IWASAKI HARUHIKO

Region: Uchinada, Ishikawa

Full profile coming to the blog soon!

Ishikawa born artist Iwasaki Haruhiko used to work for a design company. During that time he came across various artists' works and it inspired him with a desire to make work with his own hands someday. He registered at the Utsuwayama Kogei Koubou, an institution in Kanazawa city, to study pottery before becoming independent in 1997 and setting up his studio in Uchinada city. Since then he has been making pottery every day, though he joked that Sundays are his day off.

We came across his chawan in a Tokyo exhibition before the opening of our teahouse, so meeting him for the very first time is particularly meaningful to us. His work speaks simplicity, with white, black, and brown in colour tones. He makes a collection of tableware that is somewhat nostalgic, elegant, and harmonizes with the Japanese dining table. He says he is currently testing a new green glazing that may feature in his work in the near future. A distinctive characteristic of his work is that he mixes in the sand of Uchinada Beach, which is known as a sanctuary for lovers - the sand he uses is unofficially known as "love sand".

One piece of particularly unfortunate news for us is that he has not been making chawan recently, and whether he will start again or not is very uncertain. This makes each of his existing chawan extra special to us! For the time being we will be certain to enjoy a selection of his plates, cups and small pitchers.