Hideaki Miyamura (born 1955) is a

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

ese-born

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, pe ...

potter A potter is someone who makes pottery. Potter may also refer to: Places United States *Potter, originally a section on the Alaska Railroad, currently a neighborhood of Anchorage, Alaska, US * Potter, Arkansas *Potter, Nebraska * Potters, New Je ...

working in

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

. Miyamura is best known for his unique iridescent glazes, including a compelling gold glaze, the "starry night" glaze on a black background, and a blue hare's fur glaze. Miyamura was born in Niigata,

, as the son of an architect and civil engineer. Miyamura wanted to be a medical doctor but believed the schooling was too expensive. Instead, he traveled to the United States and studied at

Western Michigan University Western Michigan University (Western Michigan, Western or WMU) is a public research university in Kalamazoo, Michigan. It was initially established as Western State Normal School in 1903 by Governor Aaron T. Bliss for the training of teachers ...

. Studying art history at Western Michigan, Miyamura became interested in art. After college, Miyamura decided to take up pottery in Japan. Miyamura spent over five years working with master potter Shurei Miura of Yamanashi, Japan. During that time, he experimented with over ten thousand test pieces, using countless formulas to develop original glazes. Through this process, he developed glazes that he describes as "yohen

tenmoku ''Tenmoku'' (天目, also spelled "temmoku" and "temoku") is a type of Japanese pottery and porcelain that originates in imitating Chinese stoneware Jian ware (建盏) of the southern Song dynasty (1127–1279), original examples of which are al ...

," after a Chinese pottery tradition. More recently, he has conducted over two thousand additional test cases. Many of his glazes are inspired by the

style of 12th and 13th Century Chinese glazes used on tea bowls in monasteries on

Mount Tianmu Tianmu Mountain, Mount Tianmu, or Tianmushan () is a mountain in Lin'an County west of Hangzhou, Zhejiang, in eastern China. It is made up of two peaks: West Tianmu () and East Tianmu (). Twin ponds near the top of the peaks led to the name o ...

in the

Zhejiang Zhejiang ( or , ; , also romanized as Chekiang) is an eastern, coastal province of the People's Republic of China. Its capital and largest city is Hangzhou, and other notable cities include Ningbo and Wenzhou. Zhejiang is bordered by Jiang ...

province in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. Some have argued that his work is also influenced by Scandinavian pottery. Miyamura's

studio pottery Studio pottery is pottery made by professional and amateur artists or artisans working alone or in small groups, making unique items or short runs. Typically, all stages of manufacture are carried out by the artists themselves.Emmanuel Cooper, ...

appears in the permanent collections of more than a dozen museums, predominantly in the United States, including the

Art Institute of Chicago The Art Institute of Chicago in Chicago's Grant Park, founded in 1879, is one of the oldest and largest art museums in the world. Recognized for its curatorial efforts and popularity among visitors, the museum hosts approximately 1.5 mill ...

, the

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery The Arthur M. Sackler Gallery is an art museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., focusing on Asian art. The Sackler Gallery and the Freer Gallery of Art together form the National Museum of Asian Art in the United States. Th ...

, the

Peabody Essex Museum The Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) in Salem, Massachusetts, US, is a successor to the East India Marine Society, established in 1799. It combines the collections of the former Peabody Museum of Salem (which acquired the Society's collection) and the ...

, the

Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

, the

Newark Museum of Art The Newark Museum of Art (formerly known as the Newark Museum), in Newark, Essex County, New Jersey, United States, is the state's largest museum. It holds major collections of American art, decorative arts, contemporary art, and arts of Asia, Af ...

, and the

Renwick Gallery The Renwick Gallery is a branch of the Smithsonian American Art Museum located in Washington, D.C. that displays American craft and decorative arts from the 19th to 21st century. The gallery is housed in a National Historic Landmark building that ...

of the

Smithsonian Institution The Smithsonian Institution ( ), or simply the Smithsonian, is a group of museums and education and research centers, the largest such complex in the world, created by the U.S. government "for the increase and diffusion of knowledge". Founded ...

Pucker Gallery Pucker is a line of fruit-flavored liqueurs made by the DeKuyper company. By volume it is 15% alcohol (30 proof Proof most often refers to: * Proof (truth), argument or sufficient evidence for the truth of a proposition * Alcohol proof, a me ...

in Boston has presented multiple exhibitions of his work, and his work has also been shown by the Gallery Camino Real in

Boca Raton, Florida Boca Raton ( ; es, Boca Ratón, link=no, ) is a city in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. It was first incorporated on August 2, 1924, as "Bocaratone," and then incorporated as "Boca Raton" in 1925. The population was 97,422 in the ...

. He studied at Western Michigan University, and then later in his life he studied at the Japanese Master Potter Shurei Miura.

Sources

K.T. Anders, "Hideaki Miyamura: A Man of 10,000 Glazes," 12 Clay Times No. 2 (March/April 2006). Pucker Gallery, ''Pursuing the Eye of Heaven: Ceramics by Hideaki Miyamura,'' Introduction by Andrew L. Maske (Boston: 2005).

External links

Artist's web sitePucker Gallery
Japanese potters American artists of Japanese descent 1955 births Living people Western Michigan University alumni People from Niigata (city) Japanese emigrants to the United States {{japan-artist-stub