Glass artist
Yuichi Yamazaki
Based in Odawara, Kanagawa, Japan
Career
1983 — Born in Tokyo.
Graduated from the Industrial and Craft Design department at Nippon Design School.
After graduating, worked in Western-style metalwork and studied forged-iron craft.
Later shifted his practice to glassmaking.
Completed the one-year blown-glass course at Notojima Glass Studio.
Worked as a production staff member at Noguchi Glass Co., Ltd.
2017 — Became independent and began working as a freelance glass artist.
Since then, has presented his work through solo and group exhibitions and craft fairs throughout Japan.
2021 — Exhibited at Kōbō kara no Kaze.
2026 — Moved his production base to Odawara, Kanagawa.
Today — Continues his practice from Odawara.
Main techniques: free-blown glass and sandblasting.
About the artist
Yuichi Yamazaki first studied industrial and craft design and then worked in Western-style metalwork, learning forged-iron craft. He later turned to glass, studied blowing techniques on Notojima, and gained years of experience at a glass studio before becoming independent in 2017.
Yamazaki’s work has two distinct faces. One is centered on free-blown glass, preserving the slight movement and individual variation that glass naturally develops at high temperatures. In the Hakka series, pale green wraps around transparent glass, and the color and outline shift gently as light passes through the wall of the vessel. In the other, he shapes the glass by blowing and then uses sandblasting to cut into the surface, gradually revealing color and geometric patterns.
For Yamazaki, technique is not the final purpose of a work. Early in his independent practice, he realized that what he wanted to make was not always the same as what he truly wanted to use. Since then, he has increasingly considered objects from the starting point of use.
Glass can express light and color, or it can simply be the cup someone naturally reaches for from a cupboard each day. Yamazaki wants to make objects that can enter that kind of everyday life.