• MISULJARYO - National Museum of Korea Art Journal
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• v.97
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• pp.55-68
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• 2020

The inscription found on buncheong ware (粉靑沙器, grayish-blue-powdered celadon) provides information on the bowl today, but in the past served as a device for controlling tributary payments (貢納) and the movement of government property (官物). The inscription had to be written or engraved clearly so that it could be recognizable to officials in charge of managing bowls. Such inscriptions offer important clues for contemporary research on buncheong ware. Buncheong Bowl with Stamped Design and Inscription of "Naeja" (內子) (bon 13808) in the collection of the National Museum of Korea bears a distinct inscription compared to other buncheong ware. Commonly, the inscription on buncheong indicated the name of the government office (官司名) to which the vessel belonged or the name of the place (地名) where the vessel was produced. However, the inscription "Naeja" on the buncheong bowl at the National Museum of Korea has no corresponding government office. "Naeja" is in fact a misspelling of Naeja (內資), meaning this bowl belonged to the Naejasi (內資寺, Royal Bureau of Procurement). Although "Naeja" (內子) was a misspelling of the intended Naeja (內資), it was still understood as a reference to the Naejasi since they were homophonic. Recently, buncheong ware with misspelled yet homophonous inscriptions have begun to be excavated in downtown Seoul. Examples including "Naeja" (內子) instead of Naeja (內資) and "Insu" (仁守) instead of Insu (仁壽) have been unearthed from historical sites in Seoul that functioned as consumption sites, meaning they were in fact circulated as government property despite the misspellings (whether accidental or the outcome of ignorance). Such misspelled yet homophonous inscriptions are characterized by the use of simple characters and a few sloppy strokes. Like other buncheong ware bearing the inscriptions of government office names, the bowls with the inscriptions of "Naeja" (內子) and "Insu" (仁守) were discovered at historical sites in Seoul. These misspelled homophonous inscriptions reveal that errors occurred during the process of engraving inscriptions on buncheong ware produced as a tributary payment during the early Joseon Dynasty and that buncheong ware with such errors were still distributed.