Tommy Kakinuma was a highly regarded mid-century potter and sculptor living and working in the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. He first immigrated to Canada in 1937, from Japan where he was born in 1908. He taught at U.B.C. and at Banff. His own work is characterized by rustic textures and abstract features. His work is both playful and worthy of belonging in many serious Art Pottery collections. He won numerous ceramic awards including the Canadian Ceramic award in 1957, Best Canadian Sculptor in 1963 and a silver medal at the 1963 International Ceramic Show in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He worked from his home, where he died in 1982 in Burnaby, and where his wife Ikuko and daughter Hitsue still live.
