Koike Shōko

As one of the first female graduates from the prestigious ceramics department of the Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music, Koike Shoko is among the very few women ceramists of her generation to support herself as a studio-artist. In so doing, she has become one of the most recognized contemporary female ceramists in Japan with works in museum collections throughout the world. Koike draws inspiration from the sea, creating shell-inspired sculptural forms in shigaraki stoneware with irregular, undulating, pinched, ruffled edges that protrude from her hand-built and wheel-thrown bodies. A creamy white, opaque glaze covers her forms and the edges are further accentuated with brown iron glaze and sometimes supplemented with metallic, iridescent or turquoise glazes.