Stories of Clay: Discovering Chosŏn Korean Potters in Tokugawa Japan

The Imjin War was one of the largest conflicts of the sixteenth century world and was fought between Japan, China, and Korea on the Korean peninsula after the armies of the Japanese ruler, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, attempted to conquer Chosŏn-Dynasty Korea between 1592 and 1598. As a result, hundreds of thousands of Koreans were displaced throughout East Asia and beyond. Hideyoshi's armies took many captives to Japan, including Korean potters and their families. There are few written records about these potters, yet they founded many of the major Japanese ceramic traditions that continue to the present day.Who were the potters? What were their lives like? What types of pottery did they produce, and what was their legacy in Japan?Combining the study of heirloom ceramic pieces and excavated sherds, together with documentary evidence, "Stories of Clay" is an online exhibition that traces the experiences of different groups of Korean potters in Japan after the Imjin War. Concentrating on the first half of the seventeenth century and examining elite as well as everyday items, this exhibition is an output of the European Research Council Horizon 2020 project "Aftermath of the East Asian War of 1592-1598" (AFTERMATH). It contains the AFTERMATH team’s original research, considered together with current scholarship, in a digital format that is designed to be accessible to experts and non-specialists alike. The exhibition challenges the impression that tea wares were the most important output of the Japan-based Korean potters, and contributes to the ongoing art historical reassessment of Korean influence on Japanese ceramics. The potters and their complex relationships with their Japanese patron-captors also shed light on the regional aftermath of the devastating Imjin War.