Crafts
Everything else made by hand and made to last: lacquer, washi paper, textiles and indigo, metalwork, joinery, calligraphy, dolls and basketry, and the Living National Treasures system, which exists because these skills die with their holders.
Part of Japan
82 moments in this segment.
- - Cosmetics Box with Chrysanthemums. Lacquer, early 1300s, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Cosmetics Box with Chrysanthemums (base), a second example by Unknown. Lacquer, early 1300s, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Cosmetics Box with Chrysanthemums (lid), a third example by Unknown. Lacquer, early 1300s, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Selections from the Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Kokin waka. Calligraphy, 1600s, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Robe (Kosode) with Shells and Sea Grasses. Kosode, early 17th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Selections from the New Collection of Japanese Poems from Ancient and Modern Times (Shinko. Calligraphy, early 1600s, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Book of Painted Kosode Patterns. Kosode design book, second half 17th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Calligraphy in Semi-Cursive Style (xing-caoshu). Calligraphy, c. 1660–1709, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Fragment. 18th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Case (Inrō ) with Design of a Gourd Vine. Inrō, 18th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Case (Inrō) with Design of Bean Vine. Inrō, 18th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Case (Inrō) with Design of Grasshopper on Stalk of Flowering Lily. Inrō, 18th, 19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Saya Inrō with Bamboo Grove (exterior) and Rooster with Hen (interior). Inrō, second half of the 18th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Inrō with Grapevine. Inrō, second half of the 18th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Case (Inrō) with Design of Clamshells and Fireflies. Inrō, late 18th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Inrō with Tanabata Story of the Weaver and the Herdboy. Inrō, active first half of the19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Case (Inrō) with Design of Fisherman, Boat, Reeds, and Stone Basket Breakwaters. Inrō, 19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Connoisseur’s Album of Edo-Period Silk Fragments. Book of silk fragments, 19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Japan, Edo period (1615-1868) or Meiji period (1868-1912), 19th century - Sash (Obi) - 192. Japanese textile obi silk Edo period.
- - Case (Inrō) with Design of Sheaves of Rice in Boats. Inrō, 19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Inrō with Peacocks and Flowers. Inrō, 19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Netsuke of Snail on a Box. Netsuke, 19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Netsuke of Seated Puppy with Short Curled Tail. Netsuke, first half of the 19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Textile Cover for Shazanrō Picture Book. Bound Volume, 1816, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Poem Card Box with Lid. Lacquer, 1868–1912, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Writing Box (Suzuribako) with Chrysanthemum and Plum. Lacquer, late 1800s-early 1900s, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Calligraphy (reverse). Painting, late 1800s, from the Cleveland Museum of Art open-access collection; a digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Kesa (Buddhist priest's robe). Robe, late 19th to early 20th century, Japanese, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Netsuke of a Small Gourd on a Halved-Gourd. Netsuke, late 19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Netsuke of Seated Shishi Clutching a Ball. Netsuke, late 19th century, Japan, Metropolitan Museum of Art open-access; digitised reproduction of the original artefact.
- - Haibara. Washi. 榛原 紙製品
- - Aruku no kanji. Japanese calligraphy shodo brush.
- - Shimpo (shodou). Japanese calligraphy shodo brush. The Japanese word 進歩 shimpo ("progress, advancement") written on rice paper as an exercise of shodō or brush calligraphy, by Pablo D. Flores.
- - Chiyogami. Washi. Un exemple de washi: kyo chiyogami
- - Aki no kanji. Japanese calligraphy shodo brush.
- - Kyo-Yuzen Dyeing at Chiso, Founded 1555. The long-established Kyoto yuzen house Chiso shows the eleven-stage division of labour behind a single kimono, from design and sketching through paste resist, dyeing, steaming and embroidery.
- - Chusen: hand stencil dyeing for tenugui and yukata. The chusen process, in which dye is poured through stacked resist-pasted cloth so the pattern dyes through with no reverse side, still used for tenugui and yukata.
- - Ikebana Japanese flower arrangement 54, Ikebana- いけばな (9976193025). ikebana flower arrangement Japan. Kafu-ryū (?) ikebana arrangement.
- - Sekishu-banshi: UNESCO-Listed Handmade Paper. Hamada City film on Sekishu-banshi, an Important Intangible Cultural Property and part of the 2014 UNESCO inscription of Japanese handmade washi.
- - Ikebana Japanese flower arrangement 62, Ikebana- いけばな (14200390162). ikebana flower arrangement Japan. Saga Go-ryū ikebana arrangements.
- - Gamme Washi Tape. Washi. Empilement de Washi Tape de couleurs différentes
- - Shoko Kanazawa: Calligraphy as Prayer. Nippon.com profile of the calligrapher with Down syndrome whose solo exhibition at the Ueno Royal Museum marked twelve years since her debut at twenty.
- - One Hundred Young People Carrying On Japanese Craft. Hundredth-episode special of the Ashita e no Tobira artisan series, surveying a hundred young makers training in Japan's traditional trades.
- - Four Seasons of Awa Indigo. Documentary on the annual cycle of Awa indigo cultivation and sukumo composting in Tokushima, the dye base behind Japan Blue.
- - How to Look at Ikebana: The Shoka Style. Ikenobo's own guide to reading a shoka arrangement, the school's most pared-back form, described as the beauty of omission.
- - Sakai Forged Blades: Blacksmith Yusuke Okugami. Ashita e no Tobira episode on a young Sakai blacksmith; the craft traces to fifth-century tomb building and the Edo shogunate's Sakai Kiwame quality mark.
- - Sakai Forged Blades and the Professionals Behind Them. Sakai Film Office documentary on the city's 600-year blade industry, which supplies roughly 90 percent of the knives used by Japanese professional chefs, with interviews at each production stage.
- - Maki-e: Kazumi Murose and Beauty Across Time. Pola Foundation film on Living National Treasure Kazumi Murose making a maki-e and mother-of-pearl box, showing the gold powder being scattered onto wet lacquer in close detail.
- - Ikebana: Making Life Live, with Ikenobo Senko. Extended master class with the next iemoto of Ikenobo, the school that founded ikebana, on the philosophy of arranging living material.
- - Mingei: Forms of Everyday Beauty. Opening talk for a Muji mingei exhibition between designer Naoto Fukasawa, Japan Folk Crafts Museum director Takashi Sugiyama and Katsushi Onishi.
- - Tsumugi Weaving: Living National Treasure Ryoko Murakami. Japan Kogei Association film on Ryoko Murakami, holder of Important Intangible Cultural Property status for tsumugi silk weaving, who studied under Fukumi Shimura.
- - Awase Bocho: Forging at Izumi Riki Seisakusho, Sakai. Washoku Association film on laminated-blade knife making at the Sakai Toji workshop, showing the joining of hard steel to soft iron.
- - The Soul in a Sakai Knife. TV Osaka and Nikkei co-production visiting the Tanaka forge in Sakai to show how the cutting edge professional chefs prize is drawn out of Yasuki steel.
- - How yuzen dyeing is done, from the Tokyo National Museum. Tokyo National Museum reconstructs the yuzen process, the Edo-period pattern dyeing technique that lets a dyer paint fine images onto silk, using an Important Cultural Property furisode from its collection.
- - Mingei and the Beauty of Anonymous Hands. Discussion of mingei, the term coined by Soetsu Yanagi and others in 1925 for the everyday objects of nameless craftsmen, and the movement's response to mass production.
- - The Kioke Cooper Revival Project at Yamaroku Shoyu. Footage from the annual vat-building project at Yamaroku Shoyu on Shodoshima, where a soy-sauce maker taught himself coopering to keep wooden-vat brewing alive.
- - Where Mingei Was Born: Yanagi and Kawai in Kyoto. Antiques magazine Menome visits Soetsu Yanagi's former Kyoto residence and the Kanjiro Kawai Memorial Museum, the sites where the mingei movement took shape a century ago.
- - Hirose Kasuri: A Complete Production Record. Preservation society's full record of Hirose kasuri, a Shimane designated intangible cultural property, from warp measurement and thread-tying resist through natural indigo dyeing and weaving.
- - Why Japanese denim is so expensive. Business Insider on the Kojima denim industry, where a pair from a maker such as Momotaro can pass 2,000 dollars, and the shuttle looms and indigo dyeing that account for it.
- - Shirataka tsumugi: sixty kimono a year. Yamagata broadcaster's craft series on the sixth-generation head of a weaving workshop producing Shirataka tsumugi, a board-dyed silk made in tiny numbers.
- - Yuki Tsumugi: Silk Spun, Tied and Woven by Hand. Agency for Cultural Affairs record of Yuki tsumugi, a UNESCO-listed textile, from hand-spinning floss silk through hand-tied kasuri resist and weaving on a backstrap loom.
- - Kinma Lacquer: The Technique of Yoshito Yamashita. Agency for Cultural Affairs record of kinma lacquer carving, in which a Living National Treasure builds a box through ground layers, carving and more than fifty colour infills.
- - Woodwork: The Technique of Kenji Suda. Agency for Cultural Affairs record of Living National Treasure Kenji Suda building a small chest in Mikurajima mulberry and sycamore, covering stock selection, decoration, jointing and assembly.
- - Sekishu Washi Papermaker Haruka Kikuchi. Ashita e no Tobira episode on Sekishu-banshi handmade paper in Shimane, a UNESCO-listed washi technique now kept by four workshops.
- - One of Twenty Remaining Wooden-Vat Coopers. Ishikawa TV profile of Kunpei Sugimoto, one of roughly twenty kioke makers left in Japan, whose vats house the microbial colonies that give soy sauce, miso and sake their character.
- - Okeshibori: barrel resist-dyeing for kimono. Demonstration of oke-shibori, in which the cloth is stitched around a barrel so that only the exposed area takes the dye, repeated to build complex colour fields.
- - BUAISOU: Young Indigo Dyers of Tokushima. Kansai TV film on the BUAISOU workshop in Kamiita, Tokushima, who grow, compost and ferment their own Awa indigo and collaborated with Jimmy Choo.
- - The Temple Carpenter and His Blacksmith: Nishioka and Shirataka. Account of the working relationship between miyadaiku Tsunekazu Nishioka and smith Yukinori Shirataka, who forged the chisels and planes for the Yakushiji rebuilding.
- - All 41 Stages of Making a Sakai Kitchen Knife. Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide walks through the full forty-one-step division of labour in Sakai forged knife production, from steel forging through sharpening and handle fitting.
- - Making a Katsuobushi Plane. Process film at a long-established Japanese hardware maker building the finest grade of katsuobushi shaving box, a plane blade set in a wooden case for the hardest food in the world.
- - Edo Kiriko Cut-Glass Craftsman Kaito Nabetani. Ashita e no Tobira episode on the fourth-generation head of Nabetani Glass in Kamata, cutting two rock glasses and explaining the precision the patterns demand.
- - 560 Years of Ikenobo: The Next Iemoto on Ikebana Today. Interview with Ikenobo Senko on the school's history since the Muromachi period, the aesthetics of empty space and scarcity, and spreading ikebana abroad.
- - Living in Wajima Lacquer. Pola Foundation technical record of Wajima-nuri, made as a complete document of the craft's Important Intangible Cultural Property technique, down to the sound of the brush in the silent finishing room.
- - Ask the Demon: Talk on Nishioka's Testament. Release talk for the documentary Oni ni Kike about miyadaiku Tsunekazu Nishioka, with director Yuji Yamazaki and Azby Brown of the Kanazawa Institute of Technology.
- - Wood Reborn: The Woodturning of Ryozo Kawakita. Pola Foundation record film following Ryozo Kawakita, the first woodturner designated a Living National Treasure, over eight months making a zelkova serving vessel at Yamanaka, Ishikawa.
- - The World of Keisuke Serizawa. Pola Foundation film on the stencil dyer Keisuke Serizawa, whose direction came from mingei leader Soetsu Yanagi and from Okinawan bingata, spanning textiles, book design and everyday objects.
- - Kanazawa Engiwa Gold Leaf: A UNESCO-Recognised Technique. Kanazawa City film on engiwa gold leaf, beaten between sheets of specially treated washi, inscribed by UNESCO as an intangible heritage technique.
- - Shoko Kanazawa at Forty. Yomiuri TV interview with the calligrapher now aged forty, on how she came to be called a genius and on the decision she has reached about her work.
- - Inside the Japan Folk Crafts Museum. Tour of the Nihon Mingeikan in Tokyo with Hiroshi Ota of the Japan Folk Crafts Association, covering Yanagi's collection and a Shiko Munakata exhibition, followed by a discussion.
- - A French Blacksmith Keeping Sakai Knives Alive. ABC TV report on the Sakai knife museum drawing overseas visitors and taking over 300 million yen a year, with a French-born smith among those sustaining the trade.
- - Polished With a Fingerprint: Kyo-nuri Lacquer by Miki Hyoetsu IV. Full process film on Kyoto lacquer, in which the fourth-generation lacquerer builds and burnishes the black ground by hand to produce the characteristic waves of light.
- - Two Metres Bent Nine Millimetres: The Cooper of Shodoshima. Joiner Kazuhiro Oka explains why the base of a two-metre fermentation vat is deliberately not a true circle, working Yoshino cedar planted a century ago into vats meant to last another hundred years.
