Yuka Nishihisamatsu

Born in Kameoka, Kyoto Prefecture in 1992. She graduated from the Department of Ceramics, Faculty of Crafts, Kyoto City University of Arts in 2016, and completed her Master’s degree in Ceramics at the Graduate School of Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts in 2018.

Yuka Nishihisamatsu grew up in a family of painters. Accompanying her parents on sketching trips from an early age, she cultivated a sensitivity toward observing nature and translating it into visual expression. Her hometown of Kameoka, surrounded by mountains and known for its cold climate and dense fog, profoundly shaped her sensibility. The elusive and atmospheric quality of the mist left a lasting impression, becoming a source of inspiration that continues to inform her artistic vision.
Working primarily with clay, Nishihisamatsu creates ceramic works distinguished by vivid coloration and intricate ornamentation. Her practice is deeply influenced by Japanese Buddhist culture, historical artifacts, indigenous traditions, and religious symbols, which she reconfigures and reinterprets through the materiality of clay. Rather than treating these references as static, she infuses them with new meaning, situating them in a contemporary context.
At the core of her practice lies an inquiry into the Buddhist notion of the cycle of life and death. While her earlier works often reflected on relics and sacred icons, her recent series has shifted toward the microscopic scale of existence. Drawing inspiration from small insects dwelling on riverbeds and even microorganisms invisible to the naked eye, she seeks to render their traces and ephemeral presence tangible through clay. In doing so, her works embody the memory of lives otherwise imperceptible, transforming them into lasting forms.
Nishihisamatsu’s ceramics stand at the intersection of tradition and contemporaneity. Rooted in craft yet expansive in concept, they evoke the layered temporality of life—its fragility, persistence, and cycles. From the fog-shrouded landscapes of her childhood to inherited symbols of faith and the invisible vitality of micro-organisms, her works invite viewers to encounter the unseen dimensions of existence that permeate the world around us.