profile

TAKU IMAIZUMI

(1966~)

My pottery career began at early age when entred the Kyoto Vocational College of Ceramic in 1985. I obtained the fundamental skills of ceramics such as throwing technique of a electric wheel there. After graduated from the college, I worked at Wakisaka Pottery Studio for two years, producing a large numbers of various tea cups, rice bowls, and flower vases. I was also engaged in the development of new products. Having much interests in scientific knowledge on glazes, I went up to Standard Course in Ceramics, Kyoto Industrial Experimental Laboratory. I acquired the characteristics of glazes from more than five thousands experiments of different combination of glazes and conditions. I obtained another techniques on porcelain at Zuiko Gama Company after worked for four years, and moved to Tokusen Atelier. Produced high quality potteries for Japanese-traditional tea ceremonies for five years. I was independed in 1999 with wide and various knowledge and skills that can create my original and unique taste and touch of work of both earthenware and porcelain.

After independence, I went to Egypt under the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV) Programme of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), and spent two years and six months teaching at Faculty of Applied Arts, Helwan University in Giza. I was also involved myself for a new area of work, such as a fountain sculpture of central dividers, imperial carved monument and mosaic-tiled wall. In 6th Cairo International Biennale for Ceramics in 2002, My work "Borderlands" won a prize amongst the works exhibited from all over the world.

After returning Japan in 2002, I launched my atelier "Shippokudo" in Kamakura. While engaged in producing custom-made potteies for individual clients, I hold numbers of private exhibitions across Japan, including Tokyo, Kyoto, Kobe, Nagoya, Utsunomiya, Kunitachi, Kamakura and Hayama. One of such was the One-man Exhibition at ISETAN Department Store in Shinjuku. The sales of the exhibition were at the highest record of a week during 2006. In a last few years, I worked as an instructor in a membersip-based ceramic academy named "REN" at Hayama. In 2007, I was promoted as the head instructor of the academy.

From January 2010, I went to Raquira, small village in Colombia. Teaching ceramics for artisans and students under the Senior Volunteer (SV) Programme of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA). After returning Japan in 2012, I started to make a new plan about ceramics studio with shop and wine bar in Chigasaki, Japan.

I started a new challenge in 2016. I cooked Japanese foods as a chef at the Japanese Embassy in Lithuania with my own dishes. And in 2017, I went to Ouarzazate, Morocco for repairing the kiln. At "NOW JAPAN" in 2018, I cooked OMAKASE dishes as a chef and held a ceramics exhibition at city hall in Vilnius, Lithuania.

I was born in Chigasaki, Japan in 1966, and spend childhood in Sydney, Australia. The days in Sydney were actually as a terning point of my life. It led me to the career of an artisan, and determined my unique style and attitude toward work. I am a skillful artisan with Egyptian, Colombian and Lithuanian-like sense of humour and wit.