1938-
male
Hosokawa Morihiro was born the first son of Hosokawa Morisada, the 15th generation head of the main Hosokawa family, which had been the feudal lord of Kumamoto for many generations. Hosokawa worked at the Asahi Newspaper after graduating college, was elected into the House of Representatives for the first time in 1971, and took on roles such as the Parliamentary Vice Minister of Finance. From 1983, Hosokawa worked as the prefectural governor of Kumamoto for eight years, then relocated to Tokyo where he formed a new parliamentary party in 1992. He was appointed as the head of the party and became the 79th prime minister of Japan in the following year.
He celebrated his 60th birthday in 1998, and stepped down from his role as a politician that year. Upon seeing a gallery show of a friend who was a pottery artist, Hosokawa decided to start pottery and became an apprentice to Tsujimura Shiro. Hosokawa also visited the studios of and was instructed by figures such as Sugimoto Sadamitsu of Shigaraki ware, Togo Kobayashi of Korean Yi Dynasty and Goryeo ware, and Koju Nishioka of Karatsu ware, and went onto create mainly tea bowls, along with sake ware such as guinomi sake cups, plates, and tableware. He holds gallery shows around Kochuan in Nihonbashi, Tokyo.
