Ito was born in 1952 in Kamaishi, a quaint fishing village in Iwate Prefecture in Tohoku in northern Japan. The area was isolated from the large metropolis in central Japan by rugged mountains covered with dense forests. To the east, a shoreline dotted with sandy beaches and dramatic rock formations opened to the Pacific Ocean. As a child, Ito spent long afternoons walking by the sea, combing the beaches for unusual seashells washed up by the tides, marveling at their intricate designs. That experience provided life-long inspirations for the artist.

Ito’s knowledge in geology turns out to be invaluable for his career as a ceramist. Many of his works have a distinctive gray surface marked with white speckles and silvery beads. Ito digs his own clay that has a high content of feldspar, silica and iron. Upon firing, the impurities produce glistering bead-like extrusions unique to his work. Using a technique pioneered by Shoji Kamoda, he coats the clay body with kaolin, then partially removes it with a wire brush after firing to produce the speckled surface. Other works are finished in a rich reddish brown color, achieved by using an unusual heat-resistant local red clay as a slip.

Throughout his life, Ito has kept an enviably simple and noble lifestyle by maintaining a self-imposed discipline of not yielding to commercial pressure. He works deliberately, charting his own course at his own pace, producing highly original works for a limited number of exhibitions. Despite his low-key approach, his work has won critical acclaim.

 In 2007, Ito launched his America debut with the first of three solo exhibitions in Touching Stone Gallery. The following year, he 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. In 2010, Ito's work was chosen again for the Musee Tomo Prize exhibition in Musee Tomo Museum in Tokyo. The current show includes two works (Sea Drop Nos.1 & 2) that were parts of that museum exhibit.