Old pottery found by treasure hunter, confiscated by government.

I've said before that there is very little I find more boring than pottery. However, I wanted to mention this little story briefly because of something I saw on samedi's blog. Since I can't comment on LiveJournal blogs, I might as well do it here since it's related to Jeollanam-do.



As he mentions, after a tip-off from Korea Beat, a treasure hunter recently found some pieces of celadon pottery from the Goryeo Dynasty. They were, however, confiscated by the Korean government in the interest of preserving these cultural properties. The article quotes a man saying that the pieces are from Daegu, and saemdi mentions confusion about seeing both Jeollanam-do and Daegu named. I just wanted to point out that Daegu-myeon (대구면) is kind of like a township in Gangjin county, Jeollanam-do. 전라남도 강진군 대구면. Gangjin is regionally famous for being the origin of lots of celadon pottery, called 청자, and Daegu-myeon is the site of some 188 of Korea's 400 kilns. One source says the pottery came to Korea from China in the year 900, but I have no idea if that's true, and the Gangjin county official site says that 80% of Korea's celadon treasures are from Gangjin. Daegu-myeon is also where the Gangjin Celadon Museum is located, in front of which is the annual Gangjin Celadon Culture Festival.


The festival's mascots. Now that's what I call a pothead, HAHAHAHAHA!

Anyway, when we last heard from Gangjin celadon it was taking part in a 6-city, 65-day US tour, which finished up earlier in the week. Here's a little introduction to the region's representative art form, via the Korean Embassy:

Gangjin celadon porcelain, a national treasure of Korea, is world famous for its transcendent beauty. During the Goryeo era in Korea, (918-1382 AD) approximately 80% of the celadon ceramic objects were made in royal kilns located in Gangjin City. Today, the ceramic artists of Gangjin continue to use centuries-old technique of firing vessels with glazes containing traces of iron ore to produce the unique greenish and grayish colors that, while remaining true to the ancient techniques, appeal to the aesthetic values and sensibilities of today’s ceramic enthusiasts. Gangjin City has held a number of successful Goryeo Celadon Exhibitions, including the main office of the UNESCO in Paris, as well as a six-city tour of Japan in 2007.