JŌMON Vessels by Noe Kuremoto, Photography is by Kestutis Zilionis, courtesy of the designer.

Design. In Milan, the 5Vie Design District presented JŌMON: A Mother’s Anthem — a lyrical installation of new work by London-based, Japanese ceramist and artist Noe Kuremoto. Framed as a love letter to mums everywhere, the project, curated by Anna Carnick, honours the full complexity of motherhood: its beauty and its pain, its struggle and devotion, its ferocity, hope, and quiet daily care.

• RELATED STORIES: Read more about Milan Design Week 2026 on Archipanic.

“When I was 35, my career finally began moving in the right direction — new commissions, influential reviews, and a real sense of creative momentum,” Noe Kuremoto shared with Archipanic. “Then my husband asked that fateful question: When are we going to have a baby? When I told him I wasn’t planning on it — that I needed to focus on my career — his answer left me speechless: I want to become a dad so much that, if that’s the case, you have to let me go. And he left.”

Alone in an empty London flat, Kuremoto found refuge in her workshop, crafting vessels frantically, compulsively — not yet knowing that the most important project of her life – motherhood – was about to take shape.

“In the wake of the shocking new reality, back in my workshop, I began to craft stoneware vessels conceived as a contemporary response to some of the world’s earliest known pottery,” Kuremoto explains. “The pieces draw on the JŌMON period (14,000–300 BCE) — an era in which vessels were often used in rituals for maternity protection. The act of making helped me realise it was time to embark on a radical new adventure: becoming a mother.”

The works presented in Milan narrate and reflect an emotional journey. The vessels speak of the joy, stress, fear, love, and exhaustion Kuremoto experienced before and throughout motherhood — a process made tangible through clay, form, and texture.

“I wanted the vases to be imperfect — as every mother thinks of herself,” she says. “Lumps, cracks, and shrinkages make each piece unique and, in their own way, beautiful.” Some vases suggest the feminine form; others, the shape of a uterus. Through soft motherly shapes, some compositions read as constellations of mothers and children.

“As a mother of four, I didn’t and don’t have the time to focus only on the work, and I surely missed many opportunities. But I finally realised that now I have two projects in my life. My work and my family. And from the imperfect, often messy management of both, I can surely feel tired yet happy and complete.”

With the JŌMON project, Kuremoto has made something quietly profound: a body of work that doesn’t idealise motherhood so much as witness it — honestly, tenderly, and with a great deal of heart.

Photography by Kestutis Zilionis, courtesy of 5Vie.