Hamada has two kilns, one is small, the other large. THe latter is so large that it can contain about ten thousand pots. When he built it, someone asked him, “Why do you need such a large kiln? What are you going to do with it?”
His answer was something like this:
“If a kiln is small, I might be able to control it completely, that is to say, my own self can become a controller, a master of the kiln. But man's own self is but a small thing after all. When I work at the large kiln, the power of my own self becomes so feeble that it cannot control it adequately. It means that for the large kiln, the power that is beyond me is necessary. Without the mercy of such invisible power I cannot get good pieces. One of the reasons why I wanted to have a large kiln is because I wanted to be a potter, if I may, who works more in grace than in his own power. You know nearly all the best old pots were done in huge kilns.”
1952, The Unknown Craftsman, Sōetsu Yanagi
