The official department in charge of the firing and management of official kilns in Jingdezhen, China. The “Jingdezhen Ceramic Record” describes it as an “official position” in the Jingdezhen Ceramic Record. The history of the arsenal is still unclear. The history of the factory is not well documented, but there is little information on the Ming dynasty and even less on the Song and Yuan dynasties. For example, the “Ceramic Sermon” states, “In the Jingde period of the Song dynasty, an official town was established and Raoju kilns were built,” and “In the Yuan dynasty, the official town was reorganized as a territory, and the pottery was controlled by the governor of the main road. However, it is not clear whether or not a special government office was set up to manage the pottery production. In the Ming dynasty, the arsenals were sometimes used as a vessel for the emperor’s personal use. In the Ming Dynasty, the “Ceramic Sermon” and the “Jingdezhen Pottery Record” state that a pottery arsenal was established at the beginning of the Zhengde period (1506-21) and was under the exclusive control of the government, so it appears that this was the first time that a pottery arsenal was established. It seems that the arsenal already existed before Jeongdeok. However, the name of the pottery and its contents must be considered separately. In the “Jingdezhen Ceramics Record,” the Hong kiln is described as “Goki Chansang” for the first time in Jeongde, which is probably true. However, the content of the pottery seems to have been gradually developed during the Hongwu period (1368-98). There are almost no descriptions of the system during the Yeongrak period (1403-24).
In the Seondeok period (1426-35), there is a simple statement that “a factory assistant was assigned to oversee the construction of the factory” and that the arsenal was abolished around the beginning of the ShÅsei period (1436-49). This was probably due to the urgent need for funds to prepare for the Mongolian invasion. In 1457 (Cheonjunwon), another central official was appointed to oversee the pottery production, and in 1486 (Seonghwa 22), the pottery production official in Raoju was abolished again.
There are no articles on this issue during the period of Koji (1488-1505). In Shoutoku, we find the aforementioned article, “At the beginning, a governor was established and the governor was given exclusive control over the vessels. In Jajing (152-1656), we read, “At the beginning of Jajing, the government officials in the middle of the government were appointed and a member was selected from each prefectural governor to administer the government. In the 44th year, the governor of Raoju was assigned to the arsenal, and was asked to stop. This clearly indicates that the eunuchs had been in charge of the arsenal until then. The eunuchs were in charge of the pottery. The reason for this is that there is an article that says that in 1572 (the 6th year of Ryungyeong), the pottery was again started. In the 6th year of Ryukei, the pottery was reorganized and burned, and therefore, it was selected from various prefectures and administered by a rotating selection committee. At the beginning of the Manryeong period, the governor of Raoju, Tongpan, reassigned the kiln to Jingdezhen, and also filled it up. It is not known if the arsenal continued to produce pottery during the Wanrye period (1573-1619). However, since the Manryei period was a time of mass production, the work of the arsenal must have been extremely busy. As a result, the arsenal was unable to produce all the pottery it needed, and many of the pieces were left to private kilns to make. The “Jingdezhen Ceramic Record” states, “As for the arsenals at the time of the Long and Wan dynasties, except for a few official kilns, the rest were dispersed to private kilns to be burned. The period of Taichang (1620) was only one year, so details are scarce, and no artifacts have been handed down. In Tengei (1621-7), there are many artifacts with annotations, especially in Japan, and it is thought that an arsenal may have existed, but this is not known. During the Li Jicheng rebellion at the end of the Ming dynasty, Jingdezhen was plundered and temporarily destroyed. The Ming official kilns and imperial vessels are said to have completely disappeared at this time. In the Qing Dynasty, there is an article that says, “In the 19th year of Kangxi (1680), an official of the Ministry of the Interior was sent to the arsenal to supervise it for the first time. This was the first time a pottery factory was established in the Qing Dynasty, and it continued to exist until the end of the Qing. The details are detailed in the “Tao Xiong” and “Jingdezhen Ceramic Artifacts. The above is in accordance with Ozaki Shinsheng’s theory.
