Here's the big kiln on about the sixth day of firing. Note the flame and smoke pouring out of the leftmost peephole.

The leftmost hump is the firebox, where most of the wood is thrown in at the beginning. There's a couple of shelves of pots there, which are simultaneously the most prone to breakage (because of the greater heat shock in that chamber) and the most profitable when they're sold (since they have the highest concentration of ash deposits)

Next to the firebox is the "mini chamber", where the next largest concentration of ash lands. After that, the other chambers are pretty much even. Matsumiya-san again: "Last rooms feed me. First two rooms buy me car."

On the right is the firing chart at the end of this firing. This was a ten-day firing, which Matsumiya-san said was a little fast. For the potters in the crowd, you can look at the firing chart (it's 140k!).

Matsumiya started his kiln with an oil burner on very low stuck in the mouth of the firebox. Not until the first chamber reached about 700°C (1228°F) did he switch to wood. Matsumiya said that when he started preheating with the oil burner, he was able to control the warming up period much more accurately, and his wood use was cut in half (which is a good thing; note the somewhat depleted and yet still huge pile of wood in the picture of the kiln mouth).

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