Anagama kiln

Ryusei Arita
Ryusei is born in Japan, internationally renowned artist who now lives in California. I have personally known the artist for more than a decade and, in fact, have shown his work at my former gallery in Berkeley to great acclaim and success. Ryusei hand-built his wood fired kiln on 1994 in Elk Valley, Mendocino County on California's North Coast because this type of kiln cannot be situated within city limits. Most kilns are gas fired and temperature contolled while Anagama pottery is created in a wood-burning kiln that needs 24 hour around the clock monitoring and continual feeding.

Peter Voulkos selected Ryusei first as his apprentice, then as his assistant during the period of 1966-1978. The aforementioned teacher has an international following and was instrumental in making Ryusei the artist he is now.