Who is Min from A Single Shard and what is their importance?

Min is a potter. Min works alone and often throws his pots many times before finding one that lives up to his expectations. Min also makes many replicas of his work in case one should have a flaw in the gaze after the firing in the kiln.

Min has lost a child and is not happy to have Tree-ear working for him. Min does not want to lose another child and so he is often hard and mean to Tree-ear. In fact, when Tree-ear asks to learn his trade, Min refuses on the grounds that Tree-ear is not his own son. This causes Tree-ear a great deal of pain, but he continues to work for Min, even going to the capital of Korea in order to show the Royal Emissary of Pottery Ware in hopes that he will give him a royal commission.