Meet the Kasama Potters

This February, the Kasama Potters’ Islington Square pop-up offered the chance to meet and see work and demonstrations by leading members of Kasama’s ceramic community.  For the first time since the beginning of the Kasama Potters project in 2020, which showcases a ceramic town in Japan, nine leading participants travelled to the UK.

The nine potters from Kasama featuring are Hiroshi Kikuchi; Hiroshi Otsu; Ken Shoji; Kenji Tayama; Takahiro Manome; Tatsushi Nemoto; Yukikatsu Isobe; Koji Masubuchi and Hiroyuki Onuki.

Each presented a collection of drinkware as a representative selection of their work, which was available to purchase on the day.

To inaugurate the event, the ceramicist Tatsushi Nemoto created original food designs with a dripper of the type he uses to apply liquified clay (slip) to the surface of his work.  This was an opportunity to see - and eat - the icchin ceramic technique used in Kasama. Hiroyuki Onuki, who uses calligraphy techniques in his work, also participated with his own edible demonstration.

The event took place at the pop-up venue in Islington Square created to display work from Kasama, which for a limited time offers a unique opportunity to encounter ceramics from one of Japan's most creative pottery settlements.

The nine potters also visited Stoke-on-Trent to deepen the exchange that the Kasama Potters project has begun.