Fire, water and the
Koolau Mountains add to the beauty
at Raku Hoolaulea 1997

Photos by Dennis Oda
Star-Bulletin

'I like fire,' said one artist. Fire is a big part of Raku Hoolaulea, but it's fire for art's sake. Kualoa Regional Park was the site of Raku Hoolaulea 1997, a celebration of raku, a traditional Japanese style of pottery. An estimated 250 people camped out and even more took part, with the public invited to camp, watch raku firings and glaze a tea bowl themselves. The event has been held annually since 1977, toward the end of May, with the beauty of the Pacific and the Koolaus combining with the firings and the people for good times and good art.

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Star-Bulletin

Most of the artists simply let blazing wood lie atop their
sculpture, but to Russell Wee, the process to get to the
product is just as important as the product. He wanted
his tower to burn first so the ball would then fall into the fire.

Here, pots are prepared before being placed in the kiln.
This helps prevent them from breaking.

One of the community kiln volunteers places a lid over a
reduction can to smother the fire where the raku pots are placed.

Felix Kang's "shark fin" won for best-looking floating pot.

Ken Patterson uses tongs to remove
a large pot from the 1800° kiln.

Leann Lee, 3, checks out a fire suit propped up to look like a person.