Man has been paid the religious ceremonies to superhuman being from the primitive age to the present. Accordingly, the sacrificial offerings and religious dishes were taken as important, and the religious dishes, unlike other industrial products, have...
Man has been paid the religious ceremonies to superhuman being from the primitive age to the present. Accordingly, the sacrificial offerings and religious dishes were taken as important, and the religious dishes, unlike other industrial products, have the particular shape and artist feeling. In particular, the religious dishes made of white porcelain are connected with white porcelain in their character, f.e., its simplicity and neatness, and have a quantity of kinds, for they reflect abundantly our peoples' dai1y feeling and plastic sense in Chosen dynasty.
In this thesis, I have tried to study on that the advent of religious, dishes made of white porcelain has an inevitability or not in the historical background of Chosun dynasty that the Confucian style of religious ceremonies had been set and what kind of effect it has put on the development of white porcelain in Chosun dynasty, and therefore to find its unique plasticity. Religious fishes made of white porcelain had been continually manufactured from the early days of Chosun dynasty to the late and they are forming a mainstream in the field of white porcelain in Chosun dynasty with wine cup or writing material, for Confucianism, ruling their daily life such as policy, philosophy and ethics, etc., were the basic idea of its period.
Confucianism regards ceremony as essential and filial piety towards parents is so important that it was natural to pay homage to the late parents, and we can find that there are many purely white porcelains because white color is developed by dint of Confucian moral code that respects uprightness and integrity.
The characteristics of shape and pattern of religious, dishes made of white porcelain is as follows
Firstly, they are easily distinguished from other containers because of their higher stand, and have the adequate froms according to function, use and kinds of foods put in the religious dishes. Furthermore, we can see that there are many square shapes in white porcelains, which makes alive a dignity as a religious dish. And with regard to the whole form, the religious dish made of white porcelain in Chosun dynasty has a darely simplified form and seems to have a simple and neat figure compared with celadon in koryo dynasty having imitated the old bronze dish of China.
Secondly, with respect to pattern, it is a principle not to engrave the pattern on the surface of religious dish made of white porcelain, but we can see the various cases that craftmen had depicted the letter '祭' on its surface for distinguishing it from the others. But, nearly in the late period of Chosun dynasty, there are seen many cases that they en-graved the patterns using 'Chunghwa (pattern of flower painted with cobalt color)'. This pattern implies happiness, macrobiosis and riches and honors of man, which contains the patterns such as pattern depicted the letter '福', of '壽', of China grass, of plum tree, of lotus, of pomegranate, of grain of peach, of magnolia, of grape, of bamboo, of cloud, of crane, of dragon, of Taegeuk ( the Great Absolute ), of geometry, of concentric circle and of four trigram, etc.. But these are confined to wine cup, stand or tool used to make a shape on the rice cake. And they had used the skill to make open spaces on the surface of a porcelain only considering the aspect of function such as censer, or to give a variation on the height of stand. The attached pattern is generally confined to the simple for the purpose of making alive the rule and dignity as a religious dish made of porcelain. For example, there are patterns of saw-teeth and of ghost's face.
Accordingly, this seems to have an industrial art design informal and brave that we can find only in the white porcelain, for which has a unique characteristic as a religious dish with its simplicity as well as above shape, pattern and attached designs.
Therefore, I think that the style of Chosen dynasty, simple and neat, will serve as a plastic element towards the modern ceramic arts and, a development of making potteries, and we have to endeavor to reinvent the ceramic wares like the religious dish in Chosun dynasty which has a unique beauty of plasticity.