About Hiraoka Jin <br>Hiraoka Jin is a pottery maker based in Kasama, Ibaraki Prefecture.
He calls himself a "pottery maker" rather than a "ceramist," and sees his pottery as a tool for daily life that is meant to be used.

"There are some dishes that can only be made if you eat delicious food."
"I'm not a fan of Japanese tableware," says Hiraoka, laughing heartily. His hobby is traveling. When he travels, he tastes the local cuisine, drinks alcohol, and eats until he's satisfied. He often visits restaurants that use his own tableware, and it seems that the time he spends savoring the food through the tableware itself is the source of his inspiration for making tableware.

Tableware is used at the dinner table every day and is a tool for daily life.
That's why Hiraoka says, "I think the most important thing about tableware is how it fits in your hand and how it feels in your mouth."

As the words suggest, Hiraoka's tableware is integrated into the lives of those who use it, exuding a generous atmosphere of enjoying food and drinks.

Not a potter, but a pottery maker During his training in Bizen, Okayama, Hiraoka was drawn to firing in wood-fired kilns and the strength of the clay itself. "Bizen ware, which does not use glaze, has the appeal of a muscular body, while glazes have a sexiness and delicacy that is reminiscent of makeup," he says, and he is currently working on expressions using glazes such as powdered glaze and ash glaze.

One of his representative works is a pentagonal sake cup.
After carving the circle on the potter's wheel, the craftsman carefully assesses the shape, removes the corners, and carves out the faces one by one. This process relies on the sense of touch and experience in his fingertips; if he is not careful, it will look unsophisticated, and if he is too sharp, it will appear hard, so there is a sense of tension in the air as he moves without hesitation.

The expression left by the wheel's marks, the texture created by the clay mixed with stone, the fluctuations that appear during firing...the artist's intentions and the chance that occurs in the kiln coexist in a tense atmosphere.

Kasama, home to a diverse range of artists <br>Kasama, where Hiraoka has his studio, is known as a pottery production center that has continued since the mid-Edo period. Developed under the patronage of the Kasama domain, tableware as everyday items has supported the lives of the locals. The spirit of tableware making, which values practicality over extravagant decoration, still lives on in Kasama's climate.

Antique tools and fixtures are quietly placed in the workshop, and one can sense the respect for things that have survived over a long period of time. The question "Why has this survived?" overlaps with Hiraoka's attitude of aiming to create pottery that is not influenced by trends, and is reflected in his works as he looks at tools whose value deepens over time.

A life of loving food and drink "I believe that tableware only has meaning when it is used. Food is placed on it, sake is poured into it, and it becomes a part of daily life. It's a simple thing, but I think that kind of time brings happiness. The time I spend serving my favorite dishes on my favorite plates and drinking sake from my favorite sake cup is the best (laughs)."

A companion to your daily dining table, enriching everyday moments. Hiraoka Jin's tableware seems to be filled with the aesthetic sense of an artist who loves food and drink.