15∼17세기 관요 백자 명문의 변화와 그 배경

Abstract

The royal kilns were set up under the auspices of the Saongwon (司饔院) in order to exclusively produce white porcelain used by the royal family. Following the establishment in 1467 of the royal kiln at Gwangju, Gyeonggi province, the production of white porcelain for the royal family was incorporated into the state run crafts production system. Inscriptions comprising the characters ‘cheon (天), ji (地), hyeon (玄), hwang (黃)’ or ‘left (左), right (右) (+ kanji (sexagenary cycle, 干支) characters and a number)’ were used on white porcelain produced at the royal kilns for a certain period of time, but then gradually went out of use. This paper examines how these inscriptions were made, changed and went out of use from a historical perspective. First, ‘天·地·玄·黃’ inscriptions were made on white porcelains produced in the royal kilns from 1467, when the kilns were first established, to the 1560s. In the Joseon period, such characters were used to make classifications according to certain categories. Thus, it is assumed that ‘天·地·玄·黃’ came to be used because the Saongwon wished to establish a unity in the production, inventory, receipt of delivery and distribution of the white porcelain. Second, ‘左·右’ inscriptions were used from the 1560s to 1690s. Kanji characters were later added at around 1606, and numbers came to be added gradually in 1626~1627. ‘左·右’ indicated which team had made the porcelain, the kanji characters marked the year of manufacture, and the numbers indicated the month and day of manufacture. In other words, these inscriptions contained information about the production of the white porcelain. The transition in the nature of inscriptions used on the white porcelain, from ‘天·地·玄·黃’ to ‘左·右’, was closely related to the management of the royal kilns. As many problems began to appear in the management of the royal kilns, the government strengthened management at the production stage in order to clarify responsibilities. This led to the gradual use of the ‘左·右 (+ kanji characters and number)’ inscriptions. Finally, ‘左·右’ inscriptions no longer appear on white porcelain from the 1690s. This seems to have been caused by an improvement in the quality of the porcelain and a change in the management of the royal kiln, which shifted from a state run to privately run crafts production system. Thus, with the strengthened supervision of the royal kilns, they were able to ease regulations on the 左 and 右 production teams, causing the inscriptions to gradually disappear.