Yi Sam-pyeong - The Real Kanagae Sanbee

The Real Kanagae Sanbee

The popular narrative was questioned by the Japanese historian Nakamura Tadashi in 1992. The stories of founding fathers of early modern pottery including Yi Sam-pyeong's are not confirmed by contemporary sources but were formed as late as the second half of the 18th century. Komiya Kiyora further analyzed the origin of the narrative, largely dismissing it.

No contemporary Korean source mentioned him. In fact, historical sources, all in Japanese, never refer to him as Yi Sam-pyeong. The alleged Korean name was coined in the late 19th century, as described below. No contemporary source claims that he was hunted for his talent during the Korean campaign, or even that he took part in pottery in Korea. It is as late as circa 1843 that the official documents of the Saga Domain started to claim that the virtual founder of the domain Nabeshima Naoshige brought six or seven talented potters as "living treasures of Japan." This account was taken from a biography of a local governor of western Saga including Arita, written by his son Yamamoto Tsunetomo in 1707. The historical accuracy of his account is questionable as a mountain, where artisans supposedly started pottery, has no known remains of kilns. These records made no mention of Kanagae Sanbee or the names of other potters.

The earliest known source of Kanagae Sanbee was of circa 1653, more than half a century after his arrival in Japan and only few years before his death. It was written by Kanagae Sanbee himself and given to Taku, the ruling family of the region of Taku. In this memorandum, he claimed that after the arrival in Japan, he had taken service with Taku Yasutoshi "for few years," and then had moved with some 18 people, mostly children, from Taku to Arita in 1616. It is not clear how he earned his living for nearly 20 years, between the end of his service and the supposed migration of 1616. A more interesting fact is that he did not claim that he had been a potter before his arrival or brought to Japan for his talent. He claimed that he carried (kiln) cars in his supposed migration of 1616. Also he noted that his men had included three of the "original potters of Taku" (多久本皿屋), whose identify is unclear.

The historian Komiya Kiyora points to the existence of earlier pottery even before the Korean campaign of 1592-98. A considerable number of Korean potters were patronized by the Hata clan of Karatsu in northern Saga, who was destroyed by Toyotomi Hideyoshi in 1593. It is known that the kilns in its territory subsequently disappeared. Apparently potters became refugees because the war prevented them from returning to Korea. Komiya presumes that the "original potters of Taku" were one of these refugee groups and that Kanagae Sanbee learned pottery from them for survival.

Komiya also questions his alleged discovery of a kaolin deposit in Arita and its supposed date of 1616 since the earliest known porcelain from Arita is of 1630s and 40s. He points to the fact that the Saga domain tried for a short period of time to launch gold and silver mining. He raised the possibility that the thorough search for the ore body might have resulted in the discovery of kaolin.

Komiya presumes that in 1616 Kanagae Sanbee was actually "banished" from Taku. It is confirmed by historical sources that authorities frequently cast out potters. As pottery was accompanied by forest destruction, they faced serious conflicts of interest with farmers. Early potteries were not profitable enough for authorities to protect because they were poor articles for daily use and lacked artistic merit. It seems around 1630s that technological innovation enabled them to produce profitable, Chinese-like ceramics, and as a result, they got exempted from banishment.