Bowl with White-slip Decorations (1500s–1600s): Art, History and Details

Bowl with White-slip Decorations (1500s–1600s) is in the Cleveland Museum of Art collection.

The work and its context

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

This type of wide-mouthed bowl was used every day in Korea, not exclusively for tea drinking. But when it was introduced to Japan around the early 1500s, its imperfect appearance, which evokes the aesthetics of wabi-sabi, caused it to be repurposed as a tea bowl. Korean tea bowls were circulated as a item of foreign luxury among Japanese military elites. Many Korean potters were abducted during the Japanese invasions (1592–98). Some settled there, and ended up leading the development of ceramic industry in Japan.

Object facts

• Title: Bowl with White-slip Decorations
• Date: 1500s–1600s
• Culture: Korea, Joseon dynasty (1392–1910)
• Type: Ceramic
• Technique: glazed stoneware
• Collection: Korean Art
• Department: Korean Art
• Accession number: 1986.83

A detail from the museum

This type of humble tea bowl was highly praised among Japanese collectors for its imperfect beauty.

Collection credit

Edward L. Whittemore Fund

Further reading listed by the museum

• Turner, Evan H. “The Year in Review for 1986.” The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art 74, no. 2 (1987): 38–79.
• Yi, Jong-bong. “The Production of Ceramics in Gijang and Its Significance in the Joseon Dynasty [조선시대 기장지역의 도자기 생산과 의미].” Hanguk minjok munhwa (2009): 3–38.
• Jeong, Dong-ju. From Joseon Rice Bowl to Yido Tea Bowl [조선 막사발과 이도다완]. Paju: Hangil ateu, 2012.

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.