Join British studio potter Lisa Hammond MBE and Japanese ceramicist Yamada Yōji – whose work features in Hyakkō: 100+ Makers from Japan – for a special talk and live demonstration exploring their individual practices and creative exchange.

The event opens with a conversation reflecting on Yamada’s training in soda glazing at Hammond’s Maze Hill Pottery and the ongoing influence of British and Japanese ceramic traditions on their work. This is followed by a live demonstration featuring wheel-throwing, hand-building and slip decoration, offering audiences the opportunity to observe each maker’s distinctive approaches to material, process and form.

The event concludes with an opportunity for questions from the audience.

Hyakkō: 100+ Makers from Japan is on display in the Gallery at Japan House London from 3 December until 10 May 2026.

*Please note that filming and / or photography may take place at this event. Photos and footage of the event may then be used to promote Japan House London, helping more people to discover what we offer. If you have any concerns, please contact us online or contact a member of the team on site.

About the speakers

Lisa Hammond MBE

Lisa Hammond is a soda-glaze and Shino potter who works at Maze Hill Pottery in Greenwich, London and has been a lecturer for over 45 years. She produces high-temperature, functional ware, using raw glazing with slip and a palette of firing schedules to achieve rich colour and texture. In recent years, she has developed a body of work titled Soda Shino, inspired by Japanese Mino ware, using Shino glazes fired alongside slipware pots in a soda kiln. Her work is held in galleries, museums and private collections worldwide. She is an Honorary Member of the Craft Potters Association and founder and Chair of Adopt a Potter Charitable Trust and Clay College Stoke. She was awarded an MBE in 2016 for services to Ceramics and Preservation of Craft Skills.

Yamada Yōji

Born in Shiga Prefecture in 1980, Yamada Yōji studied ceramics at the Shigaraki Ceramic Research Institute. Inspired by historic British slipware, he moved to the UK in 2007 and trained in soda glazing under Lisa Hammond MBE at Maze Hill Pottery. After returning to Japan, he worked at Furutani Seitō before establishing his own practice in Shigaraki. His work explores functional ceramic forms and the traces (patterns) left by unforced, improvised hand movements, drawing on the inherent qualities of materials. He is engaged in the production of slipware-inspired ceramics using familiar raw materials and local kilns.