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 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 female ceramists in Japan with works in museum collections throughout the world.

Koike draws inspiration from the sea, creating shell-inspired 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.

1943 Born in Beijing
1966 Graduated from Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music
1969 Completed postgraduate study in Ceramic Arts
Started to work at her kiln she built in Tama-shi, Tokyo
1969 Received the Salon de Printemps Award
2009 Awarded Japan Ceramic Society Prize

Public Collections:

Ackland Museum, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC
Brooklyn Museum, NY
Cleveland Museum of Art, OH
Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX
Clark Center for Japanese Art and Culture, Hanford, CA
Hamilton Art Gallery, Victoria, Australia
Mary and Jackson Burke Foundation, NY
Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY
Minneapolis Institute of Arts, MN
Musée Tomo, Tokyo
Musée national de céramique, Sèvres, France
Museum of Arts and Design, NY
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
Museum of Oriental Ceramics, Osaka, Japan
National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo
Saint Louis Art Museum, MI
Shigaraki Ceramic Cultural Park, Shiga
Smith College Museum of Art, Northampton, MA
Victoria & Albert Museum, London, UK

Television Programs and Videos:

1997 "Shell––Watakushi no utsuwa (My Ceramic Vessel)”
Koike Shōko's "Utsukushi no Sekai" series at NHK
1998 "Tsuchi ga kanderu rizumu (Rhythmic Sense of Handing Clay)”
Koike Shōko's "Yakimono Tanbō (Ceramic Hunt)" series at NHK