Kiyoshi Ino (1946–2008) was born in Kyoto, Japan, to a family that has been involved in the production of pottery for some 160 years. He worked in the family studio while studying at the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, completing his diploma of Ceramic Art in 1969. After graduation he attended the Kyoto Technical School for a post-graduate course in glazing. Later, Ino was appointed lecturer in ceramics at the Kyoto Technical School.

After completing a study tour of China and Taiwan, Ino was one of a group of Japanese potters that travelled to Australia from the 1970s onwards, following in the footsteps of the famous Japanese potter, Shoji Hamada, who had visited in 1965. Ino visited Sydney in 1973, where he worked with Japanese potter Shigeo Shiga. He took up an appointment as Visiting Lecturer in Ceramics at the Gippsland Institute of Technical Education, Yallourn, Victoria, from 1974 to 76 and returned there as Assistant to the Senior Lecturer in Ceramics in 1979. He ceased teaching at the Gippsland Institute in 1988. Ino was involved in the establishment of a space for artists in the old butter factory at the nearby township of Yinnar and in 1982 the Yinnar Art Resource Collective, commonly known as Yinnar ARC, was established. Ino has exhibited extensively throughout Australia.