The Herald - The Herald Magazine
Portfolio
SHIGEO SUZUKI, SUZUKI MORIHISA STUDIO, UWE RÖTTGEN AND KATHARINA ZETTL
THE Suzuki Morihisa Studio is in Morioka in the Iwate Prefecture in northern Japan. Its small team of craftspeople make pots for boiling water for the Japanese tea ceremony and tea kettles, as well as small bowls, chopstick rests and paperweights.
The studio is run by Suzuki Morihisa and her son Shigeo.
She is the 15th generation of kettle casters in her family, a line that stretches back to 1625. As such, they are typical of the artisans featured in Uwe Rottgen and Katharina Zettl’s new book, Craftland Japan. It is a catalogue of the kind of artisans not found anywhere else. “From around the year 2000, I began to work all over the world,” Kengo Kuma, the architect behind the V&A Dundee, says in the introduction, “I was disappointed to find that craftspeople like those in Japan do not exist. I was reminded that Japan’s craftspeople are unique and Japan is a unique country.”
Craftspeople like Shigeo Suzuki, seen here correcting small details on a cast iron tea pot.