The Autumn Ceramic Festival 2025

The Autumn Ceramic Festival 2025 in Arita will be held from Thursday, November 20th to Monday, November 24th. Many events will be held at various places in Arita town, and one of them is the traditional kiln firing using a wood-fired kiln. It will be open to the public at the following four kilns.

November 21(Fri.) Imaemon kiln
November 22(Sat.) Shigemasa Kobo
November 23(Sun.) Gen-emon kiln, Tengudani early kiln (Arita Porcelain Park)

Arita ware(Sometsuke: blue and white) is fired in a kiln twice before it goes from the pottery stone to the final product. The first is bisque firing, in which the unglazed pottery are baked at 900℃. After that, the products that have been underglazed are baked at a high temperature of 1,300℃ to become the final products.

In the Edo period(17th -19th century), the fuel used for firing Arita ware was red pine firewood, but the fuel has changed to coal, gas and electricity. Nowadays, firing in a gas kiln is the norm, but during the festival you can experience the process of traditional firing using red pine.

While watching the pyrometric cone melt due to temperature instead of using the thermometer, the craftsman uses his experience and intuition to add firewood to the kiln and raise the temperature.

Please enjoy how the flames mold the porcelain and feel the atmosphere by watching the flames erupt from the holes in the kiln and smoke coming out of the chimney.
(R.H.)
URL//https://www-arita-jp-e.athp.transer.com/