Voice of Fire, Voice of Earth

Although I had built an anagama, the Iga- and Shigaraki-style pots I had made were still very different from the pieces I had pictured in my mind for many years. I have failed, and failed again. This time the firing must succeed. With focus and determination, I started firing. I have only wet and unseasoned firewood and I cannot get the temperature to rise. Is my life over? Have I reached a dead end?
　　　This was a time when I clearly heard the voice of fire and the voice of earth.
　　　　When I was young my elderly father often took me to antique stores, and I was thoroughly acquainted with the pots of Iga and Shigaraki that had been fired in the Muromachi, Azuchi, and Momoyama eras (1336–1600).
I had entered the law department of Kansai University on the advice of my teacher. While I was studying for the National Bar Examination I made ceramics as a hobby. Never did I dream that I might become a potter. At the moment I became a potter, my sheltered life was shattered. A new life started for me in a beggar’s shack. This new life in which I suffered cold and hunger continued for many years. My friends kept me at a distance, and my parents disowned me.
Shigaraki is situated on the southern edge of Shiga prefecture, and the cold in winter there is extremely severe. It is a miracle that I did not freeze to death in that tin shack. In such desperate conditions, the antique pots from Shigaraki and Iga loomed large in my mind every day. An angler says that the fish that got away was huge, and a woman says that the kimono she failed to buy was exquisite. Our minds insist that something is better when we conjure it up in the memory. I had a particularly strong feeling of attachment to things I had failed to achieve. The Shigaraki and Igaware wares I pictured in my mind were more beautiful than the objects I saw when I was young.
It was an extremely severe life I had chosen, and I was determined to fulfill my dreams. My life was getting harder day by day. I went to see many of my acquaintances to borrow money even when I knew that I would be refused. I would ask to borrow money from a person I’d met for the first time the previous day. I could not comprehend that a person I’d met for the first time would be unwilling to risk his livelihood for me.
　　　They say that a person has three chances in life. I have met many people since becoming a potter. My way of life was changed by these encounters. I believe that if you can manage to hold on to your goal, every encounter becomes a potentially life-changing opportunity.
An encounter with a person is something very mysterious.