Born in 1950 in Nobeoka, Japan, Akio Takamori was a ceramic artist and treasured educator known for his large painted-clay figures. Takamori studied industrial ceramics at Musashino Art University in Tokyo, and he worked as an apprentice for several years under a traditional potter in Koishiwara, Fukuoka. During this time, he was introduced to ACC Gold Medalist Ken Ferguson, who visited the pottery while traveling in Japan. Inspired by their meeting, Takamori enrolled in Ferguson’s ceramics program at the Kansas City Art Institute in Missouri, completing his BFA in 1976. He continued to pursue ceramics, earning a MFA from Alfred University in Alfred, New York, in 1978. Over the next decade, Takamori gained attention for creating erotic, figurative vessels. These works were often painted and fired multiple times to achieve Takamori’s preferred surface color, a technique he maintained throughout his career. In 1993, Takamori joined the faculty at the University of Washington in Seattle, where he worked until his retirement in 2014. Takamori maintained an active studio practice until his death in early 2017. His work has been exhibited widely and collected by many museums, including the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California. He received numerous awards throughout his career including three fellowship grants from the National Endowment for the Arts (1986, 1988, and 1992) and the USA Ford Fellowship (2011). Takamori was elected a Fellow of the American Craft Council in 2006.