Went to the unloading of a friend's anagama kiln today.A brief description of the firing: Kano's Anagama. Fujioka, Japan.
Ceramic instructor Takashi Tanaka of Tokyo Geijutsu Daigaku college led the firing.
They fired the kiln for 80 hours. Cones 9 and 10 only went down in the front. In the back the cones hadnt gotten soft yet. While they usually fire at lower temperatures than most kilns i've been to, (at john dix's kiln we knock down cone 12 in front and most of 11 in back) the temperature was low even for this kiln. I think they only got the temperature past 1200°C once. They didnt give a reason. As a general rule an anagama is fired to 1300°C, ensuring the clay body has vitrified and the glazes have properly matured.In the Kano Anagama there was very little ash accumulation in the firebox or on the pots. No flashing, koge or hi-iro on pots either (generally the reason for firing in an anagama is to get those effects)
Since they glazed all the wares the light ash traveling through the kiln created some subtle matte effects on the pots, but that was the only evidence in the kiln that it had been a wood firing. Where ash hit unglazed clay it deposited a low-gloss white glass.
Professor Tanaka seemed pleased with the results. I have to disagree with him though.
I think he was trying to save time and money with the short firing and lower temperature but in my opinion it undermines the purpose of an anagama. I understand that Mr. Tanaka is only firing the kiln as a side project, but there arent any shortcuts in a wood fired kiln and I think they should have used used a gas or electric kiln instead.

Here's a link to a site with good descriptions of common firing effects that a wood-fire anagama might produce: Anagama Firing Effectsphoto of pots in front shelf of kiln, with little to no variation in the coloring
(you can see cones 9 and 10 on the left side of the photograph)