Editor's Note: This resource can be used in conjunction with the lesson Contemporary Clay: Japanese Ceramics for the New Century.

Since the mid-1970s, Kimiyo Mishima has created extraordinarily realistic ceramic sculptures of objects that are typically discarded by modern society including newspapers, manga, and cardboard boxes. These clay sculptural objects range from small to comically outsized. In creating these pieces, Mishima expects to draw attention to modern society’s propensity for consuming and discarding massive quantities of these items; a critique on the disposable mentality of contemporary culture.