Mingei Keramikerin in Tokoname
1951 Born in Oita-prefecture, Japan.
1973 Studied pottery at Toraku Morisato~s workshop in Kyoto.
1976 Set up a workshop in Iwata, Shizuoka-prefecture.
1982 Founding member of local Mingei Association. ShigeoSuzuki who was a friend of Yanagi and a great craftmanwas my sensei.
19851990 Went to England to see various slipware potteries. VisitedClive Bowen and worked at his pottery for a couple of weeks,andhave been good friends ever since.
1992 Married Richard Truckle and moved to Tokoname.
1993 Finalist in the Japanese Kokuten National Competition.Finalist two more times.
2001 Invited to the community college of Key West(Florida,USA).Demonstration and exhibition.
2004 Built a workshop at our holiday home in France.
2005 Built a large wood firing kiln in the south of Tokoname.
2007 Invited to Ecomusee Tuilerie de Pouligny in France.Participating guests in the pottery festival at Limeuil in theSouth West of France.
Statement
When I was 20, I traveled all over Japan. I fell in love with ceramics in Okinawa, themost southerly part of Japan.Then in Kyoto, I was fortunate to become the assistant of .Toraku Mori Sensei for a yearand a half. Mainly I learned Korean inlayed style.Finaly I returned to my home town to set up my workshop in Shizuoka prefecture.There, my ceramic works changed drastically when I met the potter .Shigeo Suzuki whowas a friend of Yanagi and Bernard Leach.One day he showed me an old English slipware dish, that was a simple square with slippainted pattern.That inspired me very much. Now I make high fired slipware works for table ware,vases for flowers and tea-bowls etc. mainly using a honey glaze and a straw-ash glaze.Beauty, joy and use, these are what I want to accomplish in my work.I also very much enjoy wood firing. My husband and I built a wood kiln in 2005, andI find that wood firing makes me get more energy and more ideas of things to make.So I~m looking forward to finding new directions for myself in the future.
Link
http://richardandmiekopottery.com/