The Kurinuki Way: Subtracting to Become
In a world obsessed with building, adding, acquiring, Kurinuki offers something radically different: the art of taking away.
Kurinuki (加脫, literally "carving out") is a traditional Japanese ceramic technique rooted in ancient philosophy. It begins not with a hollow shell or spinning wheel, but with a solid block of clay. The maker carves from the inside out, removing bit by bit, until the object hidden within reveals itself. It's a slow, tactile dance of intuition and surrender. No two Kurinuki pieces are ever the same. They can’t be. And perhaps, they shouldn’t.
This is not just craft. It’s contemplation. It’s the embodiment of a life lesson:
We are not made by what we add. We become who we are by what we let go.
Blocks of Raw Clay for Kurinuki Workshop by Martina Geroni
A Technique of the Hand, A Philosophy of the Soul
Where the potter’s wheel demands symmetry and control, Kurinuki invites wildness, freedom, imperfection. It is especially beloved by those who seek a deeper connection to material and meaning. Each gouge, each removal, is a decision and a surrender. What is kept? What is cut? What is no longer necessary?
In this, Kurinuki mirrors the human journey. How many of us walk through life accumulating roles, identities, responsibilities, until we are heavy with shape but hollow of self? The Kurinuki way invites us to do the opposite. To begin with the block. And trust that the void we carve will not destroy us, but define us.
Martina Geroni: A Life Sculpted by Subtraction
Italian ceramicist Martina Geroni is one of the women who has embraced Kurinuki not only as a technique, but as a personal practice of transformation. Trained as an architect, she was living in Mexico when she first touched earth with new eyes. During a workshop on adobe building, she witnessed homes created by hand from raw clay and straw. Something ancient stirred.
She returned to Italy changed. Restless in front of a screen. Disenchanted with designs born only from the mind. And then, through memory and intuition, she found clay. She began to carve. She began to subtract.
Martina Geroni Sculpting a Kurinuki Chawan Cup
“I give my students a block of clay and say: imagine this is 1.8 kilos of your problems,” she shares. “And then they begin to hollow it out. And it gets lighter. And so do they.”
Martina’s Kurinuki pieces are raw, alive, grounded. In a world of repetition and templates, her work reminds us: uniqueness is not created. It is uncovered.
Kurinuki Chawan Cup by Martina Geroni
A Practice for All of Us
You don’t have to be a potter to live the Kurinuki way. Anyone who has ever let go of a dream that no longer fit, left a path that felt too narrow, or released an identity that had calcified around them has practiced it.
It is the soft bravery of subtraction. It is the sacred art of becoming.
Kurinuki reminds us that emptiness is not absence. It is potential. And inside the block, whether of clay, or life, something essential is waiting to be revealed.
Kurinuki Artist Martina Geroni and Her Chawan Cup