The Goryeo Celadon Incense Burner: a 12th-Century Piece with Four Techniques

This object is 15.3 cm tall. It is smaller than a sheet of A5 paper standing on its short edge, and the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture treats it as showing the formal excellence of Goryeo celadon at its height.

Not because of its size. Because of how many different things it does at once. It is administered by the National Museum of Korea in Seoul, so that is where to look for it.

At a glance

15.3 cm tall
Pedestal diameter 11.2 cm. It sits in three tiers: lid, body and stand.
Four techniques in one piece
Openwork, applied relief, moulded form and inlay — used together rather than chosen between.
Three rabbits under it
The foot ring carries three rabbits that appear to be holding the censer up on their backs.
Mid-twelfth century
Goryeo at its height, with Song relations reopened and Liao handled for practical advantage.

Read it from the top down

The censer is built in three tiers, and each tier is doing a different job.

The lid is decorated in openwork with a seven-treasure design wishing for fortune and long life. Openwork on a lid is not only ornament — it is the hole the smoke leaves by. The decoration and the function are the same cuts.

The body takes the form of a flower bud wrapped in several chrysanthemum leaves, with the fine leaf veins rendered in applied relief. So the vessel is not a bowl with flowers drawn on it. It is the bud, and the veins are raised clay laid onto the surface rather than lines scratched into it.

And the foot ring is decorated with three rabbits appearing to carry the censer on their backs.

That last one is the detail visitors walk past. The whole object is standing on animals.

Why doing four things at once matters

Korean celadon is usually introduced through one technique at a time — inlay here, openwork there, an animal-shaped lid somewhere else.

This piece refuses that. It was made through a range of techniques including openwork, applied relief, moulded form and inlay, in an object the size of a fist. Each of those has a different failure mode in the kiln: pierced walls warp, applied relief drops off, moulded parts shrink at their own rate. Putting them in one piece means the workshop was confident about all four.

Which is why the encyclopedia treats it as representative rather than merely fine: it shows the formal excellence of the celadon of Goryeo's height, and is a model of its blue-green colour.

The century it belongs to

Dates on ceramics are usually stylistic. This one comes with a described setting.

It was made in the mid-twelfth century, when Goryeo's internal growth coincided with the reopening of relations with the Northern Song, while Goryeo took practical advantage in its dealings with Liao — a period of flourishing culture.

That sentence is worth unpacking for a traveller, because Goryeo is an easy period to skip on a trip to Korea. Its capital was Kaesong, which is not in South Korea, and very few Goryeo buildings survive south of the border. The dynasty is largely reachable here through objects rather than through places — and this censer is one of them.

The Goryeo overview covers the dynasty itself; the first-edition Tripitaka volume in the same museum is the other side of the same century.

Where the celadon National Treasures are

The registry is useful here because celadon is spread across collections.

Among National Treasures whose names contain 청자, the openwork seven-treasure censer is administered by the National Museum of Korea in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, as are the lion-lidded censer and the melon-shaped bottle. The qilin-lidded censer is administered by the Kansong Art Museum.

If the qilin-lidded censer is the piece you want, check the Kansong Art Museum's own visitor information before planning around it. For the other three, go to the National Museum of Korea; its place page carries hours and directions.

As with any museum object, the registry records where a piece is held, not what is in the case today. Museum displays rotate.

What to look for

Crouch. The rabbits are on the foot ring, below eye level in most cases, and they are the part of the object that photographs badly and rewards standing there. Then look at the lid against the light behind it — the seven-treasure pattern is cut through, so what you are seeing is a wall with holes in it doing decorative work and functional work with the same cuts.

Where to follow this up

Frequently asked questions

How big is it?

15.3 cm tall, with a pedestal 11.2 cm across.

What is the seven-treasure design?

A pattern on the lid, cut in openwork, understood as a wish for fortune and long life.

What are the rabbits for?

Three rabbits on the foot ring appear to be carrying the censer on their backs. The encyclopedia records them as decoration of the foot; it does not assign them a further meaning, and this article does not invent one.

When was it made?

The mid-twelfth century, during Goryeo's cultural height. That is a stylistic and historical placement, not a dated inscription.

Where can I see it?

It is administered by the National Museum of Korea in Seoul. Other celadon National Treasures are held elsewhere, including the Kansong Art Museum. Check each museum's visitor and gallery information before travelling for one object.