HONARI
Shiho Imura was born in Niigata City, Niigata Prefecture. She wanted to work in manufacturing, so she left Niigata when she was 19 years old and studied the basics of pottery for three years at the Ceramics Technology Support Center in Mashiko Town, Tochigi Prefecture. Mashiko is also known for its pottery culture, so much so that when you think of Mashiko, you think of Mashiko ware. After studying there, she went to Yomitanzanyaki Kitagama Kyoshi Matsuda's door in Yomitan Village, Okinawa, where she trained at Kyoshi Matsuda's atelier for eight years.Shiho was the atelier manager at Kyoshi Matsuda's atelier.We met her at Kyoshi Kobo back then, and we were impressed by how sincere and cool she was as a person, both in the way she went to the potter's wheel and in the way she did each task, and how seriously she approached pottery and learned without wavering from her goal of becoming independent. It was spot on. Around the age of 30,Shiho wanted to start making pottery independently in Niigata, where she was born and raised and where the climate is almost the exact opposite of Okinawa, and the soil and the wood and plants used as raw materials for glaze are different. After completing his training, she returned to Niigata and began preparing for independence.
During her training in Okinawa,she met Fumi Hirokane, a native of Kyoto.Fumi, who majored in ceramics at an art university in Okinawa, was active as a painter, but the two hit it off, and when Shiho became independent, they moved to Niigata and built HONARI kiln together.Shiho is in charge of the potter's wheel and hammering, but that's not the only job she does when making pottery. The two of them are making pottery while sharing the work necessary for the wood-fired oven.
A few years ago, a slightly larger kiln was made from the kiln in this photo. Tsubame City, Niigata Prefecture, where the HONARI kiln is located, is a place where snow piles up, and people say they have to shovel snow in the winter. This inevitably limits the time available for actually making pottery, but it is difficult to make pottery in the city using a wood-fired kiln, which produces a lot of smoke. That's why the couple chose this lush green location.Shiho's parents also helped with the construction of the workshop and the construction around the kiln, and when I saw how their friends from Niigata came to support them during the kiln firing, we were impressed by the sincerity of their work.We feel that it is because of the way we see ourself heading towards the future.
The HONARI kiln is able to create the traditional folk craft-like pottery that they aim for, without being influenced by or flattering trends. Work at the kiln has only just begun, but we hope that you will continue to pay close attention to the future work of the HONARI kiln, which is moving forward without any major changes.
In addition, Niigata's local web magazine "Things" carefully introduces each and every person who is active in Niigata. Please take a look at the article about Hooigama, which was interviewed in 2022, here.(Sorry in Japanese only)
https://things-niigata.jp/other/honarigama/
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