A Single Shard

Last updated
A Single Shard
SingleShard.jpg
First edition
Author Linda Sue Park
Cover artistJean and Mon-sien Tseng
CountryUnited States of America
LanguageEnglish
GenreHistorical novel
Publisher Clarion Books
Publication date
April 23, 2001
Media typePrint (hardback & paperback)
Pages148
ISBN 0-395-97827-0
OCLC 44803112
LC Class PZ7.P22115 Si 2001

A Single Shard is a novel by Linda Sue Park, set in 12th-century Korea. It won the 2002 Newbery Medal, awarded for excellence in children's literature. It also received an honorable mention from the Asian/Pacific American Awards for Literature.

Contents

Reception

A Single Shard is the Newbery Award-winning novel by Linda Sue Park. The New York Times praised A Single Shard as being "deftly shaped" and "surprisingly moving", stating that the Newbery Medal would help expose the novel to an audience it would otherwise have not reached. [1]

Plot

Tree-ear is an orphan who lives under a bridge with Crane-man, a physically disabled man who took him in when Tree-ear was only a small child, about 2 years old. The potters of Ch'ulp'o, the local village, suddenly become famous for their celadon glaze, but Tree-ear has observed richer pickings in their rubbish dumps. He becomes very interested in watching the potters at work, especially an old potter called Min, famous for the beauty of his wares. Tree-ear enjoys watching Min at work more than any other potter because only Min possesses enough confidence to work openly. Tree-ear learns Min's daily habits and always sneaks up to the same paulownia tree to watch Min at work. One day, Tree-ear goes into Min's yard, but since neither the old potter nor his throwing wheel are in sight, he decides to investigate the work left drying in the sun. He sees a duck-shaped water dropper, a jug and a box that Tree-ear picks up. When Min comes out and startles Tree-ear, he drops and breaks the box by accident. As Tree-ear leaves, he hears Min muttering that the box he had dropped was made in three days. To pay for his mistake, Tree-ear offers to work for Min thrice the number of days to pay for the box. Min agrees.

Tree-ear arrives for his first day of work, excited to learn the potter's craft. However, Min wants Tree-ear to cut wood for the communal kiln. For nine days, Tree-ear cuts wood for Min. When the nine days are over, Tree-ear returns to Min and requests a continuing job. Min informs Tree-ear that the only pay would be a daily meal, but Tree-ear only wants to learn the trade and does not expect payment. Min agrees, sending Tree-ear to the river for clay.

Time passes, and one afternoon, word spreads throughout Ch'ulp'o that a royal emissary called Kim is coming to offer commissions to the best potters both in their village and another village down the coast. Every potter begins working at a fast pace to have their best work ready to display. During this time, Tree-ear notices some odd behavior in another potter, Kang, who is as experienced as Min but more impatient. He notes that Kang has been very secretive, carrying small bowls filled with semiliquid clay (slip) that seem to be colored, and carrying jars, wine cups, jugs, and vessels back and forth from the kiln early in the morning. One morning, Tree-ear spies on Kang, who trips while carrying two small bowls. The contents of both bowls slosh over on the ground. Tree-ear looks at the spill and sees two differently colored slips, red and white. One night, Tree-ear sneaks up to Kang's work shed and sees him carving out chrysanthemums on the side of a vase and then filling the holes with colored clay. Tree-ear wants to tell Min what he has seen, but he is concerned that by doing so he would be stealing from Kang, so he waits.

On the day that the royal emissary arrives, all the potters set up stalls filled with their work on the beach. Min's is the smallest display but it is one of a few that earns extra attention from the Emissary Kim as he admires the melon-shaped jug that is put on the display. The emissary leaves, but announces that he will return in a month to offer commissions. The potters who received extra attention before again begin working quickly to prepare new samples for the emissary. Tree-ear tells Min about Kang's inlay work. Min immediately begins creating inlays in his own pottery. However, after the pottery is fired in the kiln, it all comes out with brown stains that sometimes appear in the finish. Min breaks them all and prepares to start over. Unfortunately, the emissary arrives before he can create anything new. After a few days, news comes out: Kang has been chosen for a commission. When he visits Min's house and hears the story, the emissary offers to give Min a commission if he can bring a sample to the capital city, but Min confesses that he believes he is too old for such a trip.

Tree-ear overhears the conversation between Min and the emissary and offers to take a sample of Min's work to Songdo for him, as a gift to Min's wife who has befriended and cared for Tree-ear over the past year. Once again, Min works quickly to create two melon-shaped vases with intricate, inlaid flowers along the side. Crane-man is hired to create a basket that will carry the vases without breaking them. After taking care to be sure Crane-man will be cared for during his absence, Tree-ear sets off alone for the capital city. Tree-ear walks alone for days. When he reaches the city of Puyo, he goes up to a mountain cliff called the Rock of Falling Flowers. At the top of the cliff, Tree-ear is attacked by two robbers who steal all his coins and throw the vases over the edge of the cliff to the river below. After they have gone, Tree-ear rushes down to the river to check on the fate of the vases. Both vases are broken but one has broken in large pieces, allowing Tree-ear to take a single shard of the broken vase and continue his journey.

When Tree-ear arrives in Puyo, he sees the familiar chrysanthemums and colors on a stall selling pottery. When the stall owner sees Tree-ear's interest, he tells him that the work was already one of the King's favorites. Tree-ear talks his way into a meeting with the emissary when he arrives at the palace. Tree-ear reveals his attack by the robbers and then shows the single shard. Despite the incredulity of the emissary's assistant, Min is offered a commission and Tree-ear is given safe passage home on a ship. Once home, Tree-ear goes directly to the home of Min to tell him about the commission. Min has news for Tree-ear as well. Crane-man died a few days before when a farmer's cart broke the rotten bridge railing, causing him to fall into the cold water. Tree-ear is devastated by this news and afraid for his own future. However, Min's wife tells him that he is to move in with her and her husband. They give Tree-ear a name that is part of their deceased son's name Hyung-gu. They name him Hyung-pil. Later, Min reveals that he intends to teach Tree-ear/Hyung-pil the art of pottery. The ending of the story reveals that Tree-ear, or Hyung-pil, created the "Thousand Cranes Vase", which is the finest example of inlaid celadon pottery from in the twelfth century.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raku ware</span> Type of Japanese pottery traditionally used in tea ceremonies

Raku ware is a type of Japanese pottery traditionally used in Japanese tea ceremonies, most often in the form of chawan tea bowls. It is traditionally characterised by being hand-shaped rather than thrown, fairly porous vessels, which result from low firing temperatures, lead glazes and the removal of pieces from the kiln while still glowing hot. In the traditional Japanese process, the fired raku piece is removed from the hot kiln and is allowed to cool in the open air.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Japanese pottery and porcelain</span> Overview of Japanese pottery and porcelain

Pottery and porcelain, is one of the oldest Japanese crafts and art forms, dating back to the Neolithic period. Kilns have produced earthenware, pottery, stoneware, glazed pottery, glazed stoneware, porcelain, and blue-and-white ware. Japan has an exceptionally long and successful history of ceramic production. Earthenwares were made as early as the Jōmon period, giving Japan one of the oldest ceramic traditions in the world. Japan is further distinguished by the unusual esteem that ceramics hold within its artistic tradition, owing to the enduring popularity of the tea ceremony.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Celadon</span> Term for ceramics with two different types of glazes

Celadon is a term for pottery denoting both wares glazed in the jade green celadon color, also known as greenware or "green ware", and a type of transparent glaze, often with small cracks, that was first used on greenware, but later used on other porcelains. Celadon originated in China, though the term is purely European, and notable kilns such as the Longquan kiln in Zhejiang province are renowned for their celadon glazes. Celadon production later spread to other parts of East Asia, such as Japan and Korea as well as Southeast Asian countries, such as Thailand. Eventually, European potteries produced some pieces, but it was never a major element there. Finer pieces are in porcelain, but both the color and the glaze can be produced in stoneware and earthenware. Most of the earlier Longquan celadon is on the border of stoneware and porcelain, meeting the Chinese but not the European definitions of porcelain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Korean pottery and porcelain</span>

Korean ceramic history begins with the oldest earthenware from around 8000 BC. Throughout the history, the Korean peninsula has been home to lively, innovative, and sophisticated art making. Long periods of stability have allowed for the establishment of spiritual traditions, and artisan technologies specific to the region. Korean ceramics in Neolithic period have a unique geometric patterns of sunshine, or it is decorated with twists. In Southern part of Korea, Mumun pottery were popular. Mumun togi used specific minerals to make colors of red and black. Korean pottery developed a distinct style of its own, with its own shapes, such as the moon jar or Buncheong sagi which is a new form between earthenware and porcelain, white clay inlay celadon of Goryeo, and later styles like minimalism that represents Korean Joseon philosophers' idea. Many talented Korean potters were captured and brought to Japan during the invasions of Korea, where they heavily contributed to advancing Japanese pottery. Arita ware, founded by Yi Sam-pyeong opened a new era of porcelain in Japan. Another Japanese representative porcelain, Satsuma ware was also founded by Dang-gil Shim and Pyeong-ui Park. 14th generation of Su-kwan Shim have been using the same name to his grandfather and father to honor they are originally Korean, 14th Su-kwan Shim is honorable citizen of Namwon, Korea.

<i>Kakiemon</i> Style of Japanese porcelain

Kakiemon is a style of Japanese porcelain, with overglaze decoration called "enameled" ceramics. It was originally produced at the factories around Arita, in Japan's Hizen province from the Edo period's mid-17th century onwards. The style shares much in common with the Chinese "Famille Verte" style. The quality of its decoration was highly prized in the West and widely imitated by major European porcelain manufacturers during the Rococo period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Euphronios</span> Greek vase painter and potter (c. 535 – after 470 BC)

Euphronios was an ancient Greek vase painter and potter, active in Athens in the late 6th and early 5th centuries BC. As part of the so-called "Pioneer Group,", Euphronios was one of the most important artists of the red-figure technique. His works place him at the transition from Late Archaic to Early Classical art, and he is one of the first known artists in history to have signed his work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chinese ceramics</span> Pottery and porcelain from China

Chinese ceramics show a continuous development since pre-dynastic times and are one of the most significant forms of Chinese art and ceramics globally. The first pottery was made during the Palaeolithic era. Chinese ceramics range from construction materials such as bricks and tiles, to hand-built pottery vessels fired in bonfires or kilns, to the sophisticated Chinese porcelain wares made for the imperial court and for export. Porcelain was a Chinese invention and is so identified with China that it is still called "china" in everyday English usage.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mintons</span> English pottery company (1793–2005)

Mintons was a major company in Staffordshire pottery, "Europe's leading ceramic factory during the Victorian era", an independent business from 1793 to 1968. It was a leader in ceramic design, working in a number of different ceramic bodies, decorative techniques, and "a glorious pot-pourri of styles - Rococo shapes with Oriental motifs, Classical shapes with Medieval designs and Art Nouveau borders were among the many wonderful concoctions". As well as pottery vessels and sculptures, the firm was a leading manufacturer of tiles and other architectural ceramics, producing work for both the Houses of Parliament and United States Capitol.

Fielding majolica is pottery made at the Railway Pottery in Stoke on Trent under the proprietorship of Simon Fielding (1827–1906) and Abraham Fielding. Victorian majolica is a generic name given to the brightly coloured lead-glazed earthenware that was originally developed by Mintons for the Great Exhibition of 1851.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Levantine pottery</span> Pottery from the Levant

Pottery and ceramics have been produced in the Levant since prehistoric times.

Reg Preston studied sculpture at the Westminster School of Art in London, in 1938. At the beginning of WW2, he returned to Australia and spent three months in 1944 potting at the Melbourne Technical College with John A. Barnard Knight and Klytie Pate. Throughout 1945–1946, he worked at Cooper and Cooke's Pottery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catawba Valley Pottery</span>

Catawba Valley Pottery describes alkaline glazed stoneware made in the Catawba River Valley of Western North Carolina from the early 19th century, as well as certain contemporary pottery made in the region utilizing traditional methods and forms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jerry Dolyn Brown</span> American potter and folk artist

Jerry Dolyn Brown was an American folk artist and traditional stoneware pottery maker who lived and worked in Hamilton, Alabama. He was a 1992 recipient of a National Heritage Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Arts and a 2003 recipient of the Alabama Folk Heritage Award. His numerous showings included the 1984 Smithsonian Festival of American Folklife with his uncle, potter Gerald Stewart.

<i>Giant</i> (TV series) 2010 South Korean television series

Giant is a 2010 South Korean television series starring Lee Beom-soo, Park Jin-hee, Joo Sang-wook, Hwang Jung-eum, Park Sang-min, and Jeong Bo-seok. It aired on SBS from May 10 to December 7, 2010 every Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 (KST) time slot for 60 episodes. Giant is a sprawling period drama about three siblings' quest for revenge during the economic boom of 1970-80s Korea. Tragically separated during childhood, the three reunite as adults and set out to avenge their parents' deaths, their fates playing out against a larger tide of power, money, politics, and the growth of a city.

Eric Norstad (1924-2013) was an American potter and architect who worked primarily on the west coast of the United States.

<i>Goddess of Fire</i> South Korean TV series or program

Goddess of Fire is a 2013 South Korean television series starring Moon Geun-young, Lee Sang-yoon, Kim Bum, Park Gun-hyung, Seo Hyun-jin, Jun Kwang-ryul, Jeong Bo-seok, Byun Hee-bong, Han Go-eun, and Lee Kwang-soo. It aired on MBC from July 1 to October 22, 2013 on Mondays and Tuesdays at 21:55 for 32 episodes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iga ware</span> Style of Japanese pottery

Iga ware is a style of Japanese pottery traditionally produced in Iga, Mie, former Iga Province, central Japan.

<i>Lawless Lawyer</i> 2018 South Korean legal thriller television series

Lawless Lawyer is a 2018 South Korean television series ran starring Lee Joon-gi, Seo Yea-ji, Lee Hye-young, and Choi Min-soo. The series was written by Yoon Hyun-ho and directed by Kim Jin-min. The series is set in the fictional city of Kisung which is described as lawless and corrupt.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Linthorpe Art Pottery</span> Former ceramic maker in Middlesbrough, England

Linthorpe Art Pottery was a British pottery that operated between 1878 and 1890 in Linthorpe, Middlesbrough. It produced art pottery, and is especially known for the early collaboration of the designer Christopher Dresser; many of the early wares have his impressed signature.

Oregon Pottery Company was established in the United States at Buena Vista, Oregon, in 1866. The largest pottery business on the West Coast of the United States at the time, it produced stoneware jars, jugs, and sewer pipe between 1866 and 1897 in Buena Vista and Portland, Oregon.

References

  1. Lannon, Linnea (10 February 2002). "CHILDREN'S BOOKS". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 June 2014.
Awards
Preceded by Newbery Medal Award
2002
Succeeded by