Tadashi Ito was born in 1952 in Kamaishi, a quaint fishing village in Iwate Prefecture in Tohoku in northern Japan. The area is isolated from the large metropolis in central Japan by rugged mountains covered with deep cedar forests. To the east, a shoreline dotted with sandy beaches and unusual rock formations opens to the Pacific Ocean. This serene and beautiful setting has provided life-long inspirations for some of Japan's most creative artists.

Tadashi Ito studied geology in university, but he found no satisfaction in what he learned in school. At age 24, he went to India in search of the meaning of life. One hot afternoon, while traveling through the Decca Plateau, he was resting in the shadow of a temple when he noticed a young girl wearing a sari working in the field. She was tending a cow that was pulling a heavy waterwheel. The wheel turned around and around in an endless circle. Once in a while, the girl would kneel down to pick up a wild flower and admired it as if she had found the most beautiful treasure. At that moment, Ito understood what he wanted in his life. He was not to spend his life mindlessly just making a living. He wanted to live every moment sharing the incredible beauty of this world. He decided to be an artist.

In 1979, he sought training in ceramic in Mashiko, a pottery center made famous by the late mingei (folk art) master Shoji Hamada. However, Ito had no interest in mingei. As a creative artist, he was not excited about repeating what had been done, churning out the same dishes and vases, no matter how beautiful. Instead he was most inspired by the innovative work of another Mashiko genius, the late Shoji Kamoda. Unlike Hamada, who put much efforts into refining existing mingei, Kamoda strived for new ideas and innovations to open uncharted territories. In 1985, Ito returned to Iwate Prefecture where Kamoda worked in his later years. He built a kiln in the ancient town of Tono, a beautiful farming town rich in history and folklore. Besides providing an excellent clay, the quiet isolated environment freed Ito from trendy commercial influences to pursue his own artistic vision. Ten years later, Ito and his wife restored a 300-year old traditional farm house in a nearby town. He built his studio and kiln there and continued to create some of the most original works seen in contemporary Japanese ceramics.

Ito's vision is strongly influenced by nature's forms. One of his favorite pastime is to walk along the beach looking for seashells washed up by the tides. He is fascinated by the graceful lines and colors in seashells. Peering inside some of the shells half-exposed by erosion, he sometime feels he glimpses some hidden secrets of the universe, the quintessence of life. His work embodies those fleeting magical moments of wonder and inspiration.

Throughout his career, Ito has maintained a self-imposed discipline of not turning into a 'commercial artist'. He works deliberately, charting his own course, setting his own pace, producing a limited number of highly acclaimed works for no more than two or three shows a year.

In 2007, Touching Stone Gallery had the privilege to host the first solo exhibition in America. In 2008, Ito shared the prestigious Musee Tomo Prize in Contemporary Ceramics for the Tea Ceremony with four other leading Japanese ceramists (Masahiro Maeda, Kichizaemon Raku, Ryuichi Kakurezaki, Yuho Kaneshige), and their works were exhibited in the Musee Tomo Museum in Tokyo. The current show, Ito's second solo exhibition in the US, features a body of recent work that epitomizes the artistic vision of one of Japan's most extraordinary ceramic artists.