Artists

The makers

ETHOSALIS presents artists and makers from across East Asia whose work emerges from distinct material traditions and individual practices. Every listing identifies its maker and cultural context; the index grows deliberately as new work enters the collection.

Hayashi Shotaro

Shino

Hayashi Shotaro林正太郎

A leading voice in Shino ware, drawing crimson and ash from the kiln’s fire.

Born 1947 into a kiln family in Oroshi, Toki — the heartland of Momoyama Mino ware — Hayashi Shōtarō trained under his elder brother Kōtarō and devoted himself to Shino after an early period in tenmoku and ki-seto. His powerful forms carry feldspar glaze of soft, snow-like depth over fire-colour of unusual intensity; his beni-shino and gunjō (ultramarine) Shino are signatures, and his split-foot chawan are especially prized by collectors.

He is the first artist in the history of the Mino Ceramics Exhibition to win all three of its major prizes — the Grand Prize (1993), the Katō Kōbē Prize (1994) and the Shōroku Prize (1997) — and was designated holder of the Gifu Prefecture Important Intangible Cultural Property for Shino in 2012. His 77th-anniversary exhibition was held at Mitsukoshi Nihonbashi in 2024.