Gowoon Seong: Hakata merchants and the distribution of ceramics in Northeast Asia in the 15th-16th centuries
Presented by Gowoon Seong, PhD Candidate, Fudan University (复旦大学)
Date: July 28, 2022, 11:00pm (Seoul) / 7:00am (Los Angeles) / 4:00 pm (France)
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Hakata merchants served an essential role in the circulation in Northeast Asia of Ming ceramics and Chosŏn ceramics in the 15th to 16th centuries. In scholarship on the Chinese ceramic trade, Ryukyu islanders have received significant attention. However, Ryukyu islanders were more involved in Southeast Asia trading deeper than in Northeast Asia.
Investigating the role of Hakata merchants provides a more profound understanding not only of ceramic trading in Northeast Asia but as well as of its changing value in different cultures.
This presentation will use a combination of historical documents and excavated materials to examine three different roles of Hakata merchants in the ceramic trade.
“Japanese Pirates” scroll painting
(明)仇英，《倭寇図巻》， 東京大学史料編纂所所蔵.
About the Speaker
Gowoon Seong is a Ph.D. candidate at Fudan University, currently completing a dissertation titled “Ming ceramics imported to Chosŏn in the 15th to 17th centuries”. Her research combines excavated ceramic materials and historical records in order to examine the importation of Ming dynasty ceramics to Chosŏn and their cultural reception.
She also works on the distribution of ceramic by different trader groups constituted of the subjects of Ming, Ryukyu, Edo Japan, and Chosŏn. Her interest is in how Chinese ceramic consumers and traders created and changed those material objects' values in tandem with cultural, political, social, and economic development.
Chinese ceramics excavated from Japan
長谷部樂爾·今井敦『日本で出土した中国陶磁器』、東京:普通社、1995年、図72