Tea Ceremonies and Kiln Firings

Outside of the Shiro Oni pottery studio; I was standing among broken pots from past firings. Coiled and hand-built pots, mugs, tea bowls, and pitchers drying. There are also found objects from Koshigoe beach and calligraphy brushes from Korea on the wall. I was coiling a shallow bowl in the final days before bisque firing. Trimming the foot of a thrown tea bowl. The program director, Kjell Hahn, loads the kiln as I hand him the remaining pots waiting on shelves outside. Kjell loading the kiln. He’s been inside for the entire day, building shelves and placing pots onto them from back to front. The pots in the back get hit less intensely by the flames and particles, and the pots in the front get more ash built up on them but are more susceptible to the wildness of the fire. Another morning’s breakfast of potato and onion hash, fried egg, avocado, persimmon, clementine, and a never-ending supply of green tea. The fire growing in the kiln’s belly. The temperature is almost high enough to activate the glaze, which glows white when it reaches temperatures around 1,000 degrees Celsius. Our neighbor in Onishi brought us a bucket of persimmons from his tree and peeled a steady supply of perfectly cut fruit for the kiln stokers. Fuyuko Kobori’s father is a 16th-generation grand tea master and head of the Kobori Enshu tea school. She has been trained in the chanoyu ceremony since she was 6 years old and does modern interpretations in untraditional locations and structures, often built by her partner and collaborator, Kjell Hahn, as a performance piece. During the firing, she performed the ceremony in a mountain shrine built by a previous resident, Moch Hahn. The shrine is built mainly of wood and cloth, some of which I worked with him to dye. Fuyuko sets up the shrine for the tea ceremony. Next to her are bowls made by Kjell, John Dix, Akira Neba Yonebayashi, and Chiaki Horikoshi. In front of her are the ladle, kettle, water vessel, whisk, tea caddy, teaspoon, sweets, and a vase of picked flowers. Fuyuko readies Chiaki Horikoshi’s bowl by warming it with hot water before whisking the tea. This photo was taken by fellow resident Laura Pöld. Me with an armful of wood going into the kiln’s belly. Photo by director Kjell Hahn. In the kiln with Kjell, unloading. After a long day of unloading, organizing, admiring one another’s pieces, and being completely in awe of what was produced, we hike back down. Vase. Shigaraki clay, unglazed. Pedestals, both of mixed clay bodies in matte black and white. Vase, shino glazed porcelain pedestal, and unglazed plates. Vessel. Porcelain with shino glaze. Vase. Mixed clay bodies, shino glaze. Tea bowl. Hagi clay, Estonian pink glaze. Mug. Mixed clay bodies, gray blue glaze. Tea bowl. Shigaraki clay, shino glaze. Tea bowls. Hagi clay, shino glaze, cobalt.