Yanashita Hideki began potting with two potters at 30 years old in Shigaraki. However, he is now based in Iga having begun apprenticing with Sugimoto Sadamitsu in 2007, who has helped him learn the art of Raku ceramics. It was Yanashita’s Raku that first attracted me, but I soon realized his practice encompasses several kinds of wares represented here by a variety of guinomi.

Yanashita acquires the clay appropriate to each kind of ceramic he produces: Raku clay from Kyoto, Ido clay from Korea and Karatsu, Shino and Oribe mogusa clay from Gifu, and he digs his own Iga and Shigaraki clays in his local area.

Using a special oak charcoal fuel, he fires the hand-formed Raku wares for a short time in his smaller Raku kilns. But Yanashita high-fires his other wares in a red pine-fuelled Anagama kiln for at lest five days.

While his Raku is particularly special, each resulting piece is a fine example of its respective ware. From the Korean inspired Ido and Buncheong, to the local Iga and Shigaraki, Yanashita pays tribute to the essential nature of each. Even the unusual Shino-Oribe cup evokes the very beginnings of Mino wares. 

Comes with the signed, stamped, and titled wood box, stamped wrapping cloth, and CV.