Ohi ware originated in the early Edo period, when the 5th lord Tsunanori Maeda of the Kaga Domain, which yielded one million koku of rice annually, invited Senso (Sositsu Sen, the 4th head of the Urasenke school of tea) from Kyoto to Kanazawa as the mag- istrate of tea ceremony. Potter Chozaemon Haji, who was the top apprentice of the fourth Raku master Ichinyu, accompanied Senso to Kanazawa. He found clay suitable for Raku pottery around the place where Ohi-cho in Kanazawa City is located now, and started producing ceramics such as tea bowls, which were later called Ohi pottery. Under the generous protection of the Kaga Domain, Ohi pottery developed for 350 years. It is still appreci- ated as a rare tea vessel in the world of tea ceramics.

In 2016 Toshio Ohi succeeded to the title and became the 11th Chozaemon Ohi. While preserving the tradition of Ohi pottery, he creates ceramics with a modern twist. He has also been explor- ing using various types of clay from around the world, including China, South Korea, Taiwan and Arabic countries, as an experi- ment to develop a new tradition by himself through communica- tion with local people. He does not use a potter’s wheel even for a sculptural work, but is loyal to the “tedukune” method, which is a traditional hand-forming method of Raku pottery. Recently he produced some large pieces of work that combine ceramics with wall surfaces of a building, and created a new field of expression in the world of ceramics.

His works are in the collection of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Detroit Institute of Arts, Everson Museum of Art (those in the US), Sevre National Museum of Ceramics (France), Taipei Fine Arts Museum (Taiwan), Jingdezhen Ceramics Museum (China), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (Kanazawa, Japan), and many other European and Asian art galleries.