Working with master potter, Yoshihiro Kumon, in Fujimicho, Japan

Master potter Yoshihiro Kumon is not only an incredible teacher, but also a stellar tour guide.  Here we have hiked to a waterfall before visiting the ancient kiln site of Tokoname. 

Vicki's recently made bowls, cups, pitchers, and vases are drying outside Yoshihiro's studio,  awaiting firing in his soda kiln.

Vicki's tea cups with one-fingered handles are almost dry enough for the kiln.

Cups and other pottery items have been loaded into the bisque kiln for their first firing.

Vicki works in the studio, preparing bowls and other ceramics for glazing in the soda kiln.

Vicki is making a trimming tool with which she will touch up and finish the bottoms of bowls which were made on the potter's wheel, before the bowls are fired. 

Vicki's finished white stoneware bowls with a blue chun glaze fired in the soda kiln glisten in the sun.

Vicki exhibits and sells her work at a market in Karuizawa, Japan. 

Yoshihiro pours glaze over bisqued cups in the studio.

How exciting!  The kiln has fired, cooled,  and opened, revealing Vicki's beautiful new pots. Yoshihiro has adapted a traditional Japanese wood kiln into one that produces soda-fired ceramics. He prides himself as being the first Japanese potter to bring the soda-fired method to Japan. 

A trio of Vicki's turquoise glazed tea cups sit outside the studio.

Yoshihiro divines the future as written on found parchment. 

A chance meeting with an intrepid woman traveling solo around Japan on her beloved motorcycle.

Traditional raccoons line the path of the forest near the clay center of Shigaraki.