Atsuya was the third son of Shoji HAMADA, and became apprenticed to his father at Mashiko, where he was born, after he left school. He met Bernard LEACH when he was a young boy and held the ambition of coming to Britain to study with the Master. He realised this dream in 1957 when he came to St Ives to work in the Leach Pottery.

He went on to travel in Europe and the USA in 1959, before returning to Japan to join his father. From 1971 he showed his work in the Nihonbashi Mitsukoshi Department Store in Tokyo along with other solo exhibitions elsewhere in Japan. He set up his own studio and kiln in 1979, but unfortunately died in 1986 at the early age of 54.