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tetogu

“tetogu (hands and tools)” is an artist brand which works based on the expansion and merging of two genres – art and craft.
Focusing on materials produced from land and landscape created by culture, it involves and produces artworks from both viewpoints based on the representation of “earthenware” in which values of art and craft are accumulated.

Te (hand) is part of the body to touch and handle, and gu (tool) has a purpose to keep and means a subject to handle.
When we understand and shape the real nature of human activities which have continued for over 10,000 years and the real feeling of materials, we can imagine a landscape which would remain 10,000 years into the future.

As of 2025, based at Chuo-ku, Chiba, activities of tetogu include collection of materials in fieldworks in the suburbs, shooting landscapes and firing earthenware on the ground. By embodying texture and colors seen through living with nature as artworks, it aims to make opportunities to open up the forgotten feelings in modern society.

2022 Established mainly by Kei Sotoyama (pottery artist / preside over Chiba Pottery Workshop)
2023 tetogu STUDIO / GELLERY open

Past works

Projects by this artist

Observation of Locality in Changes of Landscape

Around Chiba Park
This project is an installation based on the earthenware culture in Chiba. We create and fire earthenware using the soil of Chiba, assuming that they will be dug up after 10,000 years. The project aims to rebuild lifestyle and landscape through landscape design using locally unique materials and manual work, to cast light on the loss of culture due to the modern homogenized townscape design and dependence on distributions. For the exhibition, we will prepare a space where people can see materials in a room of an apartment built over 50 years ago. Based on the timeline of earthenware, the installation makes people who see it imagine a tremendously long period of time. The land dug up for clay collection will be exhibited as a ruin. All works from the collection of materials to exhibition will be done manually and they represent the reconstruction of relationship with the land with actual feeling. At the same time, a workshop entitled “Let’s make earthenware from clay around you.” Clay is collected within the city, and participants will make earthenware products with the supervision of a pottery artist and fire them on the ground on the final day. The workshop is targeted for citizens aged 9 (Grade 4 elementary school students) or older. Fire prevention safety measures are fully equipped. We expect that this experience would be an opportunity for participants to imagine the past and future of Chiba and to actually feel that how they relate to the city will create its future landscape. [Types of citizen involvement] Workshop, Artwork production, Participation in production, Exhibition viewing
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Exhibitions & events by This Artist