Hitomi Shibata is a Japanese ceramic artist based in Seagrove, North Carolina. She holds B.Ed. and M.Ed degrees in Art and Craft (ceramics concentration) from Okayama University, Japan, and began her career in Shigaraki, a historically significant Japanese pottery region. 

In 2001, she received a Rotary Foundation Scholarship to study at the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Relocating to Seagrove in 2005 with her husband, Takuro Shibata, they established a pottery studio utilizing local clays and Japanese-style wood kilns. Her work blends tradition with contemporary design, emphasizing craftsmanship, sustainability, and place. Shibata co-authored Wild Clay (2022), has been an International Academy of Ceramics member since 2017, and exhibits and lectures nationally and internationally.