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Hiroyuki & Eijiro Tokunaga

徳永 弘幸・榮二郎
BASED IN
Saga Prefecture
BIRTHPLACE
Saga Prefecture
BORN
1974 / 1978
ROLE
Manager / Artisan and Artist

It brings great pleasure seeing the products evolve when served with food.

The president of Tokko Kiln, Mr. Hiroyuki Tokunaga was born in 1974. He majored in history at the university and was thinking about continuing his study to be a researcher but the last words of his late grandfather who said, “Pottery is more fun than you would expect”, had remained in his heart and it prompted him to succeed the family business. His younger brother Eijiro, is a pottery thrower.  Eijiro had trained in pottery in Kyoto before coming back to Arita, the production area of porcelain.  However, in the beginning, he was wondering how he could express himself in the land of porcelain tradition. During that period he would often travel to Tokyo to be exposed to various ceramic works. Subsequently, he decided to pursue ”carbonising firing”, as his way of expression. “Carbonising firing” is a technique to create unique texture on earthenware by using charcoal. Besides working as an artisan of Tokko, he also holds an annual solo exhibition in Tokyo. Hiroyuki pondered about the activities of his brother saying ” It becomes an advantage of our company to make use of the character of my younger brother who makes earthenware in Arita”. In recent years, the company had participated in exhibitions overseas and responded to the requests from chefs from around the world. ”It brings great pleasure to us seeing our products evolve when they are served with food”, say the brothers. They are creating a wind of change which emanates from the land of Arita.

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KOGEI STANDARD is a cultural online media introducing Japanese crafts to the world which include ceramics, lacquerware, textiles, woodworking, glass and many more.