وعاء ضحل 2

Statement

My grandfather's ashes were placed in a mass-produced urn emitting white, cold light. Inside, I whispered to myself that this was not the vessel I wanted for someone I loved. Looking back, I realized that strong emotion I felt at the time led me to the path of pottery making.

As a potter, I shape clay by hand, connecting the inherent nature within and the external nature around us. I feel the passage of time that my birthplace, once a major pottery site, has endured and try to blend it into my work. My hometown, Atsumi, was known for "Atsumi ware," pottery that was actively made from the 12th to the 13th century (from the Heian to the Kamakura periods). Reviving its lost kilns and restoring the ancient techniques hold great importance to me.

In the process of making pottery, as I feel the clay in my hands and move them steadily, I can sense a rhythm and flow akin to the natural order of things. This sensation humbles my heart filling it with a reverence for nature. Then, memories of playing and learning in nature as a child come flooding back, merging my time with the time of the clay, and my pottery-making process progresses. Everything in the natural world decays, decomposes, and is reborn in a cycle of life. Pottery, too, is meant to exist within such a cycle, made from earth and eventually returning to it.

When taking works from the kiln, there are pieces that, due to varying conditions and chance, do not conform to "the ideal shape based on human values" and typically would be returned to the earth as failures. However, there are moments when their form appears incredibly beautiful to me, prompting me to preserve them as they are, presenting them as part of my "Deviation and Cycle" series.

While inheriting the beauty and techniques of Japanese pottery made in the medieval period, including Atsumi ware, I spend my days making pottery with a reverence for nature. I aim to express through handiwork the flow of time and the changes that objects undergo within it. I hope people will hold and touch my diligently handcrafted works, using traditional techniques, to feel the soft memory of the earth. Conveying the soil of Atsumi and the techniques from our predecessors is my path, and I continue to create day by day.

History

In the process of making pottery, as I feel the clay in my hands and move them steadily, I can sense a rhythm and flow akin to the natural order of things. Feeling this makes my heart humble, filled with a reverence similar to that for nature. Memories of playing and learning in nature as a child come flooding back, merging my time with the time of the clay, and my pottery-making process progresses. Everything in the natural world decays, decomposes, and is reborn in a cycle of life. Pottery, too, is meant to exist within such a cycle, made from earth and eventually returning to it. When taking works from the kiln, there are pieces that, due to varying conditions and chance, do not conform to "the ideal shape based on human values" and typically would be returned to the earth as failures. However, there are moments when their form appears incredibly beautiful to me, prompting me to preserve them as they are, presenting them as part of my "Deviation and Cycle" series.