[ crowing ] [ ♪♪] Ooh, look out.

Okay, how about this?

Sure.

You probably could even put one of mine in there.

That was the idea.

Ooh, good idea.

[ laughter ] My name is Hiroshi Ogawa.

I have been a potter professionally for 50-plus years.

Oh, this is mine.

How come this isn'’t in yet?

I invite eight other potters besides myself to fire with me.

And for one week we work as one.

Josh'’s plate stack could go here, right?

WOMAN: It'’s like 16.

OGAWA: Loading the kiln is a very intense process.

You do have to visualize how all of this is going to go in.

What else do we have left, just that one plate stack?

Once loaded, we put up the door and then we have this little ceremony at the beginning.

[ rings ] We all hit the gong to let the dragon kiln know that we are here and ready to fire again.

We sprinkle salt around the kiln for good luck and purity.

Hopefully we'’ll have a good firing.

We'’ll try to keep the smoke down.

Okay?

- Kanpai!

- ALL: Kanpai!

And then we build a fire right at the front and we go very slow.

[ ♪♪ ] The pots are affected by the slow-moving flame.

We do sort of paint with flames.

The color of the ash changes a little bit, too.

It also changes with the kind of wood you use.

We use alder and oak.

This pot was leaning on its side like this in the kiln.

And so this is colors that aren'’t hit except by flame.

But it was like this, and so this part is all ash.

And so that'’s part of how the flame and ash work in the wood kiln.

I was born in California in '’41 before the war.

And for the first five years of my life, it was spent in Gila Bend, Arizona, in a concentration camp.

And back in the '’60s, I left for Japan and studied religion and Buddhism, which turned out to be a lot more difficult and harder than I thought.

The head minister said we could take up flower arranging, calligraphy, pottery.

And as soon as he said that, I said, "Oh, good, I'’d like to do that."

And so I studied pottery while there and learned for a couple years.

And I just sort of went on my own of just being a potter.

And then I got sort of successful, made pretty good money.

But it quickly got, I don'’t know, old.

And so we moved up here in '’81.

I feel Oregon is a very good fit.

I could build an anagama, a wood kiln, and I could do things that I really wanted to do.

The clay is a natural part of Elkton.

It'’s just about a quarter to a half a mile away in my neighbor'’s pond, which we can dig, and you can work with it.

Instead of cutting this smooth and even, I often leave it just like this.

It'’s part of philosophy in that nothing is perfect with nature.

[ laughs ] I don'’t know, that'’s the way I tend to make things.

[ indistinct conversation ] Give me those two, too.

Okay, good.

I gave my kiln a name: Hikarigama.

"Hikari" means light or illumination.

"Gama" is kiln.

So it'’s the illuminated kiln.

[ ♪♪] The flame runs through the kiln all the time.

It is really awe-inspiring when you pull that middle plug in the side of the kiln during the third day of firing and you see all the flames coming through, and they'’re just dancing through just so slow, and it'’s beautiful.

The kiln to me is a sort of a living entity.

It breathes, it belches smoke.

The wood will start crackling.

[ crackles ] And then it'’ll slowly quiet down, and you listen, and it quiets down, it'’s time to stoke again.

And so it'’s just constantly feeding the kiln.

It is hard on us over a long period of time of four or five days.

As we stoke, the heat gets to us.

It requires a lot of dedication, but to me that'’s what it takes.

Just try to absorb what is around.

It is a process of the soul, you know?

[ ♪♪] I have 10%, maybe 5% control, and 90-95% is up to the dragon.

[ laughs ] And we need to be at peace with it and at one with it so that hopefully it will perform its miracles.

[ rings ] We do a little ceremony at the opening to let the kiln know that we have finished our task, and then we pull pots out of the kiln.

So, Josh, is this supposed to be a sculpture of a person or something?

JOSH: Sure, why not.

[ laughter ] Oh, that'’s really nice.

WOMAN: Wow!

Oh, my God.

It'’s beautiful.

Absolutely stunning.

That is amazing.

That'’s fantastic.

That'’s got to be one of the better bowls I'’ve ever seen come out of here.

- Aww!

- That is.

OGAWA: When I was in Japan and being very frustrated with my studies and everything, I had the head minister just tell me to relax and to absorb all that is around me, take it all in: the quietness, the walk, the meditation, anything.

And so that is one of the things that I do try to tell new people that come here and in their firing, that just observe and try to soak in as much as you can of this kiln and the process, you know, so that all of it can become a part of your soul.

I don'’t know, it all is a circle.

[ Ogawa laughs ]