Yukio Tamura was born in 1933 in the town of Shippō (now part of Ama City), in Aichi Prefecture. Shippō, which literally means “cloisonné enamel”, was originally a village near Nagoya that became one of Japan’s most important centres of enamelware production during the Meiji period.

Continuing the tradition of cloisonné enamel, Yukio Tamura won several prizes at the Cloisonné Enamel Exhibition of Aichi Prefecture. In 1981, he became a permanent member of the Japan Kogei Art Association and received an award at the Japanese Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition. He also held a solo exhibition at the prestigious Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo.