DiscoverCraft makers and the evidence for their practice
Portrait of Shigeki Kudo.
Portrait of Shigeki Kudo. · Source: filament. · Headshot source page for Shigeki Kudo · Headshot image for Shigeki Kudo
Based in
Suginami, Tokyo, Japan
Materials
wood, hinoki, lacquer
Classification
wood, lacquer

工藤茂喜

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Shigeki Kudo

Shigeki Kudo (工藤茂喜) was born in Tokyo and completed graduate study in lacquer at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1986. He works as a wood and lacquer maker through Studio ON (スタジオ温), a craft unit, and has shown hegi work in solo exhibitions at Nihombashi Takashimaya and elsewhere in Tokyo. [13, 3, 9]

Profile

Background

Shigeki Kudo was born in Tokyo and completed graduate study in lacquer at Tokyo University of the Arts in 1986. Before the current split-grain vessels, he worked in architectural lacquer, including temple projects such as Kyoto's Nishi Honganji, and undertook interior work involving gold leaf, lacquered doors, furniture and miscellaneous wooden objects.

The shift toward hegi came from seeing the hollowed construction of a Buddhist sculpture during restoration work. Instead of treating timber as stock to be sawn into a predetermined outline, Kudo began exploring the older operation of splitting wood with wedges along its grain, a technique still visible in architecture and sculpture but rarely used for contemporary vessels. By the mid-2000s he was exhibiting hegi work as a sustained body.

The split is made at the first structural operation, after which joinery, carving and lacquer finish the object.

Practice

Studio On, run as a two-unit studio by Shigeki Kudo and Kaoru Kudo, makes hegi (split-wood) work and also undertakes temple and shrine lacquer interior work, gold-leaf public commissions and kintsugi repair. [13, 14]

Work over time

  1. Education Completed graduate study in lacquer art at Tokyo University of the Arts. · Tokyo University of the Arts · Graduate School, lacquer art [13, 3]
  2. Commission Lacquer work on a private house in Kamakura, listed in the studio's architectural and spatial archive. [15]
  3. Commission Decorative gold-leaf wall at Roppongi Station, listed in the studio's architectural and spatial archive. [15]
  4. Buddhist sculpture restoration workshop visits Helped a friend working on Buddhist sculpture restoration and visited the restoration workshop in the basement of Tokyo University of the Arts, where he saw a head split and hollowed out; this led to his hegi work. · Tokyo University of the Arts, Japan [2]
  5. began hegi Began working with hegi (split wood) around 2001 after seeing a Buddhist sculpture head split and hollowed at a restoration workshop in the basement of Tokyo University of the Arts, while helping a friend involved in sculpture restoration. [2]

Evidence and sources

References

  1. Works — 工藤茂喜
  2. 『へぎ』というしごと — interview
  3. Shigeki Kudo profile — panorama
  4. 工藤茂喜 / Shigeki Kudo — courage de vivre Retrieved 2026-09-28
  5. 工藤茂喜 | うつわ | filament Retrieved 2026-09-28
  6. へぎとは — スタジオ温 Retrieved 2026-09-28
  7. へぎ板皿 あわせ八寸（紙肌塗） | 工藤茂喜 | うつわ | filament Retrieved 2026-09-28
  8. 工藤茂喜展 2025.10.11(土)-10.19(日) 工藤茂喜「へぎの匣」展 Retrieved 2026-09-28
  9. Headshot source page for Shigeki Kudo Retrieved 2026-10-01
  10. Headshot image for Shigeki Kudo Retrieved 2026-10-01
  11. 工藤茂喜 — panorama
  12. 工藤 茂喜展 ―へぎの仕事― — Nihombashi Takashimaya
  13. スタジオ温～AboutUs～ Retrieved 2026-10-02
  14. スタジオ温～TopPage～ Retrieved 2026-10-02
  15. アーカイブ — スタジオ温 Retrieved 2026-10-02
  16. スタジオ温～ACCESS～ Retrieved 2026-10-02