Shunemon Okugawa

  • Ceramics
  • 1949 -
Shunemon Okugawa

Shunemon’s works are characterized by beautiful forms that only an artist who has kept pursuing wheel shaping is able to create. His finished works with decorative engraving are often so thin that when held to the light they are transparent, and clearly show his desire to waste no porcelain clay.

His works are marked by a contradictory sharpness and softness; delicate engraving, and such sections as the rim and foot (bottom) demonstrate his painstaking handwork, with meticulous attention to each technique he spares no effort in finishing a work.

Membership Full member, Japan Kogei Association
Shunemon Okugawa Kiln
Part-time lathing lecturer, Arita College of Ceramics
  • 1949 Born in Arita Town, Saga Prefecture
  • 1964 Started production of ceramics
  • 1971 Studied under OKUGAWA Chuemon, a holder of national intangible cultural property
  • 1974 Selected for Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition (first time)
  • 1979 Independent under the name of OKUGAWA Shunemon
  • 1981 Full member, Japan Kogei Association
  • 1982 Started solo exhibitions (mainly in Tokyo)
  • 1986 Passed first-class skilled worker certification
    for hand pottery wheel shaping
    Acknowledged as a traditional craft artist for hand
    pottery wheel shaping
  • 1989 Held an exhibition of the last works of the late Chuemon, and his own works
  • 1994 Acknowledged as a model of an outstanding skilled worker by Saga Prefecture
  • 2000 Saga Contemporary Ceramics from the Home of Japanese Porcelain, British Museum, UK
  • 2001 "Seihakuji Kamon Ozara" collected by British Museum
  • 2001 Instructor, pottery wheel course, Saga Prefectural Arita College of Ceramics
  • 2002 Acknowledged as a "Contemporary Master Craftsman" title bestowed on
    outstanding skilled artisans by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
  • 2005 Received the Medal with Yellow Ribbon
  • 2011 Exhibited at Shanghai Art Fair
  • 2014 2014 HERITAGE Contemporary Japanese Ceramics, New York, US
    2014 HERITAGE Contemporary Japanese Ceramics:Living National Treasures and
    Other Masters, the Japanese Embassy, Washington, DC

  • Received the Medal with Yellow Ribbon from the Ministry
    of Health, Labour and Welfare
  • Received the title of Contemporary Master Craftsman and Outstanding Skilled Worker
    from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare
  • Selected for and awarded at many exhibitions, including the Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition,
    the West Japan Arts and Crafts Exhibition,
    the Saga Exhibition, the Asahi Ceramic Art Exhibition, the Kyushu Yamaguchi Ceramics Exhibition,
    the Issuikai, the Chunichi International
    Exhibition of Ceramic Arts, the Western Japan Ceramic Exhibition,
    the International Ceramics Exhibition, and other exhibitions
5 artworks posted