About Mr. Sagane

Mr. Sagane lives in Maizuru located in the northern part of Kyoto Prefecture in a beautiful mountain village where he makes pottery. His ceramic making begins with extracting clay from the soil found there. He lives a self-sustaining lifestyle by growing wheat, buckwheat soba and tea in the same soil and gathering bamboo shoots and wild mountain vegetables. Through his touch, he breathes new life into the soil, trees and all the plants.His style is bold yet delicate. His hands while kneading clay and spirit in coming to face with nature consistently remain pure and humble, consequently robust. In his pottery, his stance to gently yet rigorously watch over the phenomena of nature is revealed.

The Kiln & Technique

Mr. Sagane fires his pottery in his traditional anagama kiln he built, which creates striking natural surfaces from the natural ash glaze. In his single-chamber anagama kiln, Sagane’s spirit fuses with all the elements of nature, clay, fire, wood, and air, to become his expression.Anagama literally means cave kiln in Japanese.

As the name implies, the kiln is built in a cave-like shape consisting of the firing chamber at one end and the flame path on the other end. After the clay pieces are dried, they are placed in the anagama kiln without being glazed. Sagane brings his kiln to 1150°C (2102°F) during a 24 hour period then continues to bring the temperature to 1250°C (2282°F) which takes another 32 hours. The firing takes 3 days and requires 4 tons of firewood from nearby. Sagane uses mostly oak.

The distinctive surface of the pottery depends on the amount of firewood and the use of charcoal, and the result of the manipulation inside the anagama.

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