TSUJIMURA Shiro

Shiro Tsujimura is one of Japan’s most celebrated contemporary ceramic artists, renowned for a fiercely independent, entirely self-taught practice that expands the expressive possibilities of Japanese ceramic traditions. Initially trained in oil painting, Tsujimura turned to ceramics after a period of spiritual questioning that led him to live in a Buddhist temple studying Zen and, ultimately, to a revelatory encounter with a classic Ido tea bowl at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum. In 1970, he built his first kiln (and the house beside it) in the remote hills of Mima, where he has since constructed multiple kilns, a teahouse, and a life dedicated primarily to clay.

Working across Oribe, Shigaraki, Iga, Shino, Kohiki, Ido, Setoguro, and Bizen traditions, Tsujimura embraces the unpredictable forces of earth, fire, and natural ash glazing to create dynamic, anagama-fired works that celebrate imperfection, spontaneity, and the passage of time. His practice embodies the spirit of wabi-cha and the Japanese aesthetic of ma, treating each vessel as a living expression of void, nature, and transformation.

Widely regarded as a living legend, Tsujimura has exhibited internationally, including a solo chadōgu exhibition at the Kyoto Chado Shiryokan, and his works reside in major public collections such as the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco.