Goddess of Fire (; lit. Goddess of Fire, Jung Yi) 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.
The historical drama depicts the life and loves of Yoo Jung, who is based on real-life 16th century historical figure Baek Pa-sun, renowned as the first female potter and porcelain artist in the Joseon Dynasty.
Baek's glazing skills were so prized, she was appointed as a china maker for the royal family. But her fame also attracted the attention of foreign invaders, and during the Japanese invasion in 1592, she was among the Korean artisans captured and forcibly taken to Japan and made to continue their craft there. Under Toyotomi Hideyoshi's orders to enrich Japanese arts and culture, Baek helped the advancement of many new types of pottery that would be claimed as Japanese works of art. She became well-respected in Japan, and there exists a shrine in the city of Arita dedicated to her.
Plot
Gifted with natural talent and skill, Yoo Jung has a passionate artistic soul and dreams of becoming the top potter and porcelain artist of the Joseon Dynasty. Joseon was famous for its white porcelain, purported to be the highest quality in 16th century Asia, and Jung learns her craft in the porcelain workshop Bunwon (), government-subsidized kilns at Bunwon-ri, Gwangju, where ceramics is a mixture of art and science.
Jung later falls in love with Prince Gwanghae, who becomes a tragic king troubled by the various threats to his crown. Despite Gwanghae's deep love for Jung, he must let her go.
Cast
Main characters
Moon Geun-young as Yoo Jung/Yoo Tae Pyung
Jin Ji-hee as young Jung
She was born with an enhanced sense of smell, taste, hearing, sight and touch. She can see and tell apart excellent pottery from the rest. She uses all of her senses and talents to create brilliant pieces of pottery. She uses her sense of smell to choose the best clay material, she tastes the glaze used to make pottery to ensure it is of best quality, and when baking pottery, she relies on her acute sense of hearing to regulate temperature. Her delicate hands masterfully shape clay into a masterpiece. People say the God of Kiln entered her body when she was born inside a kiln. A skilled potter with an artistic soul and an unsurpassed gift for this craft. She is a woman who is not afraid of confrontation and has a quick-thinking mind.She wanted to become a blacksmith more than a potter, but her fate thought otherwise.Her ability to make a ceramic after one look was recognized by King Seungjo, and it isn't until her adoptive father dies that she vows to become the top potter in all of Joseon and trains to enter the Palace pottery department. She uses her talent and passion to overcome every obstacle in the pottery department and others' jealousy and the limitations of her gender. As a woman, she becomes the youngest potter in the department. She starts to make the ceremonial items used by the royal family as well as their personal use items. She engages in a head to head battle with her nemesis Lee Yook-do and in the end emerges victorious as the head of the department. Her name will forever remain in Joseon annals as one of the most prolific and decorated potters in history. But in the end, Jung falls into a trap set by mad jealous Lee Yook-do and became coveted by Japanese shogun Toyotomi Hideyoshi who wants her for her ceramic talent. Jung becomes the only one who can end the Japanese invasion, so she decides to sacrifice herself in order to end it. She goes abroad to Japan and there she creates the famed Joseon-era ceramic that will endure for generations in Japan.
Lee Sang-yoon as Prince Gwanghae
Noh Young-hak as young Gwanghae
His name at birth was Hon. He later becomes the 15th king of the Joseon Dynasty but receives the lower title of Gun instead of the full title befitting a Joseon ruler. He had the gravitas of a ruler at a young age but his brilliance compelled his adversaries to block his path to the throne. Because his mother, the concubine, died while giving birth to him, his father King Seonjo partly blames him for this and they never form a close a bond. Gwanghae realized at an early age that training in the martial arts and excelling in academics would foment animosity towards him. While on a hunting trip with his father, he encounters Jung, his woman of destiny.