Throughout his career, Shimaoka worked collaboratively with a group of workers, students, and apprentices from Japan and abroad.
At 19 he decided he wanted to become a mingei potter, after visiting the Japanese Folk Crafts Museum, which he found very inspiring.
After working for three years at the Tochigi Prefecture Ceramic Research Center, in 1953 Shimaoka set up his own pottery next door to his former teacher Shoji.
[4] In 1996 Shimaoka was designated a Living National Treasure (Ningen Kokuho) by the Japanese Government.
Jōmon involves using silk and other dense ropes (often obihimo, or cord to wrap the obi for Japanese kimono) to make impressions in leather hard clay, while zogan is a process whereby slip is applied and inlaid in multiple layers into the impressed pattern.