The museum itself is devoted to one of Korea's most treasured art forms, Koryo Celadon ceramic. Celadon is a type of glaze commonly known as "green glaze" originally developed in China. Most Koryo celadon is a thin, smooth, translucent gray-green and is quite distinctive. The nobles of the Koryo dynasty obtained fine ceramics as luxury ware, even for them, both as "emblems of status and objects for aesthetic appreciation and enjoyment."

Manufacturing techniques were developed and refined throughout the Koryo dynasty (A.D. 918-1392) and resulted in a level of artistic achievement recognized throughout Asia. Koryo green-glazed ceramics were commented on by one Chinese official as "first under heaven." In fact, early Korean green-glaze ceramics resemble the renowned Yue ware (from the Kingdom of Yue, southeastern China, eighth through tenth centuries). According to Louise Allison Cort, Associate Curator of Ceramics at the Smithsonian Institution's Freer Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C.

By the mid-twelth century [Koryo potters] had begun to make their own significant contributions to ceramic design and technology. Drawing on bronze vessels inlaid with silver wire and lacquer inlaid with mother-of-pearl, they filled carved or incesed designs with specially formulated black and white inlays to create patterns beneath the green glaze. They painted with copper pigment, which turned red beneath the green glaze; Chinese potters later borrowed the technique. Recent research suggests that Korean potters' use of iron pigment for underglaze painting may also have preceded such decoration in Song dynasty China (960-1279).

Because the original potters had distilled their technique into "a narrow range of materials to achieve great subtlety of expression and nuance of color," it was extremely difficult for Haegang to accurately recreate the techniques used 500 years before. In addition, in 1911 many of the sites of the original Koryo kilns (over 400 kilns and 35 locales have since been identified) were under the control of the Japanese and were inaccessible and the raw materials were unavailable. Nevertheless, through diligent study of various techniques including inlaid carving, glaze-making, and correspondence with other artists, Haegang was able to develop techniques for the manufacture of Koryo celadon ceramics in the modern age.

In 1960 he was designated a living national treasure.

Excellent examples of Koryo Celadon ceramics are available at the Wonkwang University Museum web site:

http://www.wonkwang.ac.kr/~english/museum/celadon.html

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