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For many years Akiko was Head of Ceramics at Kensington and Chelsea College. She graduated in Cognitive Psychology from Aichi Gakuin University in Nagoya and then Ceramics from Central St Martin's in London in 2003, when she founded her studio at The Chocolate Factory. In her training years, she refined her technique of working with clay with English potters, reaching a perfect balance between Oriental and Occidental approaches to art. At the core of Akiko’s practice is the traditional Korean Kohiki pottery, featuring a porous surface and cangiante soft-white colour along with the Japanese ceramic aesthetics of wabi-sabi.
Her artistic series of Moon Jars and Poppy Pod vessels in stoneware and porcelain express an exploration of contrast, a juxtaposition of coarse clay and translucent glaze. Her skillful manipulation of the raw materials is exposed to the alchemy of the kiln, ensuring that every piece celebrates incomplete beauty and chance. Each of them is unique, surprising, of different textures and palettes of colour from deep beige and whites, olive and brown glazes to the palest of blues, offering to the observer new narratives each time.
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