Anagama Kiln - Kiln Variants

Kiln Variants

One variant on the anagama style is the waritake kiln. A waritake kiln is akin to anagama in structure, but it has partition walls built every several meters through the length of the kiln. Each partition can be side stoked.

A Noborigama 登り窯 chambered climbing kiln is also built on a slope, and each succeeding chamber is situated higher than the one before it. The chambers in a noborigama are pierced at intervals with stoking ports. Such climbing kilns have been used in Japan since the 17th century. The largest working Naborigama kiln in Japan is located in Shigaraki, in the southern portion of Shiga Prefecture.

The Renboshiki noborigama is a multi-chambered climbing kiln. There are many distinguishing characteristics between the noborigama and anagama style. For example, an anagama is somewhat like a half-tube (long vault) with a fire burned at the lower end. A noborigama is like a set of half-tubes (arches or short vaults, buttressing each other) placed side-by-side with piercings that allow each chamber to feed into the next.

The jagama (snake kiln or dragon kiln) is related to anagama, noborigama, and waritake kilns, and was used extensively in China for thousands of years. Jagama are tube shaped similarly to anagama kilns, but can be longer at around 60 m. Although partitioned and side stoked, jagama do not have partition walls, rather, improvised walls are created by densely stacking pottery at intervals.