Tsuneko Sasaki

Tsuneko Sasaki’s work in pottery began as an escape.  A company employee in the late 1990s, she traded her office for the pottery community in Mashiko.  Her early career in ceramics was spent here, in a classic location for folk art pottery.  Kasama is a short drive from Mashiko and their pottery scenes converge in many ways.  But there are differences too, and while she says it in a quiet voice, Sasaki regards Kasama’s style as slightly less restricted.  She moved to Kasama in 2006, and now has a studio overlooking rice fields alongside her husband, the glass artist: Yoji Sugiyama.  She marvels slightly at his working process “Making glass, you can not touch it, and have to use gravity and rotation.  This is different to ceramics, as is the time it takes. Glass just needs to cool, ceramics need time.”  A family occupied in making, Sasaki is an experienced potter with an established style.  Her forms are modern and smooth, but retain the subtle aspect of being handmade.  The clean lines hold an embedded element of humanity, perhaps similar to that which drew Tsuneko Sasaki to her new life.