I love history of ceramics and porcelains, etc. This is what I know that, unfortunately, not many people in western country know. Japan wasn’t able to produce high quality porcelains until they invaded Korea and took countless Korean potters, potteries, and even Korean raw materials for producing porcelain for 20 years during ImJin war from 1592 to 1598. ImJim war is also known as “Yakimono Senso” - Ceramic War - in Japan. Korean tea bowls were very rare, expensive, and highly sought-after in Japan before the ImJin war and Tokugawa Ieyasu knew it would bring a lot of profit if they took Korean potters to Japan and made them produce porcelains and sell them. It was one of the main reasons he invaded Korea and did atrocities to its people. 17 years later, they ran out of the raw materials they took/brought from Korea, these Korean potters had to find materials in Japan for their own survival. They traveled and found huge amount of Kaolin clay in a mountain in Arita area eventually. Korean potters settled in Arita area and produced more than million pieces of high quality porcelains that were exported to Europe. Well known and loved Imari porcelains that influenced Dutch Delft and German Meissen later were all made by abducted Korean potters living in Arita area. History of Korean pottery begins b.c. 5000. They started making celadons and white porcelains during Koryo dynasty (918 - 1392). BoonChung begins around 1392 till present. Korea has been producing world class white porcelains since the ImJin war, but unlike Japan and China, they had a very closed foreign policy, thus this is not a widely known fact to many people in western countries. But it is a historical fact that Korean potters forcefully taken to Japan during ImJin war became the foundation of Japanese porcelain history. Yi SamPyeong is a Korean potter who is called DoJo, ceramic god, in Japan and his family still makes potteries in Japan, for instance. And many others too. So,,