Masahiro Mori (1927 - 2005)

“My pleasure as a designer is to conceive of forms for daily use, and to create pieces for production in the factory so that many people can appreciate and enjoy them”

Born in Saga, Kyushu (in southern Japan), Mori-san graduated from Tama Art University in Tokyo in 1952 and worked at a ceramics factory in Nagasaki before joining Hakusan Porcelain in Hasami, Nagasaki Prefecture, as a ceramic designer in 1956. Here he applied his philosophy of “The pleasure in design comes from always thinking about and creating utsuwa (tableware) for daily life, which we can share with as many people as possible.”

He received the first-ever Good Design Award awarded by the Japan Design Committee in 1960 for his soy sauce bottle. Since then he has received numerous design awards both domestic and international. He left Hakusan in 1978 but continued to work with the company as a consultant designer, and it continued to produce all his designs. He also devoted himself to training young designers. In his later years, his work was exhibited around the world including the Deutsches Porzellan Museum in Germany and the National Museum of Art in Tokyo.

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