Mashō

was the leader of Ceramic Village.

Background
Mashō was the creator of the Hanasaki style of ceramics, which was marked by its simple appearance yet exquisite beauty. Hanasaki brought fame to Ceramic Village, with Sunagakure frequently requesting Hanasaki pieces for its puppets. But Hanasaki was already difficult to produce for mere ceramics, and to create parts to the puppeteers' specifications only added to that difficulty. Mashō was one of the few who were talented enough, but he was so uncompromising in his idea of art that he rarely took requests; Chiyo was one of the few puppeteers he agreed to work with.

Though he had a son, Gōshō, Mashō was closest with Kanyū, a young girl who he took care of after her parents died. She admired Mashō's skills and decided early on that she wanted to be a ceramist just like him. As such, Mashō gave her a pendant to signal that she was a student of Hanasaki; he would wear a similar pendant to signal that he was her teacher. But the white clay that the village used for Hanasaki eventually started to run low. He shared with Kanyū his dreams of leaving the village to find new means of performing Hanasaki, but lacked the confidence to actually do so, concerned he would never find anything.

Because Mashō wouldn't leave, and because he refused to give up on Hanasaki, Ceramic Village risked ruin once the white clay inevitably ran out. To stop this from happening, Gōshō secretly killed Mashō and all the other Hanasaki ceramists, telling everyone they'd abandoned the village. He hid their bodies and the remaining supply of Hanasaki clay in an underground passage beneath the family's mansion. The villagers were afterwards forced to give up on Hanasaki and find new art styles, which ended up bringing them prosperity. But Kanyū, even though she'd never learned how Hanasaki was made and even though Gōshō wouldn't help her, continued to pursue it. Ten years after Mashō's death she finally rediscovered the secret. Coincidentally, she was immediately afterwards given Mashō's pendant - found on his body by Deidara and Sasori - befitting her new status as a Hanasaki master.

Mashō