At the moment, there is also the Toki Ichi, the yearly May Pottery Festival in Mashiko from about 400 potters. We were amazed to see luckily so many tourists visiting this festival. But they were mainly all Japanese; no blue-eyed people around.

First, we arrived at the Togei Arts Center from Furuki-san. He made beautiful renovations at the Minshuku which had fully survived the earthquake, but the kilns were all damaged. Euan’s kiln was already repaired so people can start firing, and next will be Kusakabe-san’s kiln. His anagama was completely destroyed.

We had some lunch and met with Euan Craig who was manning his booth. He will help me still with the tour and interviews on May the 19 and the 20st of the Dutch journalist/magazine writers Yna and Mels and consequently, an exhibition in the Netherlands. But after the earthquake it takes on a whole different meaning and we are looking for other possibilities to make people aware of what happened in Mashiko and how to help them survive and continue the legacy of this incredible potters community.

Then we met with Ken Matsuzaki-san. I introduced Adriaan and he explained his idea how to help Mashiko and bring them out into the world. Luckily, Koi-san and one of the students helped with the translation.
After that, we went to Hamada Tomoo, the grandson of Hamada Shoji, and explained the same idea. They are very supportive but have to get used to the ideas.

A big shard pile at Matsuzaki-san’s place.

In the meantime, we saw the destruction of the kilns. Some were already cleaned up, but there was so much damage. Hamada Tomoo showed us the devastation of the Reference Museum of Hamada Shoji. Some potters were cleaning the bricks of the broken-down Noborigamas. So, much to do and the rebuilding of the treasure houses. The whole walls shifted. And so many of Hamada’s pots broken. But they had that all cleaned up and refreshed with other works from Hamada Shoji and Tomoo-san also had repaired some important plates from the collections.

Tomoo-san’s damaged salt kiln is already all cleaned up. Ready to build a new one.

Today, we met Fujiwara-san, Baba Yuchiko-san, the mayor Ohtsuka-san, and of course, Tsukamoto-san from the Toko Gallery and some other friends. So, we had quite a lovely day. We returned with the bus to Utsunomiya. We caught at 3:15pm the 2pm bus! Traffic was completely blocked in Mashiko.  It was that busy. The weather became cloudy and everybody of course started to leave at the same time. We got of the train in Tokyo to stay with my friend Lara and her wonderful family.

On this little Clover vase you see the fly ash deposits making a glaze on one side and on the other side the vitrification and starting of a glaze, patina by the flames, fly ash and heat, causing the orange and red flashing.

This vase was put in the fire box and was covered with a thick layer of ash of the burned wood.

The foot of this chawan, teabowl, shows the wonderful flashing of the fire and the upside bowl the fly ash and the flashing.

This Shiratori vase shows the drippings of the glaze falling from the ceiling on the clay.

Some pots from Euan’s Anagama, actually, down draft wood kiln. Read his essay about his kiln firing; website given underneath.

The inside of this vase is covered with a Tenmoku glaze.
On the outside, you see the flashing and the lines from rice straw full from an old tatami mat marking the vase.
“The glaze making minerals that enter a kiln with the wood flame in the form of ash and gasses can turn the simplest of pots into expressions of natural beauty by simple virtue of the process itself. The fly ash will cause a coating of glass where it settles on the pots, and the gaseous salts etc will cause the silica in the surface of the clay to vitrify causing orange and red flashing”. From Euan’s Essays:
http://www.d1.dion.ne.jp/~euan/sub5-2.htm

This vase was partial glazed with a Tenmoku glaze. It was at the fire face so the ash built up on the front of the vase and started to form little runnels down the vertical surface.

This little vase was put on its side on shells from which you see the marks and the flashing around the shells. The fly ash deposited on the top/right side of the vase.

Beautiful vase decorated with a Celadon glaze. The fly ash makes the glaze matt and you see the markings of the rice straw with the flashing.

Small Celadon glazed vase from the anagama firing.

Little chalice with the Celadon glaze, some Tenmoku glaze spatters and rice straw markings.

This wonderful vase was fired in the Flying kiln from Wali Hawes and was covered with the seaweed and scrub pads in a former blog. A lot of other chemicals were thrown in the kiln. Some beautiful colors developed. The white smog layer is salts coming out of the vase. The vase also got a lot of smoke from the charcoal put in the kiln.
(Please, click on it for enlargement).

Thanks, George Guine for the delicious meal you cooked for us on Saturday night! We all had a great time!

Total of all the pots fired. What an amount! And with wonderful results!

“Play and do what feels good”

“Use anything to shape your pots.”

“Give a happy feeling to the pot”.

Wali throwing nice and smooth bowls.

Throwing of the hump.

Measuring with your hand and fingers or with a tombo tool.

Pulling a handle from a can, because the mugs were still far too wet.

Throwing a big bowl!!

Kusakabe-san’s kiln. This part of the chamber had lots of ashes on the pots.

Great pots from the Sasukenei kiln.

Cooling down of Euan’s kiln.

The wonderful results from this kiln.

Opening of Steve’s kiln.

Interesting results form the salt kiln.

Opening and taking out pieces of Flying Kiln.

Nice results from Wali’s kiln.

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On Friday, Wali started to prepare his kiln and pasted with advertisement paper and wet clay. This kiln will be wood and charcoal fired.

The pasting team: Swanica, Debbie, Jenny, Catherine and Pat and Nicole (hidden somewhere).

My pot covered with seaweed and cleaning abrasive pads and rope to hold it. Seaweed contains a lot of salt and the fumes during the firing will color the clay.

Prepared pots for the flying kiln. (click on pictures for enlargement).

Putting pieces in the kiln.

Closing of the kiln and making of wings.

Drying of the kiln in a well protected area with roof against the torrential rains. It didn’t dry too fast, but still well enough.

Painting of the kiln by Debbie, Catherine and Nicole.

We started the firing of the flying kiln on Sunday morning, because of the heavy typhoon rains. Of course, when it is dark it is more impressive, but nonetheless it was very intriguing to get this big, heavy kiln to fly on chains.

And it did! Steve, Wali, Nicole.

Wali, the pilot!

It was a good take off!

Titus, Catherine, Wali, Jenny, Jenny, Dave, Graham, Euan, Swanica, Laura, Steve, Rob and Nicole.

Wali’s website is: http://www.walihawes.com/index.php

Building the flues.

Steve built the floor on which the wood and ashes will fall through the holes. Air will pass through the flues and the holes to give full combustion.

Explaining his plan to local potters. They are amazed as we build kiln which fire very fast compared to their kilns with about the same fire effects.

Bars in the fire box for the wood to fall criss-cross to get full combustion.

Closing the fire box.

Building of the second level: the pot chamber and the chimney.

Inside of the chamber.

On Saturday morning, we filled up the kiln.

Steve and Rob fitting and putting the pots in with the help of Kate, Steve’s wife.

The kiln is filled and covered with insulation and extra protection for the rain.

Finishing the chimney.

Euan, Steve and Kusakabe-san.

All this is happening while the other 2 kilns are cooling off. Euan’s kiln finished firing at 1.30am and Kusakabe-san’s kiln at 8am in the morning. Wali’s flying kiln is being build at this moment too (in the next blog).

Starting the fire!

The fire starts well!

Protecting the watch/check holes.

Flames shooting out of the chimney! The firing was done around 8pm Saturday night, and had taken around 6 hours!

His website: http://www.mudslinger.me.uk/

Euan is happy to fill his new built anagama kiln.

Preparing the pots with tatami straw. This will burn beautiful lines into the pot, because of the high silicium content.

Extra tatami straw on the pots.

The kiln is filled.

Closing the kiln.

The fire starts.

Stoking the kiln at night in the rain while a typhoon was passing through. Luckily, it was far away, so, the winds were not strong, but the rain at times very heavy and it was important to keep the wood dry!

The temperature is already quite hot. I guess around 1000 C.
And the wood is put back all the way in the fire box.

The kiln took 12 hours to fire: reached the temperature of 1300 C and soaking for an hour. Then the cooling down will start.