tea bowl, unknown maker from Korea

Archive Label 2003:
The term punch’ong literally means “powder green” and refers to a variety of wares made during the early Choson dynasty, in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Though mainly mass produced as rice bowls for commoners, punch’ong wares were also appreciated by the ruling class.

In the late fifteenth century, Japanese tea connoisseurs began to admire the simple and coarse qualities of punch’ong vessels. The rapid decoration of these bowls with rice straw brushes produced coarse linear effects that suggest speed and energy. The bowls often have fingerprints and other careless marks that suggest a lack of artifice or naturalness. Japanese tea connoisseurs esteemed such qualities. They created silk covers and elegant wooden boxes for prized bowls. They also gave them poetic titles and keep records of when and with whom they were used. Though the Japanese tried to reproduce the spontaneous qualities of these wares, they could never achieve a true likeness.