Building Your Own Kiln: Three Japanese Potters Give Advice and Instructions
HIROMI ITABASHI is best known for his abstract ceramic sculptures. Itabashi's apprenticeship began with participation in archaeological digs on traditional pottery sites in Korea. After studying local traditions in Gifu Prefecture, he joined the studio of master potter Keiji Ito. He opened his own potter studio in Mitaka, Tokyo, in 1980 and began teaching at Tama Arts University in 1999. He has taught and exhibited widely overseas, and received numerous awards in Japan and internationally.ROPPO TAMURA began his training in the late 1970s as an abstract painter in oils, but he gradually turned his attention to sculpture and finally to the creation of ceramic objets. He built his first kiln, a noborigama, or multi-chambered climbing kiln, in Nagano Prefecture in 1982, where he was studying pottery under the direction of potter friends. In 1985 he built a single-chambered anagama kiln, which, though smaller, he realized was better suited to his needs. At this time he was still experimenting with various different types of pottery-creating plain and undecorated functional ware and objets that made use of natural ash glaze, and also artificially glazed Shino ware. He moved to Yamanashi Prefecture in 1991.NAOKI KAWABUCHI began making pottery in 1974 and has gained an international reputation for the originality and creativity of his undecorated stoneware, and in particular for his ware done in the Nanban style. His work in the Iga and Shigaraki traditions is also highly regarded. In one of his individual shows, Kawabuchi exhibited an astonishing 10,000 individual tea bowls. Apart from a year spent studying earthenware firing techniques with a master potter, he is largely self-taught.