He grew up in a small local town next to Arita, Saga, traditional craft production areas. As a child, he did nothing but draw. The first relationship with Arita was when he entered an Arita Technical High School. He wanted to become a painter since childhood. The school also had a ceramic department and the students were sons of kiln owners, sons of ceramic craftsmen and so on. Arita holds a large pottery market every May and the school teachers encouraged students to work at the market as a study. That was the daily life of Arita. At that time, he felt that ceramic was an important source of livelihood for people in Arita, rather than a traditional crafts industry. He had been painting from morning till night and had no interest in ceramics.
He started his carrier as a graphic designer in Tokyo after he graduated school, but he returned to Saga 3years later because of his father's illness. Though he could not give up the way of design, there were no jobs concerning design in Saga in those days. When he was about to give up, his former teacher of Arita Technical high school said to him "Drawing on porcelain is also design". It was the first time that he was confronted with the possibilities of ceramics.
He realized that his knowledge and skills of graphic design were not enough for the design of ceramics as soon as he started his job as a product design for ceramic tableware. It was a critical meeting with Hizen jiki. The boss of the design room was an enthusiast for Hizen jiki (Old Imari). It was necessary to learn and understand about Hizen jiki, the history, culture, technique, design and so on, to talk to him as an equal. He visited ceramic museums and antique shops to learn about Old Imari and read many books about Hizen jiki, to catch up with him.
He prepared himself that the way to Hizen jiki would start from zero. The relearning was a fresh experience for him. The best designs and modelings would create a completed master piece. It was the new world for him to acquire the complicated process. For about eight years, there were four kilns where he worked as a product designer. The experience made his basic skills and philosophy of Hizen jiki. Teaching how to draw and shape to craftsman were also his responsibility, as he have mentioned earlier, so he got the skills naturally on his job. Though all 4 kilns were located in Arita, each had its own way of doing things and thinking. So those experiences expanded his skills and ideas.
The process of making Hizen jiki has many detailed steps and each step requires a specialised craftsman. He wanted to do all the product processes himself. In fact, every process is interesting and joyful to him every time. The most challenging aspect is achieving a total aesthetic. The important point is the harmony with the shapes and the patterns. He believes that the meaning and the value of his way, doing every process himself, would appear as harmonious beauty.
It was about ten years later that he decided to show his artsy pieces, including boxes as artworks of a porcelain sculptor. About the boxes, he just like small boxes. He was strongly influenced by Manga and Anime from an early age, so he loves to make plastic models and figurines without particular care about the materials. His porcelain miniature figurines are an extension of his interest in figurines. On the other hand, various ceramic boxes have been made in traditional Hizen jiki. He makes the combination of such figurines and ceramic boxes. There were no special intentions, he just made what he loves. As a result of that, his box style was born. He makes what he wants.
He had no academic education in art or ceramics, nor had a master teacher. Master pieces of Old-Imari made by unknown ceramicists are his master teacher. Thanks to that, he have been able to make artworks true to five senses of himself, and that point is his greatest fortune as an artist. On the other hand, he was trained in Japanese calligraphy from an early age because his father was a calligraphy teacher. Due to the training, he naturally developed skills of painting with a brush, a sense of grasping space, and a viewpoint of harmonious beauty. Those points are his advantages as a ceramicist and a sculptor not only as a Sumi-e artist. Now he draws Sumi-e ink paintings and Japanese calligraphy works as art pieces. All the medias are important to him.
Sea, mountains, flowers, birds, animals ,everything in nature and old traditional things are his sources of imagination. He found his inspiration for creating art pieces from them. About old things, they have reasons why they remained over hundreds or thousands years. And, of course he feels power from them even if he does not know the reasons. He takes a walk along the seaside every morning and feel nature. He also loves to go to museums, antique shops, shrines and temples.
He thinks that learning the histories and the principles of traditional culture would force innovative art. All of his work is based on traditional Hizen jiki, which is something he is most proud of in his career. He has been giving new form to Old-Imari through his originality, without being eccentric in the way of expression and not influenced by trends. In Japan, we have a tradition named “utsushi” , which means not making degraded copies, but making superior objects, exceeding the original. What he has been doing since he started making his own work is the utsushi of old master pieces of Hizen jiki.
What he wants to present to the contemporary art scene is not surprising work, but peaceful pieces that make people smile. Porcelain works are something fragile, but it can be last hundreds of years. His aim is to create artworks that will still be loved a thousand years from now.
