Days of Trial and Error

Maeta had to manage every step of the creative process alone. Confronting this harsh reality, he devoted himself completely to white porcelain. With no one to turn to for help, his only option was to push forward through trial and error, tackling each unknown as it came. It was a slow process, but by learning from his failures, he solved each problem one by one.

Then one day, he suffered a devastating setback that threatened to wash away all his hard work.

"I think I built up my skills by making one mistake after another. But the hardest blow came about 10 years after I'd set out on my own.

The kiln I use is big enough to hold three months' worth of pieces at once. You can't see inside during the firing, so I always light it with a prayer in my heart.

When the firing is over and it's time to unload, I'm always hoping to find white porcelain of a beauty beyond my imagination. It cools for about three days after I turn off the heat, and I'm so anxious to see the results that I rush to open it first thing in the morning.

And then... I still hate to think about it, but every single piece from those three months of work was cracked. That moment was just soul-crushing."

In that instant, all his hard work had turned to dust. The agony of losing his creations at the final stage is hard to imagine. Maeta confessed that in that moment, before he could even begin to figure out how to prevent the cracks, he had lost all motivation to even try.