Studio Touya

Studio Touya is a handmade pottery studio located in Seagrove NC where Hitomi and Takuro Shibata set up studio and built Japanese style wood kiln. Our focus is to make simple& functional pottery by using local wild clay and wood firing technique. We named our pottery as "Touya" when we started our small pottery studio in Shigaraki, Japan, and it literary means "pottery house" in Japanese which we really like.

Hitomi and Takuro Shibata are potters from Shigaraki, Japan, and set up STUDIO TOUYA in Seagrove, NC, USA.

We make handmade pottery and sculptural work with using natural material, wild clays, and wood firing techniques.

Our pottery gallery is remaining closed to the public except special events this year.

Touya UPCOMIng News and events

Featured Artists Exhibition (Takuro)

Frank Gallery, Chapel Hill, NC

September 24 – November 9

Featuring Bill McAllister, Susan Finer and guest artists Peg Gignoux and Karli Pendergraft. With a special exhibit curated by Joe Grant, director of Starworks Glass and featuring the work of Takuro Shibata, director of Starworks ceramics and Mac Metz, director of Starworks metals. Also in this exhibit we’ll feature FRANK in Focus in association with the Triangle-Wide photography festival CLICK, to celebrate the wonderful photographers of FRANK.

https://www.frankisart.com/event/featured-artists-exhibit-sep-nov-2024/

Exhibition: Pottery Invitational (Hitomi)

Worcester Center for Crafts, Worcester, MA

On view + for sale: November 2 – 16 , 2024
Opening Reception: November 2, 4:00-5:30pm

The Worcester Center for Crafts Pottery Invitational is a nationally recognized exhibit that brings pottery to the people. This year’s is juried by guest curator, Maya Machin who represents new and exciting ideas in production pottery. The Invitational provides an opportunity for everyone from pottery aficionados to the casually interested to discover an accomplished group of American ceramic artists and to shop their beautiful wares. Our 2024 Invitational will feature a selection of works from nationally recognized artists who identify as women, representing ages of 7 different decades.
At the Pottery Invitational, everything on view is for sale in our Krikorian Gallery and online through online shop.

https://worcestercraftcenter.org/events/pottery-invitational-2/

Featured Artists:
Linda Christianson, Sunshine Cobb, Sanam Emami, Michelle Ettrick, Ashton Keen, Kimberly LaVonne, Robbie Lobell, Maya Machin, Dakota Parkinson, Lindsay Rogers, Ann Schunior, Paula Shalan, Hitomi Shibata, Jerilyn Virden, Adero Willard, Sohpie Yoon

Exhibition: Little Brown Jug + Dig Deeper: [some] Art, Science, and History of Troy Clay (Hitomi&takuro)

The Art Center of the Capital Region, Troy, NY

September 27 - November 16, 2024

Opening Reception Friday, September 27, 6-8pm

Clay and curiosity are at the center of this exhibition, connecting potters, soil scientists, artists, historians, engineers, geologists, curators, glaze chemists and more.

Uncle Sam’s brickyard, seasonal varves, land acknowledgement and Little Brown Jugs are just some of the content in this meandering exhibition that shares resources, asks questions and aims to foster discussion as it digs deeper into this local material.

Little Brown Jug Jurors:

Dr. Jennifer Lemak, Chief Curator New York State Museum Mary Barringer, ceramist + writer

Little Brown Jug exhibiting artists:

Molly Adams, Cat Viera Akerman, Karen Arrington, Julia Bargo, Wesley Barnes, Margaret Boozer, Julie Boynton, Kendra Brown, Kate Childs Graham, a.k.a. KCG, Kelly Clendenin, Leah Cohen, Michael Corigliano, Michael Cummins, Connor Czora, Gina Mai Denn, Bianca Dupuis, Rachel Garrison, Bruce Gholson, Gina Mai Denn, Cathy Elliot-Shaw, Rebecca Gitter, Ian Hall-Hough, Joe Hicks, Mary Pat Hopper, Thomas Johnson, Lyla Kaplan, Patricia Keelen, Mariah Kitner, Laura Korch, Mary LaFleur, Pam Lau, Matt Levy, Tom Loggia, Levi Mahan, Robilee McIntyre, Karen Morgenstern, Rebecca Murtaugh, Lisa Orr, Alex Paton, Ryan Rakhshan, Loren Scherbak, Hitomi Shibata, Takuro Shibata, Hayley Cranberry Small, Riley Studebaker, Lou Thorne, Megan Van Wagoner

organizers + exhibitors:

Robilee McIntyre and Bianca Dupuis of Broken Mold Studio (Troy, NY)

Claire Sherwood (Troy, NY)

Margaret Boozer (MD)

https://capartscenter.org/exhibitions/2024/dig-deeper/

Exhibition: Of Hand and Earth

Penland School of Craft, FOCUS GALLERY

Hitomi and Takuro Shibata

Date: TBA — Due to the hurricane Helene, it’s postponed until spring 2025

Of Hand and Earth features work by ceramicists Hitomi and Takuro Shibata. Originally from Japan, Hitomi and Takuro relocated to Seagrove, North Carolina in 2005. Their focus is to make simple and functional wood fired pottery and sculpture using locally sourced wild clays from North Carolina.

Hitomi and Takuro rely primarily on their hands, simple tools, locally harvested clays, and wood firing methods which are renewable and sustainable in the North Carolina region. They choose hand processes and natural or non-toxic materials as much as possible. Firings take place in their hand-built wood kilns after many days of cutting and splitting firewood. Glazes are made from washed wood ash gathered from wood kilns and wood stoves. Rain water is collected for use in the studio, and pots dry in the sun. As a result of this intentional work, the Shibata’s pottery and sculpture captures a natural, sustainable energy where process and form are one.

https://penland.org/gallery/exhibition-list-2024/

Takuro and Hitomi Shibata “Whirlwind” 14”h x 20.5”w.

39th Annual Benefit Auction

Penland School of Craft, NC

Aug 23 & 24, 2024

Takuro and Hitomi will be one of the featured artists of Penland’s Auction this year.

Book Release: Wild Clay, Creating ceramics and glazes from natural and found resources, Written by Matt Levy, Hitomi and Takuro Shibata, published by Bloomsbury Publishing and herbert press

Takuro and Hitomi have written our first book “Wild Clay”, with co-author, Matt Levy, and it’s released on Oct 25th, 2022.

This is our wild clay story and our journey from Japan to US, and from the past to today.

https://www.bloomsbury.com/us/wild-clay-9781789940923/

Special thanks to our dear friends: Josh DeWeese, Dean Adams, John Neely, Randy Edmonson, Bruce Gholson, Ed Henneke, Nancy Gottovi, Mark Zellers and Kate Oggel for their big support. And many thanks to our pottery friends in US and overseas for telling wonderful clay stories for this book.

Cover photo: NC wild raw clays by Takuro Shibata

ZOOM Gallery Talk Shigaraki: Contemporary Artists on an Ancient Tradition, Recorded February 23, 2023

Hosted by Joan B Mirviss LTD

Produced and edited by Bonnie B Lee, Joan B Mirviss LTD.

https://youtu.be/ygpirecncs8

PANELISTS: PETER CALLAS, artist based in New Jersey, US. HITOMI and TAKURO SHIBATA, artists based in North Carolina, US. OTANI SHIRO, artist based in Shigaraki, Japan. NATSU OYOBE, Curator of Asian Art, University of Michigan Museum of Art, MI with LOUISE CORT, Curator Emerita of Ceramics, Freer Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Moderated by JOAN MIRVISS