Works

As a child, I often looked up at the sky and wondered what clouds would feel like. They seemed within reach, then drifted far away the moment I stretched out my hand. I was sure that if I could touch one, it would be soft and fluffy like cotton. That imagination came true the day I first met my cat, Myomi: the soft fur curling around my fingertips, the round little body, the warm weight settling into my arms. It was the touch of the cloud I had pictured as a child. I was amazed that something so like a cloud, which I had believed belonged to a sky I could never reach, could be so close. That memory is still vivid today. I wanted that sensation never to fade. Not as a memory glimpsed and passed by like a photograph, but one that lives on through the hands, through touching and using. So I created the *Myomi (猫美)* series, a set of ceramic lidded containers and tableware, so that I could keep that sensation close and return to it for a long time. I took the rounded form of a cloud and distilled Myomi's shape into it, aiming to express the curves that flowed under my palm as I stroked her and the softness I felt in my hand. The surfaces are finished in a matte glaze to echo the softness of clouds and fur, and a small raised dot on each lid leaves a trace of Myomi that can be felt at the fingertips. Each time I lift a lid or hold a bowl in my hand, the warmth that lingers inside quietly returns. Just as the unreachable cloud once came to my side, I hope this work brings back the memory of that day in the small moments of everyday life.