Raku Ho`olaule`a is an annual community
Raku ceramics workshop, firing and camp out in a beach side
setting at one of Oahu’s beautiful beach parks. It brings together
ceramic artists to participate in raku and pit firing techniques.
The weekend event is preceded by an Urasenke tea bowl
demonstration and workshop, a slide lecture and wet clay
demonstration by a guest artist, usually a nationally known
ceramist brought to Hawai‘i for the event. Objects glazed and
fired at the beach are eligible for the exhibition, juried by the
guest artist, at The ARTS at Marks Garage. Opening Reception for
this Exhibition includes a Tea Ceremony demonstration and Silent
Auction.
Registrants organize in firing groups who can camp overnight,
making this event a rare opportunity to retreat with fellow
artists and their families.
In 2011, the Community Kiln Day, when the public can glaze a
tea bowl and watch a Hawai`i Craftsmen volunteer fire it, was
moved from the beach to downtown in the front of Marks Garage
during Slow Friday. It proved so successful that it will probably
remain at that venue.
Hawai`i Craftsmen's membership includes a large number of
ceramic and raku artists. The Raku Ho`olaule`a is a chance to
mingle with fellow raku clay people for a weekend of sharing and
collaboration in a relaxed, non-competitive beach setting. As many
as 150 artists, including many from other countries (Japan,
Australia, New Zealand, France), have taken this opportunity to be
with a well-known master who will teaches and demonstrates.
The worldwide Urasenke Foundation, founded in
Kyoto, Japan in 1949, 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. Mahalo
to the City and County Parks and Recreation Department for the
coordination and use of the Park. Workshop space is made available
through the generosity of the University of Hawai‘i Manoa.
Mahalo also to the East West Center Tea House and the Urasenke
Foundation for the tea bowl demonstrations and jurying of the
traditional category
