Hawaii Artists
Clayton Amemiya, Potter
Clayton Amemiya was born in Wahiawa, Hawaii in 1946. He went to Punahou School and graduated from the University of Hawaii at Manoa with a B.A. in Asian Studies in 1969 and an M.A. in History in 1976. In 1972 while working at the U.S. Consulate in Okinawa, he was attracted to the honest and relaxed craftsmanship of potter Seisho Kuniyoshi.
Amemiya spent every weekend for the next year at Kuniyoshi’s studio, learning the rudiments of the craft by helping to fire the kerosene kiln, making clays and glazes. He learned by observation rather than by formal lessons. “This approach to clay is important, I feel, because the potter should develop techniques with which he is most comfortable.
This will also prevent the potter from mimicking the teacher’s style.” Amemiya left government work in 1975, spent the next six months assisting Kuniyoshi, and then returned to Honolulu to obtain his M.S. in History at the University of Hawaii. In the summer of 1979 he acquired three acres of agricultural land in Waiakea-Uka, above Hilo. After three failed attempts Amemiya succeeded in 1986, with Kuniyoshi’s help, in building the anagama(tunnel kiln) he uses today.
Clayton’s studio, Rain, is located downtown Hilo, near the farmer’s market.
