One of the ways to fill a climbing kiln. A shelf is assembled from refractory clay slabs and columns, and items are placed between the slabs and fired in rows. There is also a method in which the square plates are made into disks and the columns are stacked around the disks, which is called tenbashi-zumi. These plates are called ebuta, and the cylinder is called tsuku. When combining the ebuta and tsuku, fireclay is inserted between them to hold them in place. In Japan’s ancient climbing kilns, vessels were first laid out on the floor, but later they were stacked on top of each other, first in saggars. Later, from an economic standpoint, the shelf stacking method was further devised, allowing for even freer stacking of vessels. Both saggars and shelves were made of refractory clay, and the latter was used especially in regions where refractory clay was abundant. Shelf-loading ebo is a device in which the entire kiln chamber is assembled in the form of a saggar, and is used exclusively in Japanese-style climbing kilns.
