1923 Born in Gifu Prefecture, the eldest son of ceramic artist Tetsu Yamada
1945 Graduated the Department of Ceramics at Kyoto High School of Arts and Crafts
1946 Selected for the first Nitten
1948 Formed "Sodeisha" with Kazuo Yagi, Osamu Suzuki, and five others
Held the 1st Sodeisha exhibition at Takashimaya Department Store, Osaka
Awarded the Mayor's Prize, Kyoto Exhibition
Awarded the New Crafts Association Prize
1950 Awarded the New Crafts Association Prize, New Crafts Exhibition Japan Contemporary Ceramics Exhibition, Musée Cernuschi
1961Awarded the 7th Prize of the Ceramic Society of Japan
1962 Established Mon Studio in Shiga Prefecture with Kazuo Yagi; Began making crafts
Exhibited at the Ferenczy Museum of Ceramics and the Prague International Ceramics Exhibition
1979 Became professor of ceramics at Osaka University of Arts
1986 Exhibited at the exhibition Japan in the Avant-Garde 1910-1970
(Georges Pompidou Center, Paris)
1988 Today's Artist 8: Hikari Yamada and Taimei Morino exhibition.
1994 Published "The Works of Hikaru Yamada" from Shinshindo Publishing Co.
1995 Awarded the Kyoto City Cultural Merit Award and the 36th Prize of the Ceramic Society of Japan
1998 Awarded Kyoto Art Culture Prize
1999-2000 Held the exhibition "A Marker of Ceramics: Hikari Yamada" at Itami City Museum of Art, Gifu Prefectural Museum of Art, and Meguro Museum of Art
2001 Died at the age of 77