Fujiwara Akira is a young potter born in Nara in 1981. He studied under the Bizen-yaki potter named Fujimi Shun-ichi after having worked in a Shigaraki-yaki pottery workshop for three years.
Producing pieces since 2008, his works display creativity. Not only does he use typical Bizen clay, but he also uses a wide variety of very rough clays dug up directly from the area around his studio. In addition, he makes full use of the different possibilities and firing techniques offered by wood kilns.

His “shiro-bizen” (white Bizen) pieces are imaginative and rarely seen. Fujiwara Akira produces the very pale colour of this pottery by mixing bizen clay with “tôseki” powder, the raw material used in porcelain.

By melting ash on this shiboridashi, the white surface was turned various shades of orange.