Top to Bottom: Green Fire Kiln; Construction; Teabowl by Kusakabe; Kusakabe Firing; Untitled by Kusakabe; Keiko Fukai, Kusakabe and Alice Yabe.
a joint venture
Harvard University/Noble and Greenough School in Memory of Makoto Yabe
Built by pioneering kiln designer Kusakabe, Masakazu
Green is the New Crimson: the rallying call for Sustainability at Harvard
In pursuit of a greener studio practice, the Ceramics Program at Harvard launched a joint venture with Noble and Greenough School to construct an efficient and sustainable wood-firing kiln with the pioneering kiln designer and builder, Kusakabe, Masakazu. Now that the kiln is complete, Kusakabe is returning to direct the first firings. John Dorsey and Nancy Selvage are committed to using this kiln as an educational resource to inspire a sustainable firing practice among local and regional students and profesionals.
Kusakabe, Masakazu has researched, designed, and built many smokeless and efficient wood-fired kilns in Asia, Europe, Canada, and California. The Harvard/Noble and Greenough kiln will be his latest design and a unique contribution to the renaissance of wood burning kilns in the United States. Kusakabe’s kilns produce traditional ash-glazed surfaces in relatively short firing cycles with no smoke. He is the co-author of "Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics", Krause Publications, 2005.
Nancy Selvage, Harvard Ceramics Program Director, met Kusakabe in Japan in 2008 and invited him to give a kiln building workshop at Harvard in June 2009. Since the Ceramics Program's anticipated move to a new location had been delayed, Selvage was looking for a partner institution that could provide a good site for the workshop and a good long-term home for the kiln.
John Dorsey, the ceramics instructor at Noble and Greenough, was very excited by the idea of hosting the kiln building workshop and quickly obtained permission and support from the administration and buildings and grounds. All but the chimney of the kiln was completed by a collaborative crew under Kusakabe’s direction during a series of marathon construction sessions June 12–15, 2009.
How it Works: The position and relatively large size of the firebox and the tall chimney allow for effective combustion as well as ash distribution. It is the only smokeless wood kiln outside of California in the US, and the the first wood-firing kiln in the world designed to recycle some of its flue heat back into the firing chamber. This energy efficient feature evolved after Nancy Selvage introduced Kusakabe to a combustion scientist during a lecture on Art-Science collaborations at Tohoku University in January 2008. The Tohoku professor visited Kusakabe’s studio to observe his kiln firing technique and calculated that 10% of his flue gases could be recycled without interfering with the draft.
Makoto Yabe: Noble and Greenough is the ideal partner by providing another level of meaning to the joint venture. Makoto Yabe was a beloved instructor at the Harvard Ceramics Program and at the Noble and Greenough School. Several years before Makoto passed away, a friend gave him bricks for a kiln that he was never able to build. Soon after Makoto Yabe died in May 2005, the Harvard Ceramics Program used some of his kiln bricks for a temporary memorial kiln arch and lantern installation at the studio and his colleagues at Noble and Greenough built a memorial garden for him. Now Makoto’s bricks have been used to build the Makoto Yabe Memorial Kiln next to the Makoto Yabe Memorial Garden.
Press:
Nobles Fired Up Over Kiln, by Edward B. Colby, Daily News Transcript,
June 18, 2009
Firing Schedule for Fall 2009:
Saturday, October 31, 10 am - 1 pm:
glaze session with Crystal Ribich, Wayne Fuerst and Kusakabe Masakazu
at the Harvard Ceramics Program
Sunday, November 1, 5 - 7 pm:
ceremonial lighting, tea ceremony, music and memorial dedication of kiln to
Makoto Yabe
Monday & Tuesday, November 2 & 3:
two-day firing for ash glazing, cooling on November 4 & 5,
unloading/loading on November 6
Saturday, November 7:
one-day efficiency firing, cooling on November 8 & 9,
unloading/loading on November 10
Wednesday & Thursday, November 11 & 12:
two-day firing for ash glazing, cooling on November 13 & 14,
unloading/loading on November 15
Fees:
Ceramics Program Participants:
Free for glazing session, $35 for 1 firing, $65 for 2 firings, $90 for 3 firings
All others:
$25 for glazing session, $50 for 1 firing, $85 for 2 firings, $120 for 3 firings
PLUS 5 cent/cubic inch fee for volume of work fired in kiln
(participants will share the available space)
Those who participated in the kiln building workshop may participate in one firing and may fire one vessel for free.
For professionals who wish to drop by, meet Kusakabe and experience a period of the firing, the fee will be $25.
RSVP required. Email Nancy Selvage at selvage@fas.harvard.edu.
Location for ceremony and firing:
Noble and Greenough School
Lawrence Auditorium & Makoto Yabe Memorial Green Fire Kiln
10 Campus Drive, Dedham, MA 02026
Directions to Noble and Greenough School: http://www.nobles.edu/home/content.asp?id=93
To learn more about Kusakabe, Masakazu
visit his website at http://www.miharuarts.com/kusakabe/index.php?page=home
Directions to the Ceramics Studio, 219 Western Avenue - a 15 minute walk from Harvard Square, down JFK Street across the river, past the football stadium, right after the track, behind 175 North Harvard.
