Ritual Water Sprinkler (Kundika) (Koryo Cheongja Cheongbyeong)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 24 Feb 1886
name: label: Donor Name
content: Ensign U S N John B. Bernadou
notes: label: Notes
content: Illustrated p. 63 in Taylor, Paul Michael, and Christopher J. Lotis. 2008. Flagship of a fleet: a Korea Gallery guide. Washington, D.C.: Asian Cultural History Program, Department of Anthropology, Smithsonian Institution. Identified there as Water vessel (kundika); Stoneware; celadon glaze; 32 x 11 x 15 cm; 12th century; Goryeo. During the 12th century, kundika were used by all classes of Koreans for storing water. Water was poured from the top spout and refilled from the side spout. It was traditionally used to sprinkle water in Buddhist rituals. Clays spurs on this vessel's foot and the color of the glaze show that it was made at a provincial kiln. If it had been made at a central governmant kiln, silica chips would have been used.
label: Notes
content: "12th century. Stoneware with crackled grayish-green celadon glaze. This Koryo celadon is a double-spouted water vessel. The jug-shaped bulbous body projects a side spout midway down and has an elongated tubular neck which also has a spout near the top. This type of vessel is commonly associated with Koryo wares having a crackled, greenish-gray celadon glaze. Cheongbyeong refers to a Buddhist ritual ewer or sprinkler known as a kundika (Gompertz, 1963, plate L3 A; Kiln and Gompertz, 1961: 92-93, for the term and illustrations). Hough misidentifies the specimen as a wine bottle. The cover for the top spout is missing. Bernadou Field Notes 66 "Wine bottle. Said to be about seven hundred years old. Of a form now obsolete. The weight of this specimen is noticeable. Of clay, covered with a thick coating of an opaque vitreous glaze." Collected in Seoul. Ref: Hough Korean Catalog pl. XII, upper fig. J; Bernadou Field Notes 66" [from: "An Ethnography of the Hermit Kingdom: The J.B. Bernadou Korean Collection 1884-1885", Chang-su Cho Houchins, 2004, number 3]
label: Record Last Modified
content: 11 Mar 2024
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Korea, Asia
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Korean
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 016970
label: USNM Number
content: E121612-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Water Sprinkler
physicalDescription: label: Height
content: 31.8 cm
label: Diameter
content: 12.2 cm