Yuri Kawakami-Shotton has been praised for promoting Stoke-on-Trent's pottery heritage to visitors from Japan. She runs Peak and Pottery Tours at the Spode Museum, where she showcases the city's ceramics industry and regional attractions to overseas guests.
Kawakami-Shotton said she was inspired to start the tours after hearing about pottery firms falling into administration. "My father-in-law said: 'Oh, because no one's buying a dinner set anymore'," she explained. "And I said, 'Japanese people would buy, Japanese people would go to the museum and things. I can do that, I can maybe promote it for this city'.'"
Since launching the tours, English-made dinner sets have become popular with her Japanese customers. "My customers love it and then some of them, for example, they come in Spode, they can't move, in front of the entrance, like 'oh my god i'm in Stoke, i'm in Spode'," she said.
Museum and Local Business Support
Michael Escolme, manager of the Spode Museum, praised Kawakami-Shotton's work. "She's been a valued member of our team really, ever since bringing Japanese visitors to us both in real life and virtually to the museum," he said.
Kawakami-Shotton also brings her visitors to The Rabbit Hole Tea Room in the city. In 2023, she helped the cafe take their afternoon tea offering to Japan with a pop-up event.
Lee Greenhalgh, owner of The Rabbit Hole, said the experience was transformative. "We were given the amazing opportunity to go and work out at Nihonbashi in Japan where we had a pop-up of The Rabbit Hole in September," he said. "That was insane - we went from selling a few hundred scones a day to 2,000 scones a day!"
