Amu: Weaving Together Arts, Cultures and Communities - 2025
Shigeo Tanaka’s ceramics are formed slowly, shaped by hand and fire, and grounded in a deep connection to the land. Working from a 280-year-old farmhouse in Asuka, Japan’s first capital, Tanaka lives a life of deliberate simplicity—drawing water from a well, chopping wood for the kiln, and cultivating the clay from the surrounding region.
A largely self-taught artist, Tanaka was inspired by antique pottery seen in museums and markets. He began experimenting in his thirties, guided not by a formal master, but by books, intuition, and nature itself. His process reflects ancient techniques from the Jomon period and Korea’s Yi Dynasty, but he is not bound by one tradition.
Tanaka uses the keri-rokuro method, turning a potter’s wheel by foot and shaping clay without molds. He creates his own glazes using wood ash and straw ash, and fires his work in a self-built anagama kiln—a traditional wood-fired structure that yields subtle textures and unpredictable color.
His ceramic vessels—ranging from tea bowls and ritual urns to ikebana vases and Onggi-inspired jars—are quiet meditations on beauty. Each piece carries the essence of a life lived slowly, intentionally, and with reverence for both earth and spirit.
As the featured artist from Amu in 2025, Tanaka brings to IFAM a body of work that reflects technical mastery and a philosophy of stillness, nature, and enduring craft.
