Aiko Watanabe - Japanese (b.1971)
Aiko Watanabe (渡辺 愛子, born in Osaka, Japan) is a Japanese ceramist. She graduated from Kyoto Saga University of Arts in 1992. Two years later, she discovered her passion for the rough style of Shigaraki and Iga in ceramics, a traditional technique that would leave a natural and rustic glaze on the surface of the work. Watanabe started studying the technique of anagram kiln firing when she was 24. She began creating her own artistic work by building her first semi-underground kiln in Iga, Japan in 2001. She only works with clay from the mountains of Iga and fires her pieces in the countryside. Most recently, she held a joint exhibition The Imaginary House with visual artist Uwe Wittwe.