Bowl with Fish and Waves in Relief (1200s): Art, History and Details

Bowl with Fish and Waves in Relief (1200s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

The museum's open-access catalogue describes the work:

As early as the 800s, the practice of drinking tea and wine became an important part of elite leisure culture in Korea. A wide bowl like this example was especially suitable for drinking powdered tea shaved from a compressed tea cake, the most commonly enjoyed type during the Goryeo period. While the inlaid image of bloomed chrysanthemums decorate the outer wall, that of fish swimming in waves in relief appear on the inner wall of this tea bowl. Such elaborate design tells us that tea wares then were aesthetically invested objects of luxury.

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with Fish and Waves in Relief
• Date: 1200s
• Culture: Korea, Goryeo dynasty (918–1392)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: pottery
• Dimensions: Diameter of base: 3.8 cm (1 1/2 in.); Overall: 6.9 x 16.1 cm (2 11/16 x 6 5/16 in.)
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1921.642

A detail from the museum

Kangjin and Buan kilns in Jeolla province were the two major production centers for celadon wares during the Goryeo period (918–1392).

Collection credit

Gift of John L. Severance

Further reading listed by the museum

• Goryeo Dynasty: Korea's Age of Enlightenment, 918-1392. San Francisco: Asian Art Museum, 2003.
• Lee, Young-hee. "The Study on Techniques and their Interrelations among Craft Arts of the Goryeo Dynasty [고려시대 공예기법 연구 상호관련성을 중심으로]." Misulsa hakbo 22 (2004): 133–170.
• Jang, Nam-won. "The Tea and Celadons during the Goryeo Dynasty : Considering the Celadon Tea Utensils [고려시대 茶文化와 靑瓷]." Misulsa nondan (2007): 129–162.

View the collection record

See the museum's photographs and full catalogue entry. Catalogue text is reproduced from the Cleveland Museum of Art's open-access data, with HTML formatting removed. This object and its supplied image are designated CC0.