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East Anglian potter lives and breathes Japanese wood firing



In the heart of the Aichi Prefecture in Japan, Norfolk potter Pat Southwood shovels wood into a giant kiln. She and nine other potters are taking it in turns to bring the Anagama kiln to temperature and are working in 8-hour shifts over a period of four days.

Over the past month there have been two earthquakes, a partial eclipse and a hurricane, and today it is 45°C with a humidity level of 92%.

‘And the mosquitoes are having a field day,’ Pat says good-naturedly. ‘I’ve got the scars to prove it.’

The truth is, Pat would not exchange this experience for anything the world. Having been awarded an International Workshop of Ceramic Art in Tokoname (IWCAT) Residency, she and the others are at the end of a 5-week programme which has not only introduced them to the culturally-significant and ancient techniques of Japanese wood-firing, but more significantly, to a large slice of Japanese culture.

‘The people of Tokoname are kindness itself,’ says Pat. ‘Initially it felt as if the residency was going to be about making work in Japan, and firing in Japan, and exhibiting in Japan, but it is about so much more than that. Because it is a home stay, we are having to fit into our host’s lives and are very fortunate to be able to peek under the surface of everyday Japan.’

And that culture, she says, is humbling. ‘Respect for others is paramount; bowing, incredible politeness, and the fact that nothing is too much trouble, ever. It reminds me of what I was told England was like in the 1950s; a tremendous spirit of humankind, kindness and honesty.’

A graduate of Anglia Ruskin University at Lowestoft College where she completed a BA (Hons) in Ceramic Design in 1999, Pat is no stranger to Japan. Over the years she has already been on three study trips to the country, and has visited with two exhibitions in Tokyo and Osaka in 2008, but this is her first to the ceramics town of Tokoname, famous for centuries of ceramic production, including more recently the production of high-fired industrial stoneware such as acid canisters, sewerage pipes, electrical cable pipes and toilets.

‘It’s where the clay is,’ Pat explains, before adding that on the other side of town, amongst the hilly streets, live some 50 potters; artisans who make both domestic and decorative ware from the same clay. Their workshops and homes go back to the Edo period and form what is known as the Sakae-Machi or ‘Pottery Footpath’.

It is here that Pat’s education started five weeks ago. Her host is potter and gallery owner Tomoko Okuda, an IWCAT committee member who lives at the top of a steep hill. ‘A very steep hill,’ stresses Pat. ‘Especially for someone from Norfolk.’

All of the ten participants have been given a bicycle for transportation. Pat has never been so fit.
For five weeks Pat and the other nine participants have been taken to numerous demonstrations, firings, ikibana (flower arranging) demonstrations, museums, galleries and workshops. In their workshop time they have had to familiarize themselves with the local clay and Japanese-style wheels, producing pieces that are getting fired in one – ‘Yes, just one,’ Pat confirms – firing before their exhibition.

Why such pressure?

‘Because that way you learn.’

The group has built their own small kiln according to traditional methods, plus they have the use of a large kiln provided by a master potter. They have spent three days packing the kilns with some 500 pieces and they know that much can go wrong. Because the fire is constantly being stoked, pieces of wood can accidentally carry through into the fire chamber and break some – if not many – of the pieces. The glaze created by the wood ash can weld pieces together, rendering them unusable. Or the potter may have simply misjudged the clay’s properties, leading to collapses, cracks and breakages. Only when the kilns cool will they discover whether they have made the right decisions for this type of clay, and this style of firing.

This firing costs about £400 in wood. They use a mix of pine and other soft woods.

When the kiln is finally unpacked, Pat is pleased. She had deliberately created pieces she would not have made at home – ‘What is the sense of coming to the other side of the world to experience many new things and then make what I could do in England?’ – and of these, she has only one ‘disaster’. A piece was ‘kissed’ by another. She has a couple of pieces she wishes could have been placed in the firebox where the temperature would have been the highest and thus the natural glaze effect the strongest, but overall she has come away with over 30 viable pieces, of which seven are exhibition standard.

‘If you can get over 50% that is saleable in an Anagama wood firing, then you’ve had a good firing.’

The pieces that worked best, she finds, are those with strong, simple and dynamic forms.
‘In an electric kiln or a gas kiln,’ Pat explains, searching for an analogy, ‘you can put on as much make-up as you like. You can play with fancy glazes and you can make a fairly indifferent pot look really good. With wood firing it’s a bit like going out without your make-up on, what you see is what you get and it has to have an integrity of itself. There’s no hiding behind anything. With wood firing, it’s in the lap of the Kiln Gods.’

Work made during the residency was exhibited at the Tokoname international ceramic exhibition and at the Inax museum.

Pat Southwood’s work can be viewed on her website or she can be contacted on email.

For more about the International Workshop of Ceramic Art in Tokoname (IWCAT) Residency, visit IWCAT