Mungyeong Tea Bowl Festival Opens May 3
By Kim Ji-soo
Staff Reporter
A 10 day festival featuring Korean's traditional teal bowls will be held in Mungyeong, North Gyeongsang Province, May 3-12.
While Icheon in Gyeonggi Province is more popular for ceramics and pottery, Mungyeong has long been considered central to traditional ceramic making.
Boasting a 500-year history in ceramics making and the tea bowls in particular, the region is home to 23 traditional kilns.
The annual festival, which has grown as one of the representative festivals in North Gyeongsang Province, is in its 10th year.
For this year's festival, ceramic artists from 18 nations will take part in the festival, organizers said.
``Mungyeong is known for center of traditional ceramics making. There are seven ceramic masters in the nation and three are in Mungyeong,'' said Shing Hyun-kook, the mayor of the city.
``I don't know how they do it elsewhere, but we do it traditionally,'' said Kim Jung-ok, head of the organization committee for the festival with much pride. He was speaking in a conference held in downtown Seoul Wednesday.
Kim is a designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property and head of Youngnam Kiln, whos family has been making ceramics for the past seven generations. Kim is one of the three artisans the mayor mentioned. The other two artisans of Mare Lee Hak-cheon and Cheon Han-bong.
Mungyeong is known for using a mix of sand and soil and burning pine trees to fuel the kilns. Most in the nation use gasoline-fueled fire. The advantage of pine-tree-fueled kilns lies in the various colors they can produce, Kim said.
During the 10-day festival that will be held at Mungyeong ceramics exhibition hall and its surrounding area, visitors have the chance to experience making ceramics.
There will also be an auction to sell ceramics and pottery from Mungyeong's representative kilns every day at 3 p.m. during the festival. Visitors can also have a chance to buy powdered tea.
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