Artist Statement

The world exists in a state of constant flux. The more certain something appears, the more it simultaneously contains uncertainty.

This world is full of contradictions. Nothing exists in isolation; everything reveals itself through its opposite. Light and shadow, male and female, truth and fiction, creation and destruction. Guided by the ancient philosophy of Yin and Yang and the Five Elements, I create works that embody both fragility and permanence.

In some of my works, glaze does not coat — it transforms into foam. When all conditions converge at a single point, a bubble caught in the very act of vanishing is held there, within the fire, forever. This process is an attempt to capture the tension that exists between the ephemeral and the eternal.

Everything emerges from clay and ultimately returns to it. Clay carries the memory of origins, and through fire it is reborn in a new form. Never identical, yet never truly lost.

In an age when even the contours of information and history continue to shift, I seek to express the subtle presence of this world through a dialogue with clay, fire, and glaze. My works are fragile, yet possess a resilient strength. They contain hidden spaces and reflect the uncertainty that permeates our existence.

Each bubble, each crack, each layer quietly speaks of collapse, hope, and the possibility of renewal.

From an early age, I have viewed the world slightly differently — questioning what others accept, sensing contradictions beneath the surface.
This perspective, shaped by my belief in the interconnected forces of Yin and Yang, flows naturally into my work.

I trust the earth, fire, and glaze to reveal invisible connections — between fragility and strength, chaos and clarity, dissolution and rebirth.
Through ceramics, I seek not only to create objects, but to express the delicate, hidden structures of existence itself.

Loving what Is being lost.

My practice is not about applying glaze as decoration, but about witnessing the moment when matter begins to act on its own.

My practice begins with the idea that glaze can be more than surface decoration — that it can become the core of expression itself.

When I first encountered the lava-like glazes in the works of Lucie Rie and Adam Silverman, I was drawn to their presence. They felt less like form and more like phenomenon — like clouds or exposed geological strata carrying the weight of time.

Through repeated experimentation, I eventually learned how to reproduce similar lava-like surfaces. Yet at that moment, a question emerged:
Had this phenomenon truly been digested beyond “texture”?

This led me to separate bubbling from the metaphor of lava and to approach bubbles as a state in themselves. Without assuming a final image, I began re-examining each element involved in ceramics — clay, temperature, time, gravity, material composition, glaze application, and thickness — listening to what was occurring inside the kiln.

After nearly fifteen years of sustained inquiry, toward the end of 2023, the material responses I had been working with finally cohered into a structure.From this understanding, Awa emerged — a phenomenon in which materials generate space through bubbling and expansion.

Unlike a surface coating, Awa exists as a layer generated between material and space. Depending on conditions, the bubbled layer can exceed 3 cm in thickness, encompassing multiple states — from dense and rigid to forms as fragile as meringue.

In some works, the extremely thinned cellular walls subtly resonate and emit a faint sound when touched.This is not an intended effect, but a phenomenon arising from the material structure itself.

What matters to me is not eliminating what cannot be fully controlled, but sensing how far it can be released. The bubble is not a fixed form; it exists at the boundary between generation and collapse. I test how much instability ceramic material can endure.

This approach is less about technical novelty than about gently unsettling the notions of “completion” and “form” within ceramics. I feel I have only just begun to reach the point where glaze itself stands as the central subject of the work.

At present, I present works centered on Awa through juried exhibitions in Japan and abroad, continuing to explore how far this phenomenon can be opened. It is both an expansion and a sustained, quiet act of observation.