought runs beneath the making of these objects.
These values eventually crossed the sea and took deep root in Japan. In the world of chanoyu in particular, Joseon white porcelain and buncheong ware were already being used by the Momoyama period. Their simple, quiet character—different from the solemn grandeur of Chinese karamono—came to be embraced. The tea aesthetic of “clearing the mind before what does not speak” resonated deeply with the silence and imperfection held in Joseon vessels, nurturing a gaze that found in them the spirit of wabi-sabi.
With the arrival of the modern era, thinkers of the Mingei movement such as Yanagi Sōetsu and Kawai Kanjirō found in Joseon vessels “the power to purify a person” and “a form of life as it ought to be.” At a time when craft was being forgotten, these objects were welcomed not merely as old vessels but, with profound sympathy and respect, as presences reflecting a way of living itself.
When I, living in the present day, encounter the crafts of Joseon, I am moved once again by their stillness. They contain the thought of an age that asked how a person should live and how one should be. That thought has not faded; it continues to resonate clearly even now.
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Tax excluded. Import duties may apply. Shipping costs are calculated at checkout.
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