Glazed earthenware is one of the ceramics which are shaped with red clay, baked and hardened at a temperature of 800℃, and then dried at a temperature of 1200℃ after glazing it.

   In our country Hoeryong glazed earthenware is typical one.

   Hoeryong glazed earthenware is well known to the world because it is unique in color, simple in shape and varied in variety, as well as its utilitarian value.

   Generally, the colors of the glazed earthenware are yellowish brown, reddish brown, bluish brown and black brown but Hoeryong glazed earthenware differs from the others made in the other provinces. The glaze is not transparent but it feels soft and glossy. Also, the haeso color (bluish and whitish black) is coated on the surface of the glaze so as to give solidity of the products and mysterious feeling of beauty.

   As for its utilitarian value, all products weigh lighter than bulk, which is convenient to handle and are highly freezing tolerant and heat-resistant.

   Old record says that the great jar measuring two stretches of an adult’s arms were carried on an A- frame to Longjing, China and it shows that it was thin and very light.

   Rice jar, Kimchi jar and the other Hoeryong glazed earthenware were never broken naturally and the glaze was not worn off easily. It is also said that the foods in Hoeryong glazed earthenware were not easily spoiled or rotten and the endemic disease was not attacked either.

   In the past, a terrible endemic disease spread over China in the basin of the Tuman River, threatening lives of many people, but in Hoeryong area, on the other side of the river, the disease did not spread. That was why Chinese people crossed over the Tuman River and took Hoeryong white earth and glazed earthenware to use it. It is also said that not only in North Hamgyong Province but also many areas of our country, parents prepared Hoeryong glazed earthenware as wedding gifts for their sons and daughters when they got married.

   Hoeryong glazed earthenware, one of the proud folk crafts with a long historic tradition and culture, is further encouraged by the State policy of preserving the national heritages.