Yo Shakunaga

A potter carrying on Ecchu-Seto ware, with its 430 years of history, in Tateyama, Toyama Prefecture. She works with the turn of the seasons and the character of the land close at heart.

She spent her childhood in Tateyama, deep in its countryside, running through the fields and hills and coming home covered in mud. Growing up watching her father at his work, she came naturally to want to work with her hands, and set her course toward pottery.

Preparing the clay, without which nothing can be fired, is the pivot of the whole process. She picks out gravel and roots, and takes her time with the earth. Her workshop and gallery are in the Mushidani district of Tateyama.

After completing the forming course of the Kyoto Prefectural Ceramics Technical Institute, she began making pottery at her family kiln, Shorakugama of Ecchu-Seto ware. She has held solo exhibitions since 2001, and in 2014 moved to her present studio, an old house in Mushidani, Tateyama.