Korea Business News Agency - NSP NEWS AGENCY.

(서울=NSP통신) 박지영 기자 = Master You Gil-sam devoted his entire life to containing the nature in his pottery.

What would clay and fire mean to him?

He has worked more actively in Japan than in his birthplace Korea. We met him in Danhayo Yang-san Kyungnam province.

His face was full of sweat as he made potteryt into kiln.

It is said that pottery contains the universe.

Now he make the universe with a handful of clay but when he was younger he also had a yardstick in his mind.

One day he found himself trapped in his own measurement, so he put his yardstick into fire.

Now he makes pottery spontaneously with clay his hands scoop without measurement.

Interview"When I try to make a pot, sometimes I grip large clay and sometimes small one. I should make a pot with what I grip naturally. If I take measurement, my work will lose natural beauty as I have to squeeze the clay into yardstick."

He has worked more in Japan because Koreans have overlooked our traditional pottery but Japan has studied and developed for 500 years.

Another reason is that while Korea has about 10 thousand potters Japan does 1.3 million.

He believes that competing with the 1.3 million potters and being evaluated among them, he can enhance his skills.

The third important reason is that he can learn only from great pottery made by his counterparts in th past but regrettably most of them are in Japan. That's why he had to go to Japan.

He said the relationship between fire and pottery is figure and color.

When fire shows a lotus, a porcelain is made.

Fire also has yin and yang. When blue yin and red yang are combined, pottery has golden color as its basic one.

He wants to pass down these unexpressible things to our descendents.

Interview"As I have studied porcelains, I notice that it has many relationships with lotus. So when fire has lotus in it, my work has beautiful color of porcelain. I think we have language conducted by figure as well as words. I want pass them down to our descendents. As this cannot be expressed by words."

He says temperature with another unexpressible words

It is known that kiln should not be heated over 1280 celsius degree but he assures that we can make beautiful color when the kiln is heated over the temperature.

He says Japan doesn't have the technology of temperature with confidence.

So he refutes when Japanese people say that they make Goryeo porcelain under 1280 degree.

Interview"As I have studied it, I realized that Goryeo porcelains were not made under 1280 celsius degree. They were made over 1300 degree. When Japanese potters tried to make them in over 1300 kiln, they became deformed, but Korean ancestors heated their kiln over 1300 however their porcelains could keep their original figure. They had such technology. Japanese potters don't know there were such one."

In Japan as well as Korea, few potters heat their kiln over 1300 degree.

Because it is very difficult to raise temperature over the degree.

He is proud of himself as he makes pottery with over 1300 degree temperature.

Interview"As I have pursued that, no one can rivals me in Japan, though there are more than 1.3m potters. Because no one can deal with temterature over the degree."

When we look into the surface of his pottery, it seems to hold the universe in it.

The universe is made naturally by fire

The natural scene before our eyes is one nature and the scene and the universe in a tea bowl is another nature.

He has studied earth to make good pottery and naturally beautiful ones.

As he studied earth he found that there are some earth which can be used to make pottery and another one to be used for other purpose.

He found 'Cium', a new material which is made when earth and fire meet.

Cium can be used when fertilizer, deodorant, plastic, concrete, and salt are processed.

In the near future, Cium will be applied to food, clothing, and shelter, the necessities of life

Interview"I try make concrete which can purify water when it is used to make dam and in the end survive ecosystem. Now the Four River Development makes the water polluted. Instead of such environment-unfriendly one, I want to make concrete that makes water purified and other creatures survive."

He became this year's New Knowledge Worker of Korea with Cium, a new material which saves the nature and lives.
Interview"I think I should make every pot which shows each clay's original color. And I think beautiful line is very important. Finally, as a pot is an art work, it must be beautiful. That's what I pursue.

Master You Gil-sam is now making pottery with purpose to make the nature though it is not so big as the earth.

We highly expect what nature his future pottery will show us.

NSP통신/NSP TV 박지영 기자, jypark@nspna.com
저작권자ⓒ 한국의 경제뉴스통신사 NSP통신·NSP TV. 무단전재-재배포 금지.