Now, let’s take a look around the exhibition room which displays genuine Goryeo celadon.
This is the Celadon History Room, where we can learn about the history of celadon.
People fist began to make and use pottery in Korea about 10,000 years ago in the Neolithic Age. Generally speaking, the pottery used in the Neolithic Age is characterized by a sharp body with a comb pattern or a V-shaped bottom. As people settled near rivers or beaches where there was a lot of sand, they made pottery with a V-shaped bottom so it could be inserted into sand easily for stability.

From the Neolithic Age until the North South States Period, people used viscous clay to make pottery or earthenware. Because clay is the main raw material of pottery, if the baking temperature rises above 1,000~1,100℃, the pottery collapses. So, they baked their pottery at a temperature below 1,000℃, resulting in lower strength.
On the other hand, from the Goryeo Dynasty onwards, Goryeo’s celadon and Joseon’s Buncheong (grayish-blue-powered celadon) and white porcelain were mainly made of a stone powder called kaolin (China clay) and glazed. These types of pottery are called porcelain. In Korea, we generally use the term dojagi, a Korean composite of dogi, which means ‘pottery’ in English, and jagi, which means ‘porcelain’ in English.

China was the first country in the world to produce glazed ‘porcelain’ made with stone powder, some 2,000 years ago, while Korea’s Goryeo Dynasty began to make porcelain about 1,000 years ago. China and Korea are the two only countries to have a tradition of making porcelain for more than 1,000 years.