Korean Nambangae Grain Mortar

This primitive wooden vessel is a traditional Korean wood mortar used for pounding rice and grains. A form unique to Korea's Jeju Island, the mortar is known as a nambang-ae and is curiously shaped with a wide, shallow basin and a short pedestal base.

As evidenced by its enormous scale, the nambang-ae is shaped from the hollowed cross-section of a very old tree and inset with a smaller round mortar carved from volcanic rock. The broad expanse of the mortar allowed for multiple people to pound grains together, and so resulted in its own folk traditions and song. Ideal today as a sculptural vessel or planter, the mortar expresses the understated beauty of an authentic object, decorated only by signs of wear and the swirling movement of the wood grain.

Deaccessioned from the MacLean Collection of Asian Art.