Tea bowl inscribed with Korean poem, Japanese, 17th–18th century Stoneware (Hagi); gold lacquer repairs [770x624]

Gift of the Family of Fujii Takaaki, National Museum of Korea This “HAGI “ tea bowl was made in the early seventeenth century at the Hagi kilns in Yamaguchi Prefecture, located at the southern end of Honshu. The Hagi kilns were built by two skilled Korean potters, brothers Lee Jakgwang and Lee Gyeong, who were forcibly moved to Japan during the Imjin War (1592-1598), when Korea was invaded by the warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshi. Under Hideyoshi’s rule, thousands of Korean potters, farmers, and craftspeople were seized, traded, and forced into labor. The tea bowl’s story becomes even more intriguing when we read its inscribed poem. "개야 짖지 마라. 밤 사람이 모두 도둑인가. 자목지 호고려 님이 계신 곳에 다녀올 것이다. 그 개도 호고려의 개로다. 듣고 잠잠 하구나" (\*호고려 = 포로가 된 조선인) # Dog, stop barking. # Are people wandering around at night all thieves? # I shall pay a visit to where Ho-Koryŏ is (or Ho-Koryŏ will pay a visit). # This dog must be a Korean (Ho-Koryŏ) dog, too. # He has heard and fell silent. This poem is written in the Korean short verse form known as sijo. Koryŏ, the name of a dynasty that ruled on the Korean peninsula from the tenth to the fourteenth centuries, was a synonym for Korea in Japan. And it is possible that “ho” is intended to mean “little” — in other words, it may mean the voice of the poem is going to visit “Little Korea”, a settlement of Koreans in Japan, The Hagi corpus was comprised of elite items such as tea wares for the Mōri family, and Hagi potters are known to have produced replicas of classic Korean tea bowls. This particular bowl was fired with a yellowish glaze to approximate the warm golden color of Korean Ido tea bowls, which was traditionally likened to the colour of a loquat.

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