Descendant of Korean potters in Japan bridges cultures

Kazuteru Osako, a Korean-Japanese potter of Satsuma ware, speaks to the descendants of the Cheongsong Shim clan at Cheongsimjae in Gimpo's Daegot Village, July 9. Yonhap

By Ko Dong-hwan

• Published Jul 11, 2022 1:25 AM KST
• Updated Jul 12, 2022 3:16 PM KST

Korean-Japanese Satsuma ware master visits Korea to explore roots

By Ko Dong-hwan

GIMPO ― On July 9 at Cheongsimjae, a shrine in the remote countryside of Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, near the well-kept tombs of ancestors of the Cheongsong Shim clan, Kazuteru Osako, the 15th Chin Jukan, stood before more than 100 descendants of the clan who gathered to see him. Chin Jukan is a pseudonym handed down from generation to generation of potters in his family. Kazuteru had already met some of the descendants in May this year when he was invited for President Yoon Suk-yeol's inauguration at the National Assembly in Seoul. It was then that he decided to return in July to learn more about his roots.

Kazuteru, a Korean-Japanese potter who is a descendant of the Shim clan, was the first among the clan's descendants in Japan to visit the shrine in Korea after Shim Dang-gil, the origin figure of the clan's Japanese branch, was taken to Kagoshima Prefecture by the Japanese military as a prisoner of war in 1598.

“My father used to remind me in Japan that I need not feel lonely because I always have Korea watching my back,” the master craftsman, 59, told the crowd in Japanese through an interpreter, getting emotional.

“At last, I have one thing to report to you all. During the 424 years my ancestors have lived in Japan, not once did they disgrace the Cheongsong Shim clan deliberately,” Kazuteru said, bursting into a sob. The crowd responded with applause.

Kazuteru was born and raised in Japan but, like his forefathers, he didn't hide his Korean roots from the public. Making ceramics and handing down the craft from generation to generation, their Korean surname has always been behind their products that became one of Japan's best-known types of ceramics, Satsuma ware. Being identified for his Korean heritage sometimes served Kazuteru bitterly, leading to some Japanese treating him disparagingly. His father and forefathers suffered the same.

But in the late 1800s, the 12th Chin Jukan brought international prominence to his clan's craftsmanship, making Satsuma ware into a well-known Japanese ceramic style by winning awards at international expositions in Vienna, Chicago, Paris, Hanoi and St. Louis, and the clan took on a new task: to bridge Korea and Japan through their proud craft heritage.

In 2018, one of the Korean Cultural Centers in Japan held an exhibition of ceramic works that had been made by Kazuteru's clan over the past 420 years in commemoration of the 53rd anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan. Kazuteru, who represented the clan back then, was the key figure behind the event. Later that year, Kazuteru joined a special committee of Japanese experts promoting cultural exchanges between Japan and Korea in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the joint declaration of reconciliation by former Korean President Kim Dae-jung and former Japanese Prime Minister Keizo Obuchi.

“I am Japanese, but my blood is Korean,” Kazuteru said in 2018 in an interview with a Korean news outlet. “If Japan is my mother's country, Korea is the country of my father and grandfather.”

He said his efforts for Korea are like the addition of a ladle-full of water to the ocean. It sounds silly to argue that his efforts have increased the volume of water in the ocean by any degree, but it would be false to say otherwise, according to him. “The important thing is that a ladle-full of water was added to the ocean. It's just like my efforts for Korea. It would be hard to say that my insignificant work has actually improved the Seoul-Tokyo relationship. But as long as I carry my name and my ancestry with me, I believe Japan's interest in and understanding of Korea will keep improving.”

The clan's prominence shined most brightly in 1998 in terms of bilateral relations. The Ilmin Museum of Art, run by Korean daily newspaper DongA Ilbo in central Seoul in front of Gwanghwamun, hosted an exhibition of generations of works by the clan's potters. It was the first time the works had been exhibited outside Japan. The event was titled “Nostalgia in 400 years: the Shim Sugwan Family's Ceramic Art.” The event was a huge success, drawing some 50,000 visitors during the five-week exhibition.

But the most epic bilateral initiative involving the clan was when the 14th Chin transported a live fire from Namwon, North Jeolla Province, to his base in Miyama, Kagoshima, to use it for making his ceramics. It was a project reminiscent of the Japanese descendants' original forefather, Shim Dang-gil, who had everything needed to start his legacy as a potter brought from Korea, including earth. The only thing required in his works that he had to produce in Japan was fire. The very first ware Shin made was a tea bowl he named “hibakari,” meaning the “only thing that's Japanese is the fire.” In 1998, the 14th Chin, marking the 400th anniversary of Shim Dang-gil's arrival in Japan, decided to repeat his ancestor's process in the inverse: making pottery using materials and skills from Japan ― everything except fire from Korea.

They put a fire started at Mount Gyoryong in Namwon in a kiln, and, with the help of the Korean police who escorted the transportation of the fire to Busan by road, successfully shipped the live flame to Kawauchi Port in Fukushima Prefecture. Later in 1998, the 14th Chin made a tea bowl using the fire and presented it to Prime Minister Keizo. The same year, the prime minister presented the same tea bowl to U.S. President Bill Clinton when he visited New York.

Kazuteru, who accepted his historical destiny in 1999 and was officially given the name Chin Jukan, learned a lot from his father about commitment to improving Seoul-Tokyo ties. The 14th Chin, who started representing the clan in 1964, was appointed an honorary ambassador of the Korean government to Kagoshima in 1989 in acknowledgement of his efforts for bilateral cultural exchanges. He was also awarded the Korean government's second-highest cultural badge of honor in 1999. After his death, Japanese daily newspaper Asahi Shimbun said that he “passionately took on the role of bridging the culture of Korea and Japan through Satsuma ware.”

“Our clan in Japan suffered a lot because of our Korean ethnicity, especially after Japan turned to imperialism following the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Many families whose roots go back to Korea hid their ethnic identities but we didn't. When I accepted my clan's transcendental legacy, I also had to embrace such weighty, grave historical accounts as well. It was such a heavy pressure on me,” Kazuteru said.

“But culture is actually something transportable rather than fixed. Satsuma ware is the result of how a Korean custom that had arrived in Japan 420 years ago adapted to the country's local society and environment. To borrow the terms of evolutionary theory, it didn't last this long simply because it was strong. It was strong because it lasted this long through ceaseless adaptation. The seeds of Korea kept blossoming in Japanese soil.”