Kazunori Hamana

Japanese, born in 1969.

A self-taught ceramist, Kazunori Hamana divides his time between working as a fisherman and as a craftsman. After graduating from college in California, he returned to Japan, became a fisherman and began creating homemade ceramics and anchovies in Isumi (Chiba Prefecture).

Kazunori Hamana's works have the presence of the past. They are inhabited, like shells with everything organic scraped off or the surface made smooth by the sea. Sometimes bearing engravings and scratches, the works echo the marine environment from which the artist draws his inspiration.

In a lengthy process, Hamana's irregular pots are constructed from coils and achieve their unique surface through scratches and striped glazes. Hamana's work recaptures the simplicity and humility of a vernacular ceramic tradition.