Collection: Eiko Maeda

It was Eiko's innate love of art that brought her to the Joshibi University of Art and Design in Tokyo where she specialized in Japanese lacquer (Urushi). During that time she began to appreciate the deep connection among art, culture and Japanese history, while developing a particular interest in the deeply rooted tradition of Japanese ceramics. It was years later, after moving to Montreal, that she chose to fully pursue this passion by taking up the study of ceramics at the Visual Arts Centre, learning to translate her existing skills into a new medium.

Eiko has been exploring a new style of ceramics technique, called nerikomi. She had the opportunity to attend a nerikomi ceramics workshop taught by Eiji Murofushi, one of the pioneers in the field of nerikomi ceramics in 2013 in Fuji, Japan. She was immediately attracted and started to practice nerikomi in Canada where the technique is hardly known. Funded by the Ontario Art Council, she has gone back to Japan to further develop nerikomi technique under Eiji’s guidance.

"I hope to generate public interest in nerikomi in Canada and to share the beauty of Japanese ceramics."

Check out interview by CBC Arts at: http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/911348291875/