窯

kiln; oven

Kanji 1881

This photo-rich essay brings you into the fascinating world of kilns in Japan, where people have fired pottery for 10,000 years! One kiln is named for a snake. Another climbs hills and requires people to stoke the fire around the clock for weeks. Find out about "kiln effects," wherein flying ash enhances a pot's beauty. Also learn to talk about baking food in ovens and building your own wood oven!

Revision History:

June 29, 2021: 

• p. 10: Deleted some broken links and rewrote the surrounding text.
• p. 15: Added a link to the Kanshudo games.

May 4, 2019: Made the following changes:

• p. 1: Added the new Henshall number.
• p. 2: Updated the Etymology Box in various ways. 
• p. 3: In the vocab for the 2nd sample sentence, changed 保つこと (たもつこと: keeping) to 保つ (たもつ: to keep).
• p. 11: Fixed a broken link.
• p. 13: The Bankoyaki earthenware pot photo caption now refers to a "dark-glazed porcelain bowl" and now has the revised "-炊き (-たき: cooking (grains, such as rice))" in the vocab.
• p. 15: Added a link back to this page so you can more easily access the game below.

Feb. 6, 2015: Originally published.