Tamotsu Suzuki, Obakki's artisan partner, with dark hair wearing a white short-sleeve button-up shirt stands in a pottery workshop filled with shelves of ceramic vessels and clay pieces.

Yamanashi Prefecture, Japan

MEET TAMOTSU SUZUKI

Sustainable Partnerships
Sustainable Partnerships

By personally traveling to each region and working directly with makers, we build long-term relationships rooted in trust and collaboration.

Responsible Sourcing
Responsible Sourcing

We follow every product from concept to completion, ensuring responsible sourcing, ethical production, and environmental stewardship.

Artisan Craft
Artisan Craft

Handcrafted in partnership with world-class artisans—real people making products that bring meaning and connection to your space.

Meaningful Impact
Meaningful Impact

Through our artisan partnerships and the Obakki Foundation, we reinvest in the communities behind the craft—supporting clean water access, education, and sustainable livelihoods.

A small rustic gray ceramic pot with a textured, distressed finish, holding a dried beige hydrangea flower head, set against a neutral concrete background.

ROOTED IN NATURE

"Nature is both subject and teacher."
A small rustic gray ceramic pot with a textured, distressed finish, holding a dried beige hydrangea flower head, set against a neutral concrete background.

For ceramic sculptor Tamotsu Suzuki, inspiration begins with the quiet resilience of plants. Flowers opening, roots holding firmly to the earth, and new shoots reaching toward light become starting points for forms shaped in clay. Living among the changing seasons at the foot of Mt. Yatsugatake, Tamotsu observes nature closely, translating its delicacy, strength, and irregular beauty into objects that seem almost to have grown rather than been made.

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TRACES OF THE HAND

"I try to leave traces of my hands."
Obakki artisan partner Tamotsu Suzuki in a striped shirt works at a pottery table in a sunlit workshop, holding a small bowl on a turntable with a brush in hand.

Every piece is formed by hand, with the marks of making intentionally left visible. Tamotsu works intuitively, feeling the clay through the fingertips rather than pursuing perfect uniformity. Surfaces are layered with Kohiki-style slip, allowing subtle variations in clay, glaze, and firing to emerge. The result is work that feels tactile and alive, carrying both the presence of the material and the unmistakable gesture of its maker.

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Obakki artisan partner Tamotsu Suzuki in a striped shirt works at a pottery table in a sunlit workshop, holding a small bowl on a turntable with a brush in hand.
Five handmade ceramic cups from obakki, with a textured, speckled gray and white glaze, arranged on a rustic wooden surface.

EARTH INTO FORM

Clay becomes a reflection of living things.
Five handmade ceramic cups from obakki, with a textured, speckled gray and white glaze, arranged on a rustic wooden surface.

Tamotsu works with iron-rich red clay, chosen for the depth it develops through firing and the contrast it creates beneath pale Kohiki surfaces. Sometimes quiet and sculptural, sometimes functional, the forms resist strict symmetry in favour of something more organic. Each vessel becomes a reconstruction of nature, not a literal imitation, but an expression of the same tension between fragility and strength found in a stem, root, or emerging shoot.

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AS SEEN IN

Traditional Japanese houses with tiled roofs in a village setting.

global community

MEET our other artisan partners from around the world
Traditional Japanese houses with tiled roofs in a village setting.

We celebrate slow design and artisan craft from thousands of artisans around the world. From Mexico to Uganda to Japan, we are excited to introduce you to our artisan partners.

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