From his home county of Miyagi in northern Japan, Ken Shōji’s route to pottery ran through the studio of Kasama master potter Motohiko Ito. Training here for five years, Shōji received the varied education of a Japanese potter.

One aspect was wood firing, and the skill and connection to nature needed to retain control of a kiln in these circumstances is part of the fascination Shōji finds in pottery. Today from his studio on a hilly outcrop in Kasama, he founds his work on his materials, and in the regular battle to shape the sometimes difficult local clay. Variations in colour are another key element of his work, and the challenge of delivering contrast in black is a theme that he returns to. He achieves this with the ‘uwae’ overpainting technique, among his other explorations in colour and form.