Status of Intangible Cultural Heritage in North Korea s Ceramics Sector

This article is about the tradition of Goryeo celadon, which is preserved as an intangiblecultural heritage of great historical, artistic and academic value in North Korea. The works,authors, and production methods of the Goryeo celadon reproduced in North Korea wereanalyzed and the North Korean contemporary white porcelain was used as a comparison. Inparticular, this study analyzed the similarity between the pattern and the decoration techniqueamong pottery of different authors or production periods.The person in charge of the transmission of Goryeo celadon in North Korea is a creator andartist belonging to the pottery group of Mansudae Creative Works.They are divided into 1st generation and 2nd generation according to the period of activity.The first generation set the foundation for reproducing Goryeo celadon in North Korea. Duringthe Japanese colonial period, they entered ceramics at the ceramic factories in Pyongyang andKaesong , where the foundations were established. Since the 1970s, the second generation hasbeen systematically trained at Pyongyang Art School and North Korea s Higher Arts College.The characteristics of the celadon produced by them are celadon green and inlaid techniques,the core traditions of Goryeo celadon. The celadon produced in the 1990s and 2000s changedthe white porcelain pattern of the late Joseon Dynasty with the inlay technique or destroyedthe proportions of the pattern materials. The celadon produced by Mansudae Creation Works creators for overseas promotion and sales, and exhibited at the China Ceramics Exhibition in2018, confirmed the characteristics of modern North Korean celadon, which is outside thetradition inheritance category. In particular, the shape of hieroglyphic celadon covering plantsand animals appeared.On the other hand, modern white porcelains in North Korea stood out in coloring decorationdepicting the material realistically based on the white clay foundation. The decorative subject of the white porcelain include Mangyongdae which is Kim Il-sung s birthplace, Baekdusan ,the sacred place of the North Korean Revolution, and the Communist Party Memorial Hall, ahistoric site related to the revolution. These patterns symbolize the historicity and orthodoxy ofthe North Korean system, thus reflecting specific intentions of production.North Korea s art creation method is collective production where several people share rolesto complete a work. The same is true of pottery production. This was confirmed by sharingthe same form among artists or works with different production periods or analyzing a singleform of work reproduced over time. In addition, the similarity in the author s signatures ofthe creators of Mansudae Creative Works may be expressed as a representative of a group ofcreative units rather than an individual artist s notation or according to a specific need. Theartist s signature shows that the subject of art creation is the state, the purpose of which is toembody Juche ideology, and the artist shows one aspect of North Korean art creation thatfunctions as an engineer who provides skilled skills in art creation.However, the recent status of reproducing North Korean Goryeo celadon, which was passeddown and preserved as an intangible cultural heritage event in 2012, has been limited to itsreality due to the lack of inflow of North Korean celadon reproduced over the past decade. Inorder for South Korea and North Korea to pass on and preserve the field of intangible culturalheritage in the future, first of all, the full-scale and systematic exchange of ceramics, that is, theworks and the artists, must be preceded.has been limited to itsreality due to the lack of inflow of North Korean celadon reproduced over the past decade. Inorder for South Korea and North Korea to pass on and preserve the field of intangible culturalheritage in the future, first of all, the full-scale and systematic exchange of ceramics, that is, theworks and the artists, must be preceded.has been limited to itsreality due to the lack of inflow of North Korean celadon reproduced over the past decade. Inorder for South Korea and North Korea to pass on and preserve the field of intangible culturalheritage in the future, first of all, the full-scale and systematic exchange of ceramics, that is, theworks and the artists, must be preceded.