Main characters

• Moon Geun-young as Yoo Jung/Yoo Tae Pyung^[9][10][11]
  • Jin Ji-hee as young Jung^[12]

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.

• Kim Bum as Kim Tae-do^[13]
  • Park Gun-woo as young Tae-do

It is as if Tae-do was born to protect Jung and be by her side. Jung has no mother so Tae-do treats her like his own sister. Tae-do helps his parents run their tavern and practice martial arts in his spare time. Then he spends the rest of his time looking after Jung. It's how his day goes. There has never been enough time in his day to be with Jung. He is a man who would readily give his life for Jung.From the son of a blacksmith to a military officer to a potter, that was the life this man was born to live. Handsome and talented at martial arts, he's also considerate and thoughtful, the perfect man. A righteous man who only says what is right and does what is right. He wields his strength against those who are stronger, and kneels down to the level of those who are weaker. His father was a blacksmith and he grew up with a tool in each hand. But he grew up to love the bow and arrow more than the hammer and chisel, and in the end he becomes a warrior. In his heart, there is only Jung. They grew up like siblings but the appearance of Gwanghae turns it into a love triangle. His skills catch the eye of Gwanghae and he comes a military officer, but his heart is conflicted between his liege and the woman he loves. In the palace, at times he act as a protector, at times as a lover, always staying by Jung's side.As Jung overcomes all the obstacles to become the top of the pottery department, he decides to give up on her thinking they could never have a happy ending. At this time, the Japanese invasion of Korea happens and the military personnel is called into action. Tae-do helps Gwanghae who is leading the troops and trying to govern, and helps save Jung who was captured as a hostage by the Japanese.He fights them but unfortunately, he is mortally wounded by the leader of ninjas and before he dies, he finally admits to Jung that she is the only woman he ever loved and the one who made his heart beat until his very last breath.

• Park Gun-hyung as Lee Yook-do^[14]
  • Oh Seung-yoon as young Yook-do

Yook-do is Jung's half-brother and the son of Lee Gang-chun, the head of the Sah-ong royal bureau. Born from a family of esteemed artisan potters, he is recognized as a talented potter at a young age. While most people think Lee Yook-do was born with talent, they do not know how much hard work and internal conflict was involved in the process. He spends hours every day at the spinning wheel making pottery.

• Seo Hyun-jin as Shim Hwa-ryung
  • Kim Ji-min as young Hwa-ryung

She spent her childhood with Jung and they grew up together. She dreams of becoming the first female ceramist in Joseon, but recognizes that she could never win against Jung since the latter is more talented than she is. Though she cannot make the pottery herself like Jung, she has excellent eye in distinguishing its artistic quality. As she later acquires money and power, she tries to grasp whatever she wants. She falls into a one-sided love for Tae-do, and becomes Jung's rival.

Supporting characters

• Jun Kwang-ryul as Lee Gang-chun^[15]

6th generation royal ceramist and Jung's biological father. His family is famous for making pottery. He is the guy that tries to stop Jung from becoming an artisan. He does anything for his son Yukdo. He later helps the Japanese to invade Korea but fails he later dies in the hands of the Japanese trying to defend Yukdo.

• Byun Hee-bong as Moon Sa-seung
• Lee Jong-won as Yoo Euldam
• Sung Ji-ru as Shim Jong-soo
• Jeong Bo-seok as King Seonjo
• Han Go-eun as Lady Kim (In Bin)
• Lee Kwang-soo as Prince Imhae^[16][17]
  • Lee In-sung as young Imhae
• Jang Gwang as Lee Pyung-ik
• Jang Hyo-jin as Ma-poong
• Song Ok-sook as Son Haeng-soo
• Choi Ji-na as Yeon-ok