Ceramicist · London · Since 2003
Moon jars, Kohiki ware and sculptural forms in which fire, slip and wood ash leave surfaces that seem to hold geological time.
“When we see something imperfect or unfinished, our eyes try to make it into a perfect form — and our imagination is engaged.”
The practice
“Clay remembers every hand that touches it — every hesitation, every confidence, every moment of surrender. I listen to what it wants to become, and I follow.”
Read the biography2025 — 2026
Five bodies of work
Available now
Exhibitions
Enquiries & commissions
Biography
Born in Shizuoka, Japan in 1970, Akiko Hirai first studied cognitive psychology before moving to England in 1999 — a journey that changed the course of her life.
Inspired by the luminous moon jars she encountered in the Korean galleries of the British Museum, she studied ceramics at the University of Westminster and graduated from Central Saint Martins in 2003. That same year she established her studio at The Chocolate Factory, Stoke Newington, where she has worked for over two decades.
From 2004 to 2015 she taught ceramics at Kensington and Chelsea College, ultimately as Head of the Ceramics Department, before giving herself entirely to studio practice in response to unprecedented demand for her work.
Her practice bridges the Japanese tradition of allowing clay to reveal itself through fire and the British studio-pottery legacy of Bernard Leach. Working with dark, metal-rich clays, she builds up layers of slip and glaze and fires in a reduction gas kiln — producing surfaces that appear to carry geological time within them.
Her work is held in major public collections and she was shortlisted for the LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize.
“Clay remembers every hand that touches it — every hesitation, every confidence, every moment of surrender. I listen to what it wants to become, and I follow.”
— Akiko Hirai
Archive · 0 works
Selected works from 2018 to the present, shown with The Scottish Gallery, Guild Gallery New York, Sladers Yard, Flow Gallery and Janet Rady Fine Art. Select any piece to view it closer.
01
Signature series
Rooted in the white porcelain of Joseon-dynasty Korea, each jar is thrown as two half-spheres and joined — an act that introduces the very imperfection that defines the form. Coated in pale running glazes, snowy and crackled, they invite the viewer's imagination to complete them.
View moon jars
02
Foundation series
Thrown and faceted vessels of dark clay enveloped in white slip. Kohiki — “flour dusting” — describes the pale powdery coat that both hides and reveals the rough clay beneath: bowls, tea bowls, jugs and bottles made to be held and used.
View Kohiki ware03
Botanical forms
Swollen, fluted and dotted seed-head vessels with crowned tops — stoneware under porcelain slip and wood ash. From miniature pods to monumental forms shown at Guild Gallery, New York.
View poppy pods
04
Recent · 2025
Matte, ash-brown cocoons with moth-like adornments that suggest ghostly transformation, and disc-like cracked plates resembling archaeological fragments. Together they reveal the expressive nature of erosion and the beauty within entropy.
View recent works
05
Still life series
Bottles that recall the hushed arrangements of Giorgio Morandi — vessels that lean into silence rather than spectacle — and deep-glazed platters whose layered mineral surfaces look worn by centuries of weather, tide and light.
View still life2025 — 2026 · From the studio
The newest work out of the kiln — from Found: An Introduction to Seeing at New Craftsman, St Ives, and the moon jars, cocoons and steel-flecked plates of Immortality at Guild Gallery, New York.
Available works · 0 pieces
Each piece is unique, thrown and fired by hand in London. Prices in GBP; shipping and insurance are quoted on request. Add pieces to your basket and send a purchase request — we'll confirm availability within two working days.
Exhibition history
Critical response
Her ceramics are not rooted in precision, but in metamorphosis — each form emerging from the unpredictable alchemy of the kiln.
Her Still Life bottles feel like they have been lifted out of a Morandi painting — asymmetrical, imperfect, and utterly absorbing.
One of the most sought-after makers of her generation — a potter who relinquished her post as Head of Ceramics to tackle an unprecedented demand for her work.
Akiko's white glaze acts as a veil, simultaneously obscuring and revealing the true nature of the material.
Hirai's Moon Jars channel the imperfections and irregularities of nature — harnessing the innate poetry of imperfect balance.
Satisfyingly simple forms with deeply textured surfaces and serene, calm colours — a remarkable purity that carries geological depth.
Get in touch
For acquisitions, commissions, gallery representation or press, write using the form — it goes straight to the studio — or directly by email. Akiko personally reviews all correspondence and aims to respond within seven working days.