1972年生まれ　滋賀県在住　1990年から『やまなみ工房』に所属 炊事、洗濯、部屋掃除に古紙回収、毎日彼が同じ時間、同じ流れで生活する中のひとつに創作活動がある。入所当初は、学校時代に学んだ皿や器等しか作ることのできなかった彼が、様々な体験や共に過ごす仲間からの影響を受け、次第に作品も個性豊かな立体造形へと進化していった。彼の真面目で実直な性格は作風にも表れ、同じ形の物を止めることなく、まるで流れ作業のように量産して作りつづけることができる。彼の代表的な作品「正己地蔵」もこれまで２０年以上変わることなく制作され、何十万体を超える作品は、彼の生き様そのものなのである。

born in 1972/ living in shiga/ at YAMANAMI since 1990 Masami Yamagiwa likes his daily tasks such as cooking, washing, cleaning and collecting waste paper for recycling, at a fixed time every day. For him creating artworks is one of them. When he joined YAMANAMI, he could make only some types of dishes and bowls that he had learned how to make at school. But thanks to his fellow artists around him and various experiences at YAMANAMI, the range of his creation has broadened. As he is a steady and earnest person, he makes a number of artworks of the same shape attentively. His most important work subject is called ‘Masami Jizo’. ( ‘Jizo’ is a small stone statue representing bodhisattva, wearing a red bib.) Masami Yamagiwa has been creating ‘Masami Jizos’ for more than 20 years, and the number of the statues he made now exceeds over several hundred thousand.