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Distinctive kingfisher-glazed celadon incense burner from the Korean Goryeo Dynasty. It is a national treasure of South Korea.

Celadon (Simplified Chinese: 青瓷; Traditional Chinese: 青瓷; pinyin: Qīngcí; Japanese: せいし Seishi, Korean: 청자 Cheongja) is a term for ceramics denoting both a type glaze, and a ware of a specific colour, also called celadon.^[1]

Celadon glaze refers to a family of transparent, crackle glazes, produced in a wide variety of colors, generally used on porcelain or white stoneware clay bodies. The popularity and impact of these glazes is such that pottery pieces decorated with celadon glazes can also be known as "celadons."

Celadon glazes can be produced in a variety of colors, including whites, greys, blues and yellows, depending on the thickness of the applied glaze and the type of clay to which it is applied. However, the most famous celadons range in color from a very pale green crackle to deep intense greens, often meant to mimic the green shades of jade. The color is produced by iron oxide in the glaze recipe or clay body. Celadons are usually fired in a reducing atmosphere within a fuel driven kiln. As with most glazes, crazing (a glaze defect) can occur in the glaze and, if the characteristic is desirable, it is referred to as crackle glaze.

Traditional Korean celadons are decorated by overlaying glaze on contrasting clay bodies. With inlaid designs, small pieces of colored clay are inlaid in the clay used to produce the ware. Carved or slip-carved designs require layer[s] of a different colored clay adhered to the base clay of the piece. The layers are then carved away to reveal varying colors. Korean celadonware, usually a pale green-blue in color, developed, flourished, and was refined during the 10th and 11th centuries. Both the Mongol invasion in the 13th century and the Japanese invasion in the 16th centuries dealt blows to the craft. With the Japanese invasion, many potters were abducted to produce porcelains in Japan.

Celadon ware refers specifically to that decorated with a subtle bluish green glaze originally made in China's Zhejiang province, i.e., Longquan celadon. Wares of this shade of green in general, initially from Zhejiang but later from other areas as well, are also referred to as celadon although this is not precisely taxonomical because, without a reduced atmosphere when firing, a yellow or brown glaze could be obtained on the same wares. In this case, the term applies only to the visual appearance and the color has come to be known as celadon.^[2]

The term "celadon" for the pottery's pale jade-green glaze was first applied by European connoisseurs of the wares. One theory is that the name first appeared in France in the 17th century and is named for a shepherd named Celadon (after a character in Ovid's Metamorphoses) in Honoré d'Urfé's French pastoral romance, L'Astrée (1627) who wore pale green ribbons. Another is that the term is a corruption of Salah ad-Din (Saladin), Ayyubid Sultan, who in 1171 sent forty pieces of the ceramic to Nur ad-Din, Sultan of Syria.^[3] Yet another is the word derives from the Sanskrit words sila and dhara, which mean stone and green respectively.

1. ^ "Celadon" at the Glossary of Chinese Porcelain Terms
2. ^ "Celadon" at the Glossary of Chinese Porcelain Terms
3. ^ Dennis Krueger. "Why On Earth Do They Call It Throwing?" from Ceramics Today

• Korean porcelain
• Chinese porcelain
• Imari porcelain
• Yi Sam Pyong
• Kaolinite

• Celadon in Thailand
• Modern Celadon