Hiro Kashihara

Cutlery Artist / Sculptural Artist

I create small supporting characters that quietly hold up the beauty and deliciousness of the table.

My journey began with my wife, who loves cooking and has always collected beautiful tableware and cutlery.

“I want to create moments that make her happy. I want her to enjoy beautiful tea times.”

That simple wish became the starting point of my cutlery-making.

Since 2020, I have been working seriously as a cutlery artist. With the concept of “cutlery to be nurtured,” I use materials such as brass and nickel silver that deepen in character over time.

Scenes and emotions that I find beautiful are distilled into simple forms, giving shape to pieces that quietly accompany everyday life.

Today, my work mainly consists of two distinct bodies of work, each existing on a different axis of time:

Tableware Specimens and Replica Edition.

Tableware Specimens are works in which the artist’s time resides,

while Replica Edition pieces are works upon which the user’s time is gradually inscribed.

I hope you will find one piece that gently accompanies your own days.

View Hiro Kashihara’s official portfolio here.

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Tableware Specimens

Tableware Specimens are a body of work that encapsulate the time I have spent facing each piece.

Their subdued, time-worn surfaces evoke the tactile sensations of making, and the memory of the moment when form first emerged. Emotions and stories quietly settle and solidify, remaining as silent traces.

They are no longer mere cutlery, but vessels in which time itself is preserved—like specimens.

Housed in boxes or frames, these works shift their role from functional tools to objects of contemplation.

Each piece bears a handwritten label noting its title, material, completion date, and signature—records of time that can only be inscribed in that singular moment.

The act of viewing unfolds along a different temporal axis than that of use.

On the surface, layers of change accumulate: the heat and thoughts of creation, the air that has brushed against them, the passage of time itself. These layers leave a quiet resonance in the viewer’s heart.

Tableware Specimens are works through which one encounters the artist’s time and savors its traces.

Each time your gaze rests upon them in daily life, the layers of memory deepen quietly—

please enjoy these specimens of time.

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Replica Edition

Replica Edition pieces are tools that are completed through the time of their users.

Their rich, lustrous surfaces evolve with every touch, maturing alongside the rhythms of everyday life.

These changes are personal stories themselves—small moments of living accumulating like precious stones.

If Tableware Specimens hold the time that has already passed,

then Replica Edition pieces receive the time yet to come, shaping it into lasting form.

Scratches and clouding are proof of shared days. With polishing, the shine can return—allowing time itself to be rewritten.

Through continued use, each piece matures, becoming a one-of-a-kind presence that reflects the user’s life.

Though they are tools, they illuminate fleeting moments of living and quietly connect time to the future—

works that function like mirrors of one’s own passing days.