Hijiri Tougane

Vessels Passed On

at Kiln TOKYO Fri, Oct 23 – Tue, Oct 27, 2026

Vessels Passed On

From a child’s handiwork, to an adult’s craft.

From skills that faded with the industry, to skills an artist renews.

And then, from those renewed skills, to the hands of artisans.

This exhibition consists of three exhibitions that share this flow of being passed on: an exhibition of works, an exhibition of products, and an exhibition of space.

WorksOne-of-a-Kind Vessels

One-of-a-kind vessels made by Hijiri Tougane herself. Gaba-ikomi and assembly are forming techniques of Mino ware whose practitioners have dwindled within the industry. Using these techniques, Tougane has developed the vessel into new forms of expression. In this exhibition, they are shown within the space “The Warehouse of Memories.”

ProductsAtelier Line

A series of vessels made one by one by artisans trained by Hijiri Tougane, who carry on her forms and techniques. The first piece is the “Cushion Pillar Teacup & Saucer,” newly constructed from her “Captain Teacup & Saucer.” This exhibition is its first showing.

About the space

Installation: “The Warehouse of Memories — From a Child’s Handiwork to an Adult’s Craft.”

An installation that composes the entire venue as a single work.

It draws on two memories: the making of things that absorbed the artist as a child, and the warehouses crammed with things at the back of the furniture shops and antique shops she visited when she was young.

Cardboard boxes are stacked throughout the venue, along with things covered with cloth. Inside the boxes are “small theaters” that combine freely imagined worlds, like a child’s handiwork, with ceramic works made with the artist’s skills.

Looking into the boxes reveals these worlds. The space expresses Hijiri Tougane’s way of making itself, moving back and forth between a child’s handiwork and an adult’s craft.

Works

Works — One-of-a-Kind Vessels

From the works on view

Overflowing Brain Juice & a World of Delusions Tumbler JPY 385,000 (tax incl.)
トランプが舞い上がるピラーマグ JPY 275,000 (tax incl.)
チェッカーのブーツが際立つ赤いトレジャーピラーカップ＆ソーサー JPY 396,000 (tax incl.)
ストライプとチェッカーの黒猫タンブラー JPY 275,000 (tax incl.)

Many more works are on view at the venue.

Products — Atelier Line

Passing the Joy of Making to the Next Hands. Atelier Line begins.

Cushion Pillar Teacups & Saucers in blue, yellow and pink, with a blue Cushion Plate, photographed from directly above

The crafts I loved as a child became my work as an adult.
And now I am taking on another kind of making.

It is entrusting what I have created with my own hands to the hands of others: nurturing a place where someone can acquire the skills, make vessels, and carry on as a profession.

“Gaba-ikomi” and “assembly” are the Mino ware forming techniques I have used in my work. Fewer and fewer people carry them on, and if I alone keep making, I cannot pass them any further.

Someone learns, and the vessel they make is welcomed into someone’s daily life. The joy and the income that come from that support the next piece of work. I wanted to create that cycle from the atelier.

Its first form is Atelier Line.

It is a series of vessels, each made one by one by the artisans I have trained at the atelier, who inherit the forms, the techniques, and the thought poured into them.

The first piece is the “Cushion Pillar Teacup & Saucer.”
It is a vessel newly constructed from the “Captain Teacup & Saucer,” the work that marked a turning point in my creation. My own making of teacups in this shape is complete with the works I have already released, and the form will be handed down to the next hands.

A child absorbed in making with their hands made it their profession, and now is trying to build a way for that work to continue. This, too, is making that takes on something new for me.

This exhibition is the first time Atelier Line is shown to you.

From my hands, to the artisans of the atelier.
And then, to your daily lives.

I would be glad if you would watch over the journey of the vessels that begins here.

Hijiri Tougane

See the Atelier Line vessels

Space

The space — The Warehouse of Memories

From a Child’s Handiwork to an Adult’s Craft.

As a child, I loved making things.
It was not that I was especially skilled. I think I simply wanted to bring the excitement in my head out into the world in front of me.

“I wonder what everyone’s faces will look like when I make this?”

When I made something interesting, not only my friends but even the grown-ups were surprised. I was so happy to see those faces that I kept on making more.

After many twists and turns, making things became my profession. The materials and the techniques have changed, but my wish to see someone’s surprised face has not.

Inside the cardboard boxes lined up here is a “small theater” that layers my origins with who I am now.

It is a world built with my imagination set free, as if I had returned to being a child. Beyond the mirror, it continues. And at the center, I placed ceramic works made by the adult I have become, with the skill and sensibility I have now.

And yet, where does a child’s handiwork end and an adult’s craft begin? For me, that boundary is blurred.

When I am absorbed in working with my hands, the child in me appears. The adult in me thinks about how to give it form. Then, looking at what I have made, I am happy again like a child. Going back and forth like this, I am still making things today.

The Warehouse of Memories

There is one more source of this space: my memory of “warehouses.”

When I was little, I visited furniture shops and antique dealers with my parents. At the back of them were warehouses crammed with objects. I also cannot forget the warehouses where art lay sleeping, which I saw when I lived abroad. I could not yet see everything that was there, and that was irresistibly fascinating.

Stacked cardboard boxes. Something covered with cloth.
At a glance, you cannot tell what is inside.

But if you stop and peek into a single box, a whole world opens up. I wanted to create a place of such discoveries, and this exhibition space was born.

The time that has carried me from childhood to adulthood is still connected in this way. Using what I can do because I have grown up, I play like a child. That, too, is making that matters to me.

Please peek gently into the boxes.
I would be glad if my joy of making leads to your joy of discovering.

And may that moment also become a time to meet the child within you.

Hijiri Tougane

Information

Dates: Fri, Oct 23 – Tue, Oct 27, 2026
Hours: 11:00 – 19:00 (until 16:00 on the last day, Oct 27)
Venue: at Kiln TOKYO, 2F, 1-5-1 Ebisu-nishi, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

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