This distinguished looking dude in the warm-up suit is Matsumiya-san, the kamamoto, or kiln master. This is his place.

Here he's wrapping pots in rice straw prior to firing them in the small oil-fired kiln. Rice straw has an extremely high silica content, which means that it doesn't melt very easily. It's used here for a double purpose: to separate the pots in the firing (since they're separated by the straw, they won't fuse together) and to put the pattern of the rice straw on the pots.

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