CHAPTER VI.

COREA.

Geographical Position.--Successive Conquests.--Its Independent Art.--Confused Opinions regarding it.--Its Porcelain.--Decoration.

[Illustration: Fig. 107.--Old Corean Earthen-ware Five-handled Jar. Yellow on Green. (A. A. Vautine & Co.)]

To the north-east of China, across the Yellow Sea, and adjoining the Chinese province of Shengking, lies the peninsula of Corea. Situated between China and Japan, it was alternately under the domination of its more powerful neighbors, and has given, in its ceramic productions, abundant evidences of their sway. At first its works were attributed to Japan, from which country they were carried to Europe. Further inquiry led to the discovery that Corea had an independent artistic existence, and that, while borrowing from either side of it, it imparted to both China and Japan the secrets it had mastered in the art of painting porcelain. The confusion regarding Corean ceramics is entirely due to the commercial intercourse between it and its neighbors, whose styles it adopted and occasionally mingled. Its wares were also sent into their markets. It long ago ceased to produce any kind of porcelain.

Describing some specimens of Corean porcelain, Julliot, a dealer of the last century, speaks of “the fine grain of its beautiful white paste, the attractive lightness and softness of its dead red, the velvet of its bright-green and dark sky-blue colors.” The decoration consists of conventional forms, either floral or animal. The peacock, pheasant, and dragon are met with. The colors are limited to red, black, gold, and pale shades of green and yellow, and the glaze is less vitreous than either the Japanese or Chinese. The Coreans adapted the decoration to the destination of the work. The pieces with Japanese ornamentation were intended for the markets of Japan, those with Chinese for China. On some of the pieces the styles are mixed, Chinese figures being accompanied by Japanese marks, or _vice versa_. Many of the pieces display very fine workmanship and simplicity of design. Finding their way to Europe in the cargoes of Dutch traders, they were highly valued by collectors, and for a long time served as models to both French and German artists. Their simple style and the chaste employment of a few colors rendered them peculiarly liable to kindle the emulation of unpracticed European decorators.

[Illustration: Fig. 108.--Corean Porcelain. (W. L. Andrews Coll.)]

[Illustration: Fig. 109.--Corean Porcelain; Persian Decoration.]

[Illustration: Yebis. Shiou-ro. Bis-jamon.

Benten. Tossi-toku. Daikoku. Hotei.

Fig. 110.--Picnic of the Household Gods of Japan.]