KOGEI & Me

Mr. Masahide Shioji is the third head of the family of “Tohachiya” which is a manufacturer and vendor of Wajima lacquerware, called “Nushiya” in the region. After graduating from university, he began his apprenticeship to take over the family business and gradually he became devoted to the works of artisans. However, his father told him to do works related to being a merchant, not an artisan as he...

Mr. Shusaku Yamamoto and Ryosaku Yamamoto were born into a family of pottery artists of Bizen ware. Their late grandfather, Mr. Toshu Yamamoto was a human national treasure and their father, Mr. Izuru Yamamoto is the holder of Okayama Prefecture-designated important intangible cultural property. For them, pottery was as ordinary as air that it was not a subject of their interests. However, they ha...

Mr. Yoshiyasu Harada and his wife Ayako are leading Kichiemon Porcelain Co., Ltd.in Arita. Mrs. Harada is from Gunma Prefecture and learnt textile and dyes in an art school in Tokyo. After marrying Mr. Harada, she moved to Arita, the region in which she had always been interested for its tradition of pottery and the life in its close community. With the growth of her attachment to the town, she ha...

The president of Tokko Kiln, Mr. Hiroyuki Tokunaga was born in 1974. He majored in history at the university and was thinking about continuing his study to be a researcher but the last words of his late grandfather who said, “Pottery is more fun than you would expect”, had remained in his heart and it prompted him to succeed the family business. His younger brother Eijiro, is a pottery thrower.  E...

Leather and dye craft artist, Mr. Kenichi Harada had worked as a camera assistant after studying fashion design in Tokyo. He subsequently got a position in the design division of an electronics company where he was taking care of photography of the products. Around that time, he experienced a technical transition in the field of photography from film to digital and that circumstance made him recon...

Mr. Koji Yamane is from Kumamoto Prefecture. From a young age, he was fond of arts and crafts and interested in the work of craftspeople. After graduating with an engineering degree, he had worked in various fields but his desire to be a craftsman still remained. Subsequently, he joined Takemata as an artisan of bamboo craft. Having been fascinated by the natural beauty of bamboo and the flexibili...

Mr. Yoshio Sotokawa moved from his hometown, Toyama city to Takaoka city to join YAMAGUCHI KYUJO Co., Ltd. in 1979 when he married one of the daughters of the Yamaguchi family. As he got involved in the family business, he gradually became fascinated by the deep culture of traditional Buddhist objects that the company deals in. Being an experienced sales person, he not only visits his customers bu...

Mr. Nomura was born and raised in Toyama prefecture. When he moved and settled in Takaoka city, he frequently visited Takaoka Art Museum and that is when he discovered traditional craft works of Takaoka. He was especially attracted to lacquerware decorated with “raden” (mother-of-pearl inlay) and that attraction had made him thought about making it himself. Although his earlier career was far from...

Mr. Shozo Yamaguchi was born in Kyoto. In 1998, he joined KUMAGAI Co., Ltd., a company specializing in Kyoto ware as he wished to do work which is related to Kyoto, his hometown. Being a salesperson, he has developed new sales channels for this company. The most memorable event happened during his second year with the company when he was involved with the product development project of chopstick r...

Born in Aichi Prefecture, Mr. Hamono had moved to Mizunami City in Gifu Prefecture, a production area of ceramics in 2015 after his marriage, as it was his wife’s hometown. Soon after, he joined Oda Pottery Co., Ltd. Even though he did not have any experience in ceramic manufacturing, he believed that the work environment where people concentrate on their work silently would suit his personality. ...

Mr. Nobuo Gato, a craftsman of wipe-lacquering (fuki urushi) is the third-generation of a lacquerware merchant, Gato Mikio in the town of Yamanaka in Ishikawa Prefecture. He was encouraged by the words of his father, Mikio “ Lacquerware will never disappear ”, and decided to take over the family business. After graduating from high school, he worked for a wholesaler of lacquerware in Nagoya City i...

Mr. Reo Kosaka and his wife, Mrs. Chie Kosaka met each other as fellow students at the technical school of urushi lacquer arts in Kiso, Shiojiri City. They got married in 2009 and took over the lacquerware shop run by Reo’s family. For their family business, Mr. Kosaka’s work is now focused on the production of wooden furniture while Mrs. Kosaka does hand painting of lacquer. Even though both of t...