Newspaper Article 1985 – Japanese flavour in pots

Japanese flavour in pots

by Elspeth McIntyre

JAPANESE style and method have shaped the work of Hastings potters Bruce and Estelle Martin, exhibitors at the 1985 New Zealand Craft Show in Palmerston North this weekend.

The Martins call their work kamaka pottery. Kamaka is Maori for foundation stone, but they found kama in Japanese means kiln, and kamaka good kiln. And it is the Japanese anagama kiln which makes their style special. Anagama means hole kiln nd [and] it is a method dating back to the 11th century.

The anagama kiln is built into the ground or a bank. Pots fired this way are not glazed but put straight into the kiln. They develop their own natural glaze through intense  firing for 10 or 15 days. Normal pottery is fired for about 10 hours in gas kilns.

The glaze which develops on anagama-fired pots varies with the heat, the position of the pot in the kiln, and the presence of ashes or flame. Thus the pots might not always turn out as expected, although the Martins are becoming adept at predicting the likely glaze from the position of the pot in the kiln.

“Sometimes it takes a bit of getting used to because it hasn’t come out as we expected. But most have a natural beauty that makes them lovely, Bruce Martin said.

“Each piece is unique. You’ll never get the same in another firing.”

The Martins built their anagama kiln on returning from a trip from Japan in 1978. In 1983 they hosted Sanyo Fujii, a master Japanese potter and anagama firer, for eight months. The three worked together, then sent 300 of the pots from that 1983 firing to Japan for a joint exhibition at Osaka in 1984.

Mr Fujii says each pot is like his child, and Estelle Martin agrees there is a special relationship there.

“When we fire the kiln we’re so involved with the firing, so caught up with the process, that a spiritual thing happens between us and what we’re doing. So then we have a greater affection for the pots that come from this kiln than we ever did from the pots from a gas kiln.”

Photo caption – POTTER Estelle Martin is framed by one of her creations.