Shigaraki is known throughout Japan for one thing: the ceramic raccoon dogs that stand outside restaurants and shops, arms open, sake bottle in hand, an expression of permanent good cheer. They are made here, have been made here since the postwar economic boom, and have become so associated with the town that it requires a deliberate effort to see past them. The effort is worth making. Shigaraki is one of Japan's Six Ancient Kilns, producing ceramics since the eighth century. The tea master Sen no Rikyu chose Shigaraki ware for the wabi aesthetic of the tea ceremony precisely because of its character — rough, unpretentious, marked by the ash that falls during wood firing in ways that cannot be planned. The natural ash glaze that drips down Shigaraki surfaces in shades of green and brown comes from the kiln itself, not from human application. The workshops and firing experiences available through the Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park offer access to this older tradition. Stoking a wood-fired kiln is physical work; the heat and noise of the firebox are immediate and clarifying. What comes out of the kiln after the firing is, in the most literal sense, a collaboration between the maker and the fire.