Hiruma Kazuyo (b. 1947) began her career as a graphic designer in 1976, before establishing her own kiln in 1988. Early in her artistic development, she found inspiration in two pioneering women ceramic artists of the previous generation, Araki Takako (1921-2004) and Tsuboi Asuka (b. 1932). Both were leading members of the Joryū Tōgei (Women’s Association of Ceramic Art), and were already highly regarded figures by the time Hiruma gained recognition after receiving the Mainichi Newspaper Prize at the group’s 1979 exhibition.

Semi-autobiographical in nature, Hiruma’s ceramic practice is best known for their slab-built forms that evoke geological landscapes and natural phenomena. This distinctive visual language emerged after a transformative journey to Arizona in the late 1980s, a place she had previously encountered only through photographs. During a two-week stay, the desert terrain profoundly altered her artistic direction:

“Dark brown earth, dry sand and wind on my cheeks, row upon row of surf-like forms that seemed to have been pulled from Earth’s core, concealing the processes by which living creatures had come down to the present: a testament to life transported from beyond a now-invisible ocean, a uniformly skin-toned landscape that makes us doubt our importance as denizens of this world. After offering up a prayer to the gods that our ancestors once worshipped on this very spot, I took my leave.”

— Excerpt from an interview with the artist conducted by Joe Earle, curator and specialist of Japanese art, for Hiruma’s 2023 group exhibition at Dai Ichi Arts, LTD.

This revelatory experience led Hiruma to develop seminal series such as Kioku suru Daiichi (Memories of the Earth) and Suibun ni kansuru kioku (Memories of Water), which have since become central to her oeuvre. Unlike some contemporary women ceramic artists who describe their engagement with clay as a dialogue with the material’s inherent unpredictability, Hiruma approaches the medium with deliberate control and precision. She formulates her own clay mixtures, carefully adjusting tones ranging from flesh-like hues to dry mineral grays. To evoke the slow passage of geological time, she applies multiple thin layers of heat-resistant clay, creating stratified, wave-like surfaces that emerge through repeated glazing and firing processes.