Shunichi Inoue was born in 1946 in Saga Prefecture, Japan. Inoue studied painting at the Academy of Tokyo from 1967 to 1969 and received a Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts from the Kyoto City University of the Arts, where he studied between 1969 and 1975. He was appointed lecturer in ceramics at the Bendigo College of Advanced Education, Australia, in 1975 where he taught for three years. The following year he received the Bendigo Pottery International Award and first prize in the Preston and Northcote Community Hospital Award. Inoue has participated in group exhibitions in Japan and had solo exhibitions in Australia.

Upon his return to Japan Inoue spent three years potting professionally in Saga Prefecture before teaching at Fukuoka University. Inoue was invited, through the Japan Foundation, to be Visiting Professor at Darwin Community College in late 1984 and subsequently made a visit to Australia's southern states. Inoue's work is distinctive within the group of Japanese potters who produced works in Australia in the 1970s. Although his work is essentially wheelthrown, it is usually altered and possesses a matte glaze. Inoue's mallet-shaped Vase, although small in scale, is a refined and delicate work.