Ceramicist · London · Est. 2003
Form · Fire · Imperfection
"When we see something imperfect or unfinished, our eyes try to make it into a perfect form — and our imagination is engaged."
Clay remembers every hand that touches it — every hesitation, every confidence, every moment of surrender. I do not impose my will upon the material. I listen to what it wants to become, and I follow.
— Akiko Hirai
Biography
Akiko Hirai was born in Shizuoka, Japan in March 1970. She first studied cognitive psychology at university in Japan, earning her degree before coming to England in 1999 — a journey that would change the entire course of her life.
Inspired by the serene, luminous moon jars she encountered in the Korean galleries of the British Museum, she enrolled in a ceramics degree at the University of Westminster and went on to graduate from Central Saint Martins in 2003. In that same year she established her studio at The Chocolate Factory, Stoke Newington, London — a space she has occupied for over two decades.
From 2004 to 2015, Hirai taught ceramics at Kensington and Chelsea College, ultimately serving as Head of the Ceramics Department. She relinquished this role to give herself entirely to her studio practice, responding to a demand for her work that had become unprecedented.
Today Hirai is regarded as one of the foremost ceramic artists of her generation. Her work bridges the Japanese tradition of allowing clay to reveal itself through fire, and the British studio pottery legacy of Bernard Leach. She works with dark, metal-rich clays, applies multiple layers of slip and glaze, and fires in a reduction gas kiln — harnessing chemical reactions to produce surfaces that appear to carry geological time within them.
Her pieces reside in the permanent collections of some of the world's most significant cultural institutions, and she has been shortlisted for the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize — one of the most prestigious honours in international craft.
Selected Works
Moon Jars
Kohiki
Still Life
Platters
Cocoon Forms
Cracked Plates
Signature Series
Hirai's most celebrated works, the Moon Jars are rooted in the Korean white porcelain tradition of the Joseon Dynasty (mid 17th–18th century). Each jar emerges from two half-spheres thrown on the wheel and joined — an act that introduces the very imperfection that defines the form. Coated in pale blue-green running glaze, snowy and crackled, they appear to hold geological memory. The imperfection is intentional: Hirai believes that when we encounter something unfinished, our imagination completes it, and we become co-creators of meaning.
View WorksFoundation Series
At the core of Hirai's practice is a delicate range of Kohiki ware — thrown and faceted vessels made from dark clay enveloped in a white slip. The term Kohiki means "flour dusting" in Japanese, describing the pale, powdery coating that simultaneously obscures and reveals the rough clay beneath. These are practical objects: bowls, tea bowls, vases, and bottles intended to be touched and used. Their surfaces carry the geological quiet of old stone walls, the muted light of overcast mornings.
View WorksRecent Works · 2025
Hirai's newest bodies of work explore fragility and material time. Cocoon Forms are matte, ash-brown, and powdery — with moth-like surface adornments that suggest ghostly transformation. They feel still and ancient, like the buried strata of volcanic landscapes. Cracked Plates are disc-like and sharp-edged, resembling ceramic shrapnel or archaeological fragments — embracing the structural clarity of brokenness. Together, Moon, Cocoon, and Cracked reveal the expressive nature of erosion and the beauty inherent in entropy.
View WorksStill Life Series
Hirai's Still Life bottles recall the hushed, luminous arrangements of Giorgio Morandi — vessels that lean into silence rather than spectacle. Grouped together, they create small still-life compositions: asymmetrical, imperfect, utterly compelling. Her deep-glazed platters carry complex mineral surfaces built up through multiple layers of glaze and reduction firing, resulting in textures that appear to have been worn by centuries of weather, tide, and light.
View WorksExhibition History
Immortality
Guild Gallery, New York — Moon Jars, Cocoon Forms & Cracked Plates
Alter
Fitzrovia Chapel, presented by Cavaliero Finn, London
Cavaliero Finn — 20th Anniversary
Stockwell Studio, London
Major Ceramics Exhibition
Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham — Largest solo show to date
Akiko Hirai & Kenta Anzai
Maud & Mabel, London — London Craft Week
Flow Gallery
Flow Gallery, London
Eight Leading Ceramicists
Cavaliero Finn, London — 14–25 September 2020
Goldmark Gallery
Goldmark Gallery, Uppingham — sold out within hours of opening
Emotions of the Inorganic
Contemporary Ceramics Centre, London
Moonstruck
TASTE, Switzerland — with Adam Buick
Annual Exhibitions
Sladers Yard, Bridport — exhibiting almost every year since 2009
Moon Jar Exhibition
London Korean Cultural Centre — Documentary film by James Kelly
Public Collections
Victoria & Albert Museum
London, United Kingdom
The Fitzwilliam Museum
Cambridge, United Kingdom
National Museum of Ireland
Dublin, Republic of Ireland
Keramikmuseum Westerwald
Höhr-Grenzhausen, Germany
Everson Museum of Art
Syracuse, New York, USA
Private Collections
International — Collectors Worldwide
Critical Response
Cavaliero Finn Gallery
Her Still Life bottles feel like they have been lifted out of a Morandi painting — asymmetrical, imperfect, and utterly absorbing in their organic quietude.
London, 2024
Goldmark Gallery
Hirai has found herself one of the most sought-after makers of her generation — a potter who relinquished her post as Head of Ceramics to tackle an unprecedented demand for her work.
Uppingham, 2023
Guild Gallery NY
Her ceramics are not rooted in precision, but in metamorphosis — each form emerging from the unpredictable alchemy of the kiln, exploring fragility and the material passage of time.
New York, 2025
Maud & Mabel
Akiko's white glaze acts as a veil, simultaneously obscuring and revealing the true nature of the material — the chemical reactions that occur when dark clay surrenders to the kiln.
London, 2022
WSJ Gallery
Akiko's forms are satisfyingly simple with deeply textured surfaces and serene, calm colours — work with a remarkable purity that carries geological depth in every layer.
London, 2021
Sladers Yard
Hirai's Moon Jars channel the imperfections and irregularities of nature in incredible vessels — harnessing the innate poetry of imperfect balance to extraordinary effect.
Bridport, 2022
Get in Touch
For acquisition enquiries, commission requests, gallery representation discussions, or press and editorial collaborations, please write using the form or contact directly via email. Akiko personally reviews all correspondence and endeavours to respond within seven working days.