Click here for Raku 2008 registration

Raku Ho`olaule`a is an annual community Raku ceramics workshop, firing and camp out in a beautiful beach side setting at Waimanalo Bay Beach Park. This weekend event is preceded by an Urasenke tea bowl demonstration and workshop, a slide lecture and wet clay demonstration by our guest artist, a nationally known ceramicist brought to Hawai‘i for the event. Artwork glazed and fired at the beach is eligible for our juried exhibition at The ARTS at Marks Garage. Opening Reception for this Exhibition includes a Tea Ceremony demonstration and Silent Auction.

Raku Ho`olaule`a brings together potters to demonstrate and participate in raku and pit firing techniques. The guest artist also serves as a juror for an exhibition of work created during the workshop.

Registrants organize in firing groups which may camp overnight, making this event a rare opportunity to retreat with fellow artists and their families. The weekend raku event includes Community Kiln Day where the public may glaze a tea bowl and watch a Hawai`i Craftsmen volunteer fire it.

Hawai`i Craftsmen's membership includes a large number of ceramic and raku artists. For those working in their studios in isolation from each other, the Raku Ho`olaule`a is a chance to mingle with prominent raku artists and each other for a weekend of sharing and collaboration in a relaxed, non-competitive setting. Approximately 150 artists, including many from other countries (Japan, Australia, New Zealand, France), have this opportunity in a beach setting to be with a renowned master who will teach and demonstrate their raku style.

The public experience of art is usually of the finished product in a gallery or craft fair. On the beach, with the glaze sparkling in the sun and watching artists work, the public experiences the inherent excitement and mystery of the process of raku ceramics. They observe artwork in progress since work eligible for jurying for our major Raku Ho`olaule`a Exhibition must be fired at this special raku weekend event.

The Urasenke Foundation Founded in Kyoto, Japan in 1949, this worldwide foundation is dedicated to Chado, the Way of the Tea and the four Zen principles of Wa, Kei, Sei and Jaku - Harmony, Respect, Purity and Tranquility.



The Ideograph “raku” freely translated means enjoyment, contentment, pleasure, and happiness. It has its roots in the 400-year-old Zen tea ceremony of Japan. The original Japanese pieces of raku were tea bowls and the raku potters worked exclusively to produce vessels for the tea ceremony. A raku pot was seen as an object created according to the laws of nature, hence raku evolved as it did because of the preferences of the tea masters for natural things.

Membership and program fees support Hawai’i Craftsmen. This event is partially funded by the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and G. N. Wilcox Trust, the McInerny Foundation and the Frear Trust. Mahalo to The City and County Parks and Recreation for the coordination and use of the Park. Workshop space has been made available through the generosity of the University of Hawai‘i Manoa, the East West Center Tea House.

Mahalo also to the East West Center Tea House and the Urasenke Foundation for the tea bowl demonstrations and jurying of the traditional category Finally, Mahalo to the partners at The ARTS at Marks Garage for hosting our exhibition.