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Kaneshige Toyo (金重 陶陽) (born in Inbe, Bizen, Okayama, Japan, Jan 3, 1896 – Nov 6, 1967) was a potter in Imbe, Japan. He was appointed a Living National Treasure in 1956 (first Bizen potter who get this title) for his work in the Bizen style ceramics. He was a member of what is known as the "Momoyama revival movement" of the 1930s and is credited with having rediscovered the techniques used to produce the wabi teawares of the Azuchi-Momoyama period.

Tōyō was born as the eldest son of Baiyō Kaneshige (real name: Shinsaburō) under his real name Isamu Kaneshige. After graduating from the School in Inbe in 1910, he was trained by his father until his death in 1916 in the art of pottery. From 1918 he was engaged in colored Bizen ceramics (色絵備前, Iroe Bizen). During this time he also took the name Tōyō and adopted the beliefs of the new Shinto religion Ōmoto. In order to learn the basics for tea dishes, he entered a tea school of the Omotesenke direction. From 1922 he made first tea cups.

Bizen clay in the 1930s was shiny, like bronze and used mostly for ornamental figures called saikumono. Kaneshige was a saikumono master, yet abandoned that road in search of the shibui Momoyama Bizen that was made by his ancestors.

After he had already experimented with a German muffle furnace in 1921 (it had come to deformations of the kiln), he succeeded in 1928 with a wood-coal kiln, a compromise of muffle furnace and kilns used in Bizen. The year 1928 was eventful, because in 1928 died Tōyōs mother, he married Ayako Agino and he presented the Tennō (the Emperor of Japan) several art ceramics. One year later was born his eldest daughter Tsuneko and in 1931 was born his second daughter Yukie. In 1938 he opened his first solo exhibition in Osaka .

In 1942, together with the potter and later politician Handeishi Kawakita (1878-1963), Toyozō Arakawa and Kyūsetsu Miwa X, he founded the Karahine society. In 1949, he delivered Naohi Deguchi, the third daughter of Ōmoto's founder, tea bowls, water containers (mizusashi) and sake bottles with engraved decorations. In 1955 he was involved in the founding of the Japanese Society of Arts and Crafts (日本工芸会, Nihon Kōgeikai).

In 1956 Tōyō Kaneshige was appointed Living National Treasure for his Bizen ceramics. The same year he exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago on the occasion of an exhibition on contemporary Japanese art ceramics together with five other potters. In the summer semester 1954 and 56 Tōyō stayed as a lecturer at the University of Hawaii. Throughout his life he sought international exchange, for example with the English potter Bernard Howell Leach. In 1956 Kaneshige received the Medal of Honor on the violet ribbon.

Along with other first LNT’s, such as Arakawa Toyozo and Nakazato Muan, Kaneshige researched and revived the ancient Momoyama Period ways of clay preparation, kiln building, kiln loading–a key aspect–and firing. The “tsuchi-aji” clay flavor of Toyo is unsurpassed on all his works, and it is he who made both the Kaneshige name, and moreover, Bizen, an integral presence in Japanese modern and contemporary ceramics.

Kaneshige died in 1967 at the age of 71 years in the Okayama State Hospital. Postum he was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun (merit class officer). In 1981, the Kaneshige Tōyō Prize was established to his memory.

He trained many potters in the art of making bizen ceramics. His younger brother Sozan (1909-1995), his eldest son Michiaki (1934-1995) and his third son Kōsuke (* 1943) are art ceramists.