S. Korean city to make monument park for father of Japan's Arita ware

DAEJEON, June 3 (Yonhap) -- The Gongju city government said Friday it plans to develop a monument park in the central South Korean city this year in honor of a Korean ceramic artisan revered for giving birth to Japan's first domestic porcelain production.

The plan calls for the establishment of the "Yi Sam-pyeong Park," with amenities and the relocation of a monument that honors the potter to the park in the city's Banpo region by the end of September. The local government will spend 1.1 billion won (around US$930,000) on the project.

Yi, who hailed from the South Korean city, was one of the immigrant Korean potters kidnapped to the town of Arita in what is now Japan's Saga Prefecture in the late 16th century, when Saga's warlord Nabeshima Naoshige returned from Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasion of the Korean Peninsula.

The ceramic artisan, whose Japanese name was Kanagae Sanbee, discovered an excellent clay mineral for ceramics in Arita in 1616, starting the first domestic porcelain production in Japan and blazing a trail for what is now known as Arita ware.

Development of the monument park comes as this year marks the 400th anniversary of the birth of Arita ware.

When the project is completed, the municipal government will hold an event to celebrate the park's construction, along with guests that include representatives from the Japanese town of Arita on Japan's southwestern main island of Kyushu, it said.

namsh@yna.co.kr
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