The Maeno family is the first generation of the Chihiro kiln in Arao city, which is known as a ceramic town. There are 12 kilns in the town to preserve the traditional technique called “Shodai-yaki” since the 1600s.
As other ceramic families in this town, the Maeno family also used the local clay and they dug their back yard to create the materials for making their vessels. Their son Ren is currently training to eventually take over his family's kiln in the future. Yukari, the mother of this family is from Okinawa prefecture (the southest island in Japan), which also has unique traditions to create colorful ceramics. The Maeno family combines both of their local traditional techniques and creates the unique products.