Style & Design | Longform May 21, 2022
The enduring influence of mingei design
by Rebecca Saunders
What began as a folk art around 100 years ago has gradually worked its way into the fabric of everyday life in Japan.
Lifestyle | Kateigaho International Japan Edition Jan 18, 2020
A toast to mingei: The significance of unknown craftsmen
by Michael Dunn
What is so special about mingei (folk crafts)? For Muneyoshi Yanagi it was significant that ordinary, unknown and largely uneducated craftsmen used natural materials to make objects that were sublimely beautiful.
Lifestyle | Kateigaho International Japan Edition Jan 11, 2020
A toast to mingei: Shining a light on new uses for objects both venerable and hardworking
In Jeffrey Montgomery's Lake Lugano home, items that are no longer used in everyday life in Japan, or that might even be at risk of being thrown away, find new purpose and bring new charm.
Lifestyle | Kateigaho International Japan Edition Jan 4, 2020
A toast to mingei: 'The finest assemblage of Japanese folk crafts outside Japan'
by Michael Dunn
Today, Jeffrey Montgomery's mingei (folk crafts) collection is well-known among international dealers and many of his pieces are of a quality rarely seen today, even in Japan; some are unique.
Lifestyle | Kateigaho International Japan Edition Dec 28, 2019
A toast to mingei: Living with the rustic beauty of Japanese folk crafts
Jeffrey Montgomery began collecting mange (Japanese folk crafts) about 40 years ago and has now accumulated more than 800 pieces. He believes mingei is an important part of humanity's shared heritage.
Art Jul 9, 2019
How folk craft found its place in the art world
by Yoko Haruhara
"Japanese Tableware" highlights the passion with which Soetsu Yanagi — one of the founding fathers of the Japanese folk crafts movement — appreciated artisanal works into his own life, displaying the actual tableware that his family used when they gathered for meals.
Art Sep 12, 2017
Modern lacquer recalls past splendor
by Matthew Larking
Celebrated domestically and internationally for tea ceremony caddies in lacquer and mother-of-pearl inlay, as well as rather more substantial fittings such as kimono display hangers, artisan Tatsuaki Kuroda (1904-82) has finally been honored with the first Kyoto retrospective exhibition of his work. The exhibition focuses ...
Lifestyle Jun 18, 2017
Japan’s 'kanban' are still hanging in there
by Martin Laflamme
Little information remains about the personal life of the artisan Kojiro Shimizu. His personality and interests, his passions and motivations — all are shrouded in mystery. What we know is that he worked in Kyoto in the late 19th and early 20th century and ...
Style & Design May 21, 2017
Blasting the past with a new vision of future fashion
by Samuel Thomas
Much has been made of the recent closure of the monthly print edition of Shoichi Aoki's seminal Fruits street-style magazine, with many ready to cry that it sounds the death knell for Harajuku fashion, rather than seeing it as a simple casualty of the ...
Art May 9, 2017
Keeping up with the Joneses, Edo style
by Yoko Haruhara
The Edo Period (1603-1868) is renowned for the flourishing of material culture — a time when major advances and innovations in Japanese folk crafts and design were prized by the burgeoning commoner class of Edo (present-day Tokyo) and Osaka. "The Golden Age of Mingei: Life ...
Books / Reviews Nov 29, 2014
by Madeline Barbush
The Power of the Weave, by Tanaka Yuko, Translated by Geraldine Harcourt.International House of Japan, Nonfiction. Most of us give little thought about the materials in, or construction of, our daily ensembles, let alone the possibility of them holding historical ...
Art Jun 4, 2014
How Japan crafted its modernization
by C.B. Liddell
When Japan ended its isolation in the mid-to-late-19th-century, it had lots of disadvantages compared to the other major powers. But one distinct advantage that its isolation had preserved was its craft industries and the skills of its craftsmen.