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A pottery village will be established in Gijang-gun, Busan

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A large-scale pottery village where tourists can make their own pottery will be established in Gijang-gun, Busan. The Gijang-gun district announced the establishment of the initiative plan with a 65.2billion won budget until 2016. Construction has commenced on the pottery village in the Gangan-eup area which covers about one million m2.

The building of the Gijang pottery village is also included in the East Coast Regional Development Plan of the Ministry of Culture & Tourism. A traditional kiln where tourists can bake pottery they make, a kiln site only for pottery artists and a pottery museum which depicts the history of pottery will all be built in the village.

The village will also recreate life in Joseon Dynasty and establish a pottery research institute, an arboretum, a nature park, a nursing home for Korean medicine, a tea field and accommodation for tourists. A Gijang-gun official said “When the Gijang village is completed, there will be a pottery art tourism cluster which connects Gimhae, which is famous for pottery, and Onggi village in Uljugun at Mt. Oegosan. This synergy will enhance pottery in the region” , and  “It is planned to operate in the context of villages rather than a complex so as to expose tourists to village history and culture as it developed “.

The Gijang-gun area is the place from where the nation’s skilled pottery workers were relocated to Japan by Japanese soldiers during Imjinwaeran, the Seven-Year War of 1592 to 1598. Various pottery and kilns have been excavated, and further excavations are continuing and the restoration work is proceeding.

 

At present, there are about 40 pottery artists who are actively producing pottery and it is planned that the Gijang-gun pottery village be operated mainly by them.

Gijang-gun : Tel. 051-709-4000