Born in Honami in Bizen City, Okayama Pref. in 1899, Kei Fujiwara is the founder of Fujiwara Bizen Ware. He wanted to be a novelist in the first place, and it was in 1939 when he was already 40 years old that he first tried making Bizen Ware. Having resigned his position as an assistant teacher, he went up to Tokyo at the age of 20 to study not only literature but also painting and music. He was even engaged in scriptwriting and making of films. However, he hadn’t been able to get a chance to be a novelist during the 18 years of stay in Tokyo and finally decided to go back to his hometown in 1937. He was 38 then. In his hometown he began to make Bizen Ware according to the advice by Atsuo Masamune, a famous novelist and literary critic Hakucho Masamune’s brother. Being already in the middle age and having known nothing about pottery making until then, he’d had to go through hardship for a long time to establish himself as a pottery artist. He improved his skills and attained maturity through close friendship with Toyo Kaneshige, both of whom were later designated as Living National Treasures. Fujiwara’s simple and openhearted style is loved by many people.