Makoto Yabe Memorial Kiln

a joint venture
Harvard University / Noble and Greenough School
Built by Kusakabe, Masakazu

In pursuit of a greener studio practice, the Ceramics Program at Harvard has 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.

Kusakabe 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 coauthor of "Japanese Wood-Fired Ceramics", Krause Publications, 2005.

Nancy Selvage, Harvard Ceramics Program Director, had met Kusakabe in Japan last year and had invited him to give a kiln building workshop at Harvard this June. 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 home for the kiln.

Noble and Greenough is the ideal partner and provides a new 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 died a friend had given 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 will be used to build the Makoto Yabe Memorial Kiln next to the Makoto Yabe Memorial Garden at Noble and Greenough School in Dedham.

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. John Dorsey and Nancy Selvage are working with Kusakabe to facilitate the construction logistics and to provide an effective educational program for the workshop and future firings. Kusakabe is creating a pioneering kiln design for this site that will incorporate his latest research on efficient wood-firing.

To know more about Kusakabe, Masakazu
visit his website at http://www.miharuarts.com/kusakabe/index.php?page=home