Hanako Nakazato says when she was a kid, she didn't want to work in pottery.

I grew up in Karatsu, which is known for history of pottery.

So when I was younger, I wasn't interested in pottery.

It was too close to home.

Karatsu is in southern Japan.

It's been a hub of pottery making for hundreds of years.

Hanako comes from a family of renowned potters. So at first, she wanted to try something different.

But after she moved to the United States at 16, slowly, that started to change.

As I spent many years away from home, I started to appreciate my own cultural heritage.

It started with food, sort of. I love food, and I realize the Japanese dining experience is very unique, not just the ingredients, but

the table setting is very unique, the presentation of the food.

And pottery plays a big role in that.

So Hanako knew what she had to do next.

I wanted to create a tool to enjoy food, and that was a start.

European styles, everything is unified and it's very clean.

But if you go to a Japanese restaurant, repetition is often avoided.

So you would have different kinds of pottery on the table.

It's not just white things and around things.

You might start seeing something like white or clean,

but then next might be something in wood or bamboo or metal or glass.

Texture is different.

Material might be different.

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