Bizen-yaki

Once I was lucky enough to visit the house of a potter, one who made bizen-yaki. This was, in part, the inspiration for the story in Practice Perfect.

Brownness is it's main characteristic. But like many things that first seem plain to a foreigner in Japan -- what with our being used to gaudy brashness -- the subtlety of bizen-yaki grows on you after a while.


This potter had this massive kiln, something like this one:



in which he could fire thousands of pots at a time. In fact, they only did two firings a year, as I recall -- quite an occasion apparently.

The ends were sealed off like this for the firing:



and it would be lit for days at a time, reaching an impressive temperature.



Next post: musical notes on Practice Perfect.