Jun Official Kiln Site Museum 钧官窑址博物馆

About Jun Official Kiln Site Museum

Jun Official Kiln Site Museum (钧官窑址博物馆) is a museum of Jun ware (钧瓷) in Yuzhou (禹州), Xuchang (许昌), Henan, built around the excavated Juntai Jun kiln site (钧台钧窑遗址). It opened on 6 November 2011 as the first museum in China given over to Jun ware.

The kiln site came to light in 1964 and was excavated from 1974. In 1988 the State Council made it a national protected site, and in 1991 Yuzhou set up a museum and a Jun porcelain research institute inside the protected area; the kiln sites of Shenhou (神垕) joined the national listing in 2006. The present complex was started in 2008 and took three years to finish. It was designed by the architect Qi Kang (齐康), a member of both of China's national academies, and holds 4,980 m² of galleries on a 47,000 m² site. It is rated a national AAAA tourist attraction.

Jun ware is known for milky, opalescent glazes in blues and greens and for controlled copper-red glaze and splashes. Copper colours are hard to predict before firing, hence the phrase "one colour into the kiln, ten thousand out" (入窑一色、出窑万彩). Pieces made for the court were mainly flowerpots, pot stands and flanged zun vases, often numbered on the base, with smaller numbers on larger vessels. The museum presents the site as the Song dynasty's official Jun kiln; Chinese Wikipedia reports a growing scholarly consensus that places the first Jun-glazed wares in the middle and late Jin and the court pieces in the early and middle Ming.

The complex has three parts. The 11,000 m² main hall has six galleries: five run from the history of Yuzhou through Song and Yuan ceramics and the official Jun wares to modern Jun porcelain, and the sixth holds temporary shows. The kiln-site hall shows a complete porcelain workshop of the official kiln. A 2,400 m² research and development centre shows how Jun ware is made and lets visitors try it.

What to look for

• The Song Official Jun Kiln Site Hall (宋钧官窑遗址展示馆), covering a complete excavated porcelain workshop
• The "Imperial Official Jun" gallery (御用官钧), on the court wares and their place in Chinese ceramic history
• The "Way of Making" gallery (成器之道), on the setting, natural resources and techniques behind official Jun ware
• The "Thousand Years in Fire" gallery (浴火千年), tracing Yuzhou's ceramic history
• The "Ten Thousand Colours" gallery (万彩永辉), on modern Jun porcelain and how to judge it
• The Jun porcelain research and development centre, with making demonstrations and hands-on sessions

Location & getting there

Getting to Jun Official Kiln Site Museum

• Search for 钧官窑址博物馆 with 许昌市 and 禹州市.