Entries for the LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 close at 23:59 CET on 15 October 2026. The application is completed in English and calls for two to five photographs of the work, a short biography, a portfolio of up to five pieces, details of the entered work, identification, and a conceptual and technical statement of no more than 200 words.

The thing to avoid is treating this as a set of boxes to fill. The photographs, the portfolio and the written statement are separate items on the form, but together they build a single picture: what this maker thinks about, how they handle material and process, and why this particular work exists.

Drawing on the official 2027 pages, the FAQ and the Rules of Entry, this guide follows the order in which the work of applying actually happens — from eligibility through photographic specifications and the written statement to the final check before submitting.
(Source: LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

What Is the LOEWE Craft Prize 2027? Deadline and Basic Conditions

The LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2027 is an international award for contemporary craft, open to professional artisans aged 18 and over. Entries for this tenth edition close at 23:59 CET on 15 October 2026.

Established in 2016, the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize reaches its tenth edition in 2027. Its purpose, set against LOEWE’s own beginnings as an artisanal workshop, is to recognise excellence, artistic merit and innovation in contemporary craft.

The fields given as examples include ceramics, bookbinding, enamelwork, jewellery, lacquer, metal, furniture, leather, textiles, glass, paper and wood. The prize describes its territory as the applied arts. Read alongside the conditions set out below, the emphasis falls less on whether an object fits a recognised craft category than on whether it demonstrates artistic intent through its material and technique.
(Source: LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

There is no entry fee. Applications are made through the official online registration only; entries sent directly by email are not accepted. The form is completed in English.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize 2026: Winner, Japanese Finalists & What This...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/trend/loewe-craft-prize-2026/

The LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize 2026 was awarded to Korean ceramicist Jongjin Park for Strata of Illusion (2025).Now in its ninth edition, the prize received more than 5,100 applications from 133 countries and territories. The winner was announced on May 12 in Singapore, and the finalists' exhibition opened the following day at the National Gallery Singapore.Three Japanese artists reached the finals: Misako Nakahira, Nobuyuki Tanaka, and Ayano Yoshizumi.If you follow contemporary craft ...

Prize, Exhibition and Judging Schedule

The winner receives €50,000. Where the Jury chooses to award Special Mentions, each carries €5,000.

Judging happens in two stages. The Expert Panel reviews the entries and selects the works that go forward to the final stage. The 2027 pages describe a shortlist of 30 works, while the Rules of Entry set the figure at a maximum of 30; this article follows the latter.

A Jury of fifteen, drawn from design, architecture, journalism, criticism and museum curatorship, then selects the winner from among the finalists. It includes Jongjin Park, winner of the 2026 edition, and the designer Naoto Fukasawa, director of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo.
(Source: LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Finalists are contacted in January 2027, after the Expert Panel has made its selection, by the telephone number or email address given on the form. The winner is decided after the Jury’s deliberation, which the FAQ gives as May 2027. The main pages state that the award and accompanying exhibition will take place in Europe in spring 2027; the venue had not been announced at the time of writing.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Who Can Enter? Working Through the Eligibility Conditions

Entrants must be professional artisans aged 18 or over at the time of application. There is no restriction by nationality, and entries may be made individually or as a group. The work itself carries further conditions covering when it was made, whether it is one-of-a-kind, and its prize history.

The 2027 information asks that entrants be 18 or over and engaged in craft as a sustained professional activity. Nationality places no limit on who may enter.

The conditions set on the work are as follows.

• It falls within the applied arts
• It is an original work
• It is one-of-a-kind
• It is handmade in whole or in part
• It was created within the past five years
• It has not previously won any prize
• It demonstrates artistic intent as well as technical proficiency
• It is innovative in the sense that it updates tradition

That last condition does not call for work that rejects inherited technique. What it asks is that you can account for what you have carried forward, what you have altered, and how material and process connect to a present-day form of expression.
(Source: LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Outsourced fabrication requires particular attention. The FAQ states that work designed or conceived by the entrant but physically made by a third party is not eligible: the entrant must be the maker of the work.

Makers and workshops who divide labour or work collaboratively should establish, before applying, which stages they carried out themselves and whether the entry belongs under a group submission.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Each individual or group may enter one work, or one series that stands as a single artistic creation. The same work may not be entered for another prize at the same time.

What “Professional Artisan” Actually Means

Professional artisan does not mean someone who earns their living from craft alone.

The FAQ describes it as working in craft as a professional activity and taking an active part in exhibitions, galleries, fairs and educational programmes. Income from craft need not be your sole support.

Students are eligible too, provided they are 18 or over and their biography shows sustained professional engagement with craft.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

What Do You Need to Prepare? Submission Items and Photographic Specifications

Beyond photographs of the work, the LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 application calls for a biography, a portfolio of up to five pieces, details of the entered work, identification, and a conceptual and technical statement of no more than 200 words.

The main pages give a brief summary of the photographs and the statement, but the full list of what you will be asked for sits in the Rules of Entry.

You will need two to five photographs. The Rules of Entry ask for different viewpoints, with one image only showing a person beside the work to indicate scale. The background should be white and neutral.

On files, the FAQ specifies JPG or PNG, a minimum of 800 × 600px, at least 200dpi, and no more than 2MB per file. Video, if you include it, runs to a maximum of one minute.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

You do not have to complete the form in one sitting. The FAQ states that entries are saved automatically and can be revised up to the point of submission. Once submitted, the content cannot be changed.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Pre-submission checklist

• The entrant is 18 or over and meets the conditions for a professional artisan
• The work was made within the past five years
• The work is one-of-a-kind and has not previously won a prize
• The same work is not entered for another prize at the same time
• The entrant is confirmed as the maker of the work
• The biography is in order
• The portfolio is edited down to five works or fewer
• Title, dimensions, materials, weight and category are confirmed
• An estimated insurance value in euros is ready to enter
• A passport or official ID is to hand
• The conceptual and technical statement is within 200 words
• Two to five photographs are prepared
• One photograph uses a person to indicate scale
• Backgrounds are white and neutral
• Files are JPG or PNG, at least 800 × 600px and 200dpi, under 2MB
• Any video runs to one minute or less
• All information is entered in English
• The current Rules of Entry 2027 have been checked before submitting

What the Statement Needs to Carry

In 200 words, a list of processes will not do the work. What has to come through is the intent behind the piece, the material and technique, and the reasons those were chosen — held together as one thread.

The 2027 Rules of Entry ask for a conceptual and technical statement of no more than 200 words about the work.

Rather than starting from the finished sentences, it is usually easier to settle three things first.

• What the work is about
• Why it had to be this material and this process
• How it reinterprets an existing technique, use or tradition

The pull, when describing craft in a short space, is towards the ready-made vocabulary of heritage: traditional craftsmanship, harmony with nature, tradition and innovation. Those phrases are frictionless to write and carry almost nothing specific about the object in front of the reader.

With a work in urushi, a natural lacquer made from tree sap, saying that traditional lacquer technique was used tells a reader little. What can be described instead is how the layering of the film, the polishing, the cutting back, the curing and the way the surface changes with age bear on the structure and meaning of the piece.

In ceramics, listing glaze names and firing temperatures is not the same as thinking about how the shrinkage of the clay, the flame, the movement of the glaze and the relationship between chance and control arrive at the final form.

Technique names such as maki-e, lacquer decoration using sprinkled metal powder, kanshitsu, dry-lacquer construction, zōgan, inlay, and yakishime, high-fired unglazed ceramics, do not need forcing into a single everyday English word. It is worth first checking the English forms already used by the makers, workshops, regional associations and museums concerned, then, where it helps, pairing a romanised term with a short explanation.

The aim is not to convert the vocabulary for its own sake. Meaning should survive, and someone seeing the work for the first time should be able to follow it.

Unsure Whether to Apply? Common Misunderstandings [FAQ]

The points that most often cause hesitation, set out from the 2027 FAQ.

Q1. When is the deadline?

23:59 CET on 15 October 2026. Entries opened on 8 July 2026.
(Source: LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Q2. Is there an entry fee?

No. The FAQ states explicitly that there is no registration fee.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Q3. How many works can I enter?

One work per individual or group, or one series that stands as a single artistic creation.

Q4. Can I enter a work that was entered for another prize but did not win?

Yes. It must, however, meet the other conditions, including never having won a prize and not having been a finalist in a previous LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Q5. Can I enter if part of the making was done by someone else?

The FAQ states that a work designed or conceived by the entrant but made by a third party is not eligible, and that the entrant must be the maker. Where the work is collaborative, check the conditions for a group submission.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Q6. Can students enter?

Yes, if they are 18 or over and their biography shows sustained professional engagement with craft through exhibitions, galleries, fairs, educational programmes and similar activity.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Q7. Can I submit the application in a language other than English?

No. The online registration form must be completed in English.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Q8. Can I revise my entry after submitting it?

No. Entries are saved automatically as you work and can be changed before submission, but not afterwards.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Q9. Can I enter a work that has already been exhibited?

Previous exhibition alone does not make a work ineligible. Check it against the other requirements, including prize history, date of making and conditions of ownership.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

Q10. Can I enter the same work for another competition at the same time?

No. The FAQ does not permit the same work to be entered for another prize concurrently.
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 Conditions at a Glance [Comparison Table]

Working through the conditions in five groups — eligibility, the work, submission items, photographs and language — is the surest way to avoid leaving something out.

(Source: LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

After You Submit: What Comes Next

The English biography, portfolio, photographs and statement you are putting together now are worth keeping as working documents, not filing away once the result is known. They will serve the next open call abroad and the next approach to a gallery.

Measuring a work again, hunting for images of earlier pieces, settling on an English title, rewriting a biography from scratch — doing all of it afresh for every international application is a heavy load.

Recording title, year, materials, technique, dimensions, weight, photographs, a short description and the English terminology as one set each time a work is finished changes how quickly you can respond to the next opportunity.

The portfolio of up to five works deserves the same second look. Rather than simply lining up your five most recent pieces, consider whether they let a reader see the themes you work with, your relationship to material, how technique has shifted, the range of scale, and the question you have kept returning to.

A portfolio is not an inventory. It shows what you have made, and at the same time what you have gone on thinking about.

Kogei Japonica reports on the profiles and working backgrounds of makers and workshops for readers in Japan and abroad. For the results of previous editions and the criteria by which contemporary craft is assessed internationally, our analysis of the 2026 prize covers the same ground from a different angle.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize 2026: Winner, Japanese Finalists & What This...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/trend/loewe-craft-prize-2026/

The LOEWE Foundation Craft Prize 2026 was awarded to Korean ceramicist Jongjin Park for Strata of Illusion (2025).Now in its ninth edition, the prize received more than 5,100 applications from 133 countries and territories. The winner was announced on May 12 in Singapore, and the finalists' exhibition opened the following day at the National Gallery Singapore.Three Japanese artists reached the finals: Misako Nakahira, Nobuyuki Tanaka, and Ayano Yoshizumi.If you follow contemporary craft ...

Conclusion

Entries for the LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 close at 23:59 CET on 15 October 2026. Applying means preparing not only the work but two to five photographs, a biography, a portfolio of up to five pieces, details of the work, identification and a conceptual and technical statement of no more than 200 words — and starting early.

The conditions worth watching most closely: the work must be one-of-a-kind and made within the past five years, it must never have won a prize, the entrant must be its maker, it cannot be entered for another prize at the same time, and nothing can be changed once submitted.

What matters most in this application, in our view, is not producing language that sounds right for an international audience.

Which material you chose. Why that process was necessary. What you carried forward and what you changed. It is a matter of putting each of those judgements into words.

Set out how material, process, form and intent hold together as one work — not only how demanding the technique was — and the documents you prepare now will keep their use in the next exhibition, the next international call, the next conversation with a gallery.

If you are considering an entry, narrow the field to one work or one series and prepare the four elements separately: photographs, biography, portfolio and the 200-word statement.

Before submitting, check the current Rules of Entry 2027 and the FAQ on the LOEWE FOUNDATION pages.
(Source: LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)
(Source: FAQs – LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 | LOEWE FOUNDATION)

The post LOEWE Craft Prize 2027 Guide: Photos, Portfolio, Statement first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

A first donabe is best narrowed down not by size alone, but by three questions: what you intend to cook, how much capacity you need, and whether the pot works with the heat source in your kitchen. If you plan to use it regularly, checking the weight of the pot and where you will store it will further reduce the chance of ending up with something awkward to live with.

This article works through the fundamentals of choosing a donabe, the difference between rice-cooking and hot-pot designs, what to watch for when cooking on induction, and the two ceramic traditions most closely associated with these pots: Iga ware (Iga-yaki) and Yokkaichi Banko ware (Yokkaichi Banko-yaki). Manufacturer and prefectural sources are checked throughout.

What Should You Check First When Choosing a Donabe?

Check three things first: intended use, capacity and size, and heat source. The number of people eating, or the gō size printed on the label, will not on its own tell you whether a pot suits your cooking environment.

Not all donabe are designed for the same purpose. Some are built around cooking rice, some around hot pot shared at the table, and some extend to simmering and steaming as well.

Two pots of similar outer diameter can also hold quite different amounts if their depth differs. And as the body grows larger, so does its weight once water and ingredients are in it.

Working through the following order before you buy makes the choice considerably easier.

• Use: rice, hot pot, simmered dishes — what will you make most often?
• Capacity and size: does it match the quantity you usually cook? Can you store and wash it without difficulty?
• Heat source: gas, induction or otherwise — will it work on the appliance you have?

With induction in particular, it is not enough to read the pot’s own product listing. You also need to establish whether the induction cooktop itself is approved by its manufacturer for use with ceramic cookware. We return to this point in detail below.

Why Does Choosing by Gō Size Alone Lead to Mistakes?

The gō size is one useful indication of how large a donabe is, but it should not be treated as a precise standard for capacity or the number of people served. What matters more are the maker’s published dimensions, capacity and weight.

Japanese product names commonly carry sizes such as “6-gō”, “8-gō” or “9-gō”. Yet donabe come in shallow wide forms, deeper forms, and dedicated rice-cooking forms, and pots of broadly similar outer diameter can hold noticeably different volumes.

When buying online, then, rather than reading the gō size alone, it is worth comparing at least four figures: outer diameter, height, capacity and weight.

Gō Size, Servings and Capacity: What to Compare

Retailers often publish a rough correspondence between gō size and number of diners. Kogei Japonica does not recommend treating these as fixed conversions, because capacity shifts with the shape and depth of the pot.

Rather than deciding simply that “one person means a small donabe” and “a family means a large one”, check the capacity of the pan you currently use and compare from there. It gives you a far more concrete sense of how the pot will handle day to day.

Why Capacity in Millilitres Matters More Than Gō Size

Capacity is the figure that governs practical use. With rice-cooking donabe in particular, the design question is not what gō size the pot carries but how much rice it is built to cook. Note that Japanese uses two similar-sounding units here: the gō size of the pot, and the gō of rice, a volume measure of roughly 180ml of uncooked grain.

The rice-cooking donabe Kamado-san, made by the Iga ware kiln Nagatanien, is offered in models from one gō of rice up to five. The maker’s published specifications give the one-gō model a capacity of 600ml, the three-gō model 1,500ml and the five-gō model 2,500ml. Body weight also increases as the pots grow larger.
(Source: Kamado-san, Nagatanien)

For a rice pot, the question is not only how many people are eating, but how much rice you cook at a time, and whether you cook once and keep some back for later.

The same logic applies to hot pot. You never fill a pot to its stated capacity with stock and ingredients, so consider depth and headroom alongside the raw capacity figure.

Rice Pot or Hot-Pot Donabe: Which Should You Choose?

If you cook rice frequently, a donabe designed specifically for rice is the better starting point; if you want to range across hot pot and simmered dishes, a more general-purpose donabe makes sense. This is not a question of which is superior, but of matching the pot to the use you will get out of it most often.

A donabe is a ceramic cooking vessel made from clay bodies formulated for heat resistance. Heat travels and is held differently than in a metal pan, but heat resistance, permitted heat sources and whether the pot can be heated dry all vary between products.

So rather than assuming that any donabe can be used in any way, treat the individual product specification as the starting point.

What Defines a Rice-Cooking Donabe: Kamado-san as an Example

In donabe designed for rice, the clay body, the thickness of the walls and the construction of the lid may all carry features worked out specifically for cooking rice.

Nagatanien’s Kamado-san is a thick-walled pot formed from the coarse Iga clay the kiln describes as having high heat-storing capacity, and it uses a double-lid construction of inner and outer lids. The maker explains that the thick body and double-lid design allow rice to cook without fine-tuning the heat as it goes.
(Source: Kamado-san, Nagatanien)

What matters here is that this does not mean every donabe cooks rice in the same way. If cooking rice is your main priority, check the quantity the pot is designed to cook, the heat level the maker recommends, and the heat sources it permits, product by product.

It is also worth noting that the standard Kamado-san models are made for gas and are not compatible with induction. When choosing a rice donabe, compatibility with the heat source in your kitchen comes before design or capacity.
(Source: Sizes and specifications, Kamado-san, Nagatanien)

What Defines a Hot-Pot or Simmering Donabe

If hot pot is the main use, look at whether the opening is wide enough for several people to serve themselves comfortably, and whether the depth and capacity match the quantity you want to make.

If you also expect to use it often for simmered dishes, depth and heat retention are not the only considerations: body weight matters too. A large donabe becomes considerably heavier once water and ingredients are added, so picture carrying it from the cooktop to the table, and washing it afterwards.

Compatibility with ovens, microwaves and dry heating also varies by product. Even within a single kiln’s range, rice pots, simmering pots, steaming pots and vessels rated for dry heating are usually offered as separate lines.

Gas or Induction? How to Check Donabe Compatibility

If you cook on induction, check the manual for the cooktop itself, not only the pot’s product listing. Even a ceramic pot labelled as induction-compatible may not be permitted by the appliance manufacturer.

This deserves particular attention when choosing a donabe. Induction cooktops vary by model in the pan materials and base shapes they will accept.

Panasonic, for instance, advises against using ceramic cookware such as donabe on certain of its built-in induction cooktops, even where an SG mark or an “for induction” indication is present. The reason given is that ceramic pans may prevent the power control from working correctly, or contribute to a fault in the appliance.
(Source: Suitable pans for induction, Panasonic)

Conditions differ from appliance to appliance. So before buying, confirm both that the donabe is rated for induction and that your own cooktop permits that type of pot.

How Induction-Compatible Donabe Work

Ceramic material does not heat on an induction cooktop in the way that iron and certain stainless steel pans do. Induction-compatible donabe therefore combine the clay body with materials or components that generate heat under induction.

The method, however, differs between makers and products. Rather than assuming all induction-compatible donabe are built the same way, read the individual product description and instructions.

An induction rating also does not imply that every cooking method is available: rice, dry heating and grilling are separate questions. Check permitted heat sources and permitted cooking methods as two distinct things.

If You Want to Use a Non-Induction Donabe on an Induction Cooktop

Avoid putting a donabe that is not rated for induction onto an induction cooktop on your own judgement. Even where heat-conducting accessories are sold, you need to confirm that both your cooktop’s manufacturer and the donabe’s maker sanction that method of use.

In particular, where the cooktop manufacturer states that ceramic pans should not be used, even a donabe labelled as induction-compatible may be ruled out.

If you want to use a donabe you already own on induction, do not decide from general advice. Check the model number of your cooktop and follow the manufacturer’s manual and support information.

Heat Source Compatibility Check

• Is your kitchen fitted with a gas hob or an induction cooktop?
• Does the donabe you are considering state its permitted heat sources?
• For induction, does the cooktop manufacturer permit ceramic cookware?
• Does it also cover the cooking methods you want — rice, dry heating, oven use?
• Where anything is unclear, have you checked the manuals from both the donabe maker and the appliance manufacturer?

Iga Ware or Banko Ware: Which Donabe Should You Choose?

Iga ware and Yokkaichi Banko ware are both deeply bound up with donabe making, but the name of the region should not decide the purchase on its own. Understand the clay and the making behind each, then check capacity, weight and permitted heat sources product by product.

Viewed only as “Japanese-style cookware”, the differences between regions are hard to see. But ceramics are closely tied to local clay, to firing, and to accumulated technical knowledge.

Iga ware and Yokkaichi Banko ware are both Traditional Crafts designated by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. That said, not every product made in either region shares the same material, properties or heat-source compatibility.

What Characterises Iga Ware Donabe

Iga ware is made in and around Iga City in Mie Prefecture. According to the prefectural government, its origins are said to go back roughly 1,200 years to the Tenpyō era, when everyday ceramics began to be fired at Marubashira, an area well supplied with good clay.

From the mid-Edo period onwards, everyday tableware was produced that made use of the fire-resistant qualities of Iga clay. Iga ware has been designated a Traditional Craft by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry since 1 November 1982.
(Source: Iga ware, designated Traditional Craft, Mie Prefectural Government)

Donabe remain one of the cooking vessels most associated with the region today. Nagatanien describes the coarse Iga clay it uses as having a high capacity to store heat, and builds that property into the design of its rice-cooking donabe.
(Source: Kamado-san, Nagatanien)

This does not mean that all Iga ware has identical heat-storing performance, or that all Iga ware can be used over a direct flame.
Check intended use and permitted heat sources on each individual product.

What Characterises Banko Ware Donabe

Yokkaichi Banko ware is made in and around Yokkaichi City in Mie Prefecture. The prefectural government identifies heat resistance as its defining characteristic, and notes that this property underpins the large number of cooking vessels, donabe among them, produced there.

Yokkaichi Banko ware has been designated a Traditional Craft by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry since 12 January 1979.
(Source: Yokkaichi Banko ware, designated Traditional Craft, Mie Prefectural Government)

The prefecture’s description classifies Banko ware as semi-porcelain, a ceramic body with characteristics between earthenware and porcelain. In practice, contemporary Banko ware uses a range of bodies and production methods according to purpose, so it is more accurate not to treat everything from the region as a single material.

Research and product development around clay bodies that limit thermal expansion has also been one of the factors behind the development of heat-resistant cookware in Banko ware.

A Pre-Purchase Checklist and Common Questions

Before buying, work through five areas: heat source, use, capacity, weight and storage. Rather than finding candidates first and comparing them afterwards, writing down the conditions on your own side narrows the field far more quickly.

Pre-Purchase Checklist

• Is your kitchen fitted with gas or induction?
• What will you cook most: rice, hot pot or simmered dishes?
• How many portions do you usually make at once?
• Have you compared the capacity you need against the pan you currently use?
• Will the outer diameter and height fit your storage space?
• Is the body weight something you can handle day to day?
• Could you carry it once filled with water and ingredients?
• Does it cover the methods you need, such as dry heating, oven or microwave use?
• Does it require seasoning before first use?
• Are replacement parts, such as lids, available?

For more on choosing studio-made vessels and ceramics generally, the following article may also be of use.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

An Expert Guide to Artisan-Made Japanese Tableware: Elevating Your Daily Dining

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/crafts/handmade-japanese-tableware/

Artisan-made Japanese tableware has the ability to bring a sense of richness to daily life simply by serving as a vessel for your everyday meals.However, for international designers and new readers drawn to Japanese aesthetics and the value of handcraft, selecting that first piece can feel somewhat intimidating.In this article, drawing on Kogei Japonica's specialized knowledge and factual research, we explain the key points for choosing vessels that fit naturally into your lifestyle.Rath...

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. How should I decide on the gō size of a donabe?

Do not decide on the gō size alone. Establish your use and the quantity you need first, then check the outer diameter, height, capacity and weight published by the maker. Pots of similar gō size can differ in capacity and handling depending on their form.

Q2. Can one donabe serve for both rice and hot-pot cooking?

It depends on the product. Some are built around rice, with wall thickness and lids designed accordingly; others are intended for a broad range of hot pot and simmered dishes. Check the cooking methods the maker states.

Q3. If a donabe is labelled induction-compatible, will it work on any induction cooktop?

No. Depending on the manufacturer and model, some induction cooktops rule out ceramic cookware even when it carries an induction-compatible label. Check the manuals for both the pot and the cooktop.

Q4. What size donabe suits someone living alone?

Even for one person, the size needed changes depending on whether you make single-portion hot pot, cook larger batches of simmered dishes, or use it for rice as well. Choosing by capacity and dimensions is more reliable than fixing on a gō size.

Q5. What size should a family of four choose?

For a family of four, the right capacity still depends on the quantity and type of ingredients, and on whether you finish the meal with rice or noodles in the pot. Use the maker’s suggested serving numbers as a reference, then check capacity, depth and weight.

Q6. Donabe are said to be heavy. Should I check the weight too?

Yes. Larger donabe can weigh several kilograms empty, before water and ingredients are added. Consider how easily you can carry it from the cooktop to the table, and wash it afterwards.

Q7. Should I choose Iga ware or Banko ware?

There is no need to decide on the region alone. Iga ware includes cooking donabe that draw on the properties of Iga clay, while Yokkaichi Banko ware has developed donabe making around heat resistance. Ultimately, compare use, capacity, weight and permitted heat sources product by product.

Read only through gō sizes and regional names, a donabe can seem a difficult thing to choose. But settle use, capacity and heat source first, and look at weight, storage, material and region afterwards, and the field narrows considerably.

There is a point to knowing the background of Iga ware and Yokkaichi Banko ware, and it is not to conclude that tradition makes a pot more valuable. It is that understanding why cooking vessels came to be made in a particular place, and with what clay and what technique, lets you read the design of the pot in front of you far more precisely.

A donabe is not a piece of craft that is complete once displayed. It goes on the heat, it sits at the centre of a meal, it is washed and dried and taken down from the shelf again. Its value accrues through that repetition.

Precisely because it is your first, choose not the best known or the most versatile pot, but the one you can see yourself using easily, and for a long time, in the kitchen you actually have.

The post How to Choose a Japanese Donabe: Size, Rice and Induction first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

Comparison charts and product listings tend to answer neither. What comes into view instead is a wall of steel names, brands and price points, and the basis for choosing one knife over another gets harder to see, not easier.

A first knife is easier to choose if you work in this order: what you usually cut, how long a blade you can comfortably handle, how much maintenance you are willing to do, and whether the knife can be resharpened over time — rather than starting from price or steel type.

This article sets out the difference between santoku and gyuto, the characteristics of carbon steel and stainless, the role of forging (tanzō) and final sharpening, and what happens after purchase.
Rather than ranking materials and regions against one another, it looks at how a single knife is made, used and maintained — the view a craft publication takes of any working tool.

Santoku or Gyuto: Which Should Your First Knife Be?

Neither the santoku nor the gyuto is inherently better than the other. The santoku is relatively compact and suits chopping work; the gyuto has a longer blade, more belly and a finer tip, which lends itself to slicing with a sliding motion.

Both are general-purpose knives used across meat, fish and vegetables, so the decision has to take in your own cooking, the size of your cutting board and the space you work in.

The Santoku: Characteristics and Who It Suits

The santoku is the general-purpose knife most widely used in Japanese home kitchens. Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide describes it as having developed from the bunka knife, itself a combination of the nakiri — the square-profile Japanese vegetable knife — and the Western-derived gyuto, before arriving at the santoku in use today.
The name is explained as deriving from its suitability for three kinds of ingredient: meat, fish and vegetables.
(Source: A knife professional explains the difference between the santoku and the gyuto｜Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide)

Compared with the gyuto, most santoku have a flatter edge profile with far less belly. That keeps more of the edge in contact with the board, which suits straight up-and-down chopping — working through vegetables, cutting them into fine strips.

This does not mean the santoku is a push-cutting knife and nothing else. The movement that suits a given knife depends on its blade profile and on how it is used, so sorting knives into push-cutting and draw-cutting categories is less useful in practice than it sounds.

Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide gives roughly 165–180mm as the usual blade length for a santoku. Many knives in this range are manageable in a domestic kitchen, which makes the santoku a straightforward candidate if you want to handle meat, fish and vegetables with one knife in limited space.

The Gyuto: Characteristics and Who It Suits

The gyuto derives from the Western chef’s knife. The name contains the character for beef, but it is not a knife for meat alone — it is used across fish and vegetables as well.

Compared with the santoku, most gyuto have a more pronounced curve from heel to tip, with a finer point.
That suits cutting motions where the blade slides forward or back, slicing meat and fish along the length of the edge, and detailed work using the tip.

Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide gives a blade length range of roughly 180–300mm for the gyuto, with 180–210mm as the sizes most commonly used in home kitchens.

If you often work with large cabbages or whole cuts of meat, if slicing features in much of your cooking, or if you already use a reasonably large board, the gyuto’s length becomes an advantage.

Longer is not better in itself. If your board or storage space is small, extra blade length simply gets in the way. Blade length is best judged not by hand size alone, but by the combination of ingredients, cutting board and working space.

(Source: A knife professional explains the difference between the santoku and the gyuto｜Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide)

Carbon Steel or Stainless: Which Is Right for You?

Carbon steel and stainless are not a hierarchy. The choice turns on corrosion resistance, ease of sharpening, edge retention and the daily maintenance you are prepared to carry out. A steel name alone cannot rank the cutting performance of a finished knife.

How a blade cuts depends on more than its material: hardness, heat treatment, blade thickness, grinding, final sharpening and the upkeep it receives in use all come into it.

Carbon Steel: Shirogami, Aogami and Others

The material referred to as hagane in knife-making is a blade steel containing carbon. Shirogami (White Steel) and Aogami (Blue Steel) are among the carbon steels used in Japanese knives.

KAI describes carbon steel knives as using a material of iron with carbon added, characterised by ease of sharpening and cutting performance, while requiring maintenance after use because the steel is prone to corrosion.
(Source: Knives｜Frequently Asked Questions｜KAI)

The main thing with carbon steel is not to leave moisture on the blade.
Wash it after use and dry it promptly. Discolouration and corrosion can occur depending on the ingredients handled and the conditions in the kitchen, so it asks more daily attention than a stainless blade.

At the same time, a carbon steel knife does not necessarily cut better than a stainless one. The steel is one element among several, and how a finished knife cuts is also shaped by heat treatment, final sharpening and how thin the blade is.

Stainless: Ginsan, VG10 and Others

Stainless steel is generally defined as an alloy based on iron containing at least 10.5% chromium, characterised by its resistance to corrosion. A thin passive film formed on the surface contributes to that resistance.
(Source: What is stainless steel｜Japan Stainless Steel Association)

Knives use a range of stainless blade steels, among them Ginsan (Silver 3) and VG10. Each differs in composition, hardness and heat treatment conditions, so ease of sharpening and edge retention cannot be grouped together under the single word “stainless”.

KAI also notes that stainless composite materials with increased hardness at the edge are now widely used, producing knives capable of taking a very sharp edge.
(Source: Knife construction｜KAI)

If you want daily maintenance to stay as simple as possible, stainless is a strong candidate.
That said, stainless does not mean rust-proof. Left wet after use, or with salt and similar residues sitting on the surface, a stainless blade can corrode.

Being stainless is also a separate matter from being dishwasher-safe. Handle material, bonding method and overall construction all affect the conditions under which a knife can be used. Check the manufacturer’s stated handling instructions before you buy.

A Third Option: Stainless Clad Over a Carbon Steel Core

The choice is not restricted to carbon steel or stainless. Composite materials that combine different metals form a third path.

One common example is a three-layer construction in which the cutting core is carbon steel, clad on both sides with stainless — a clad construction known in Japanese as warikomi.

Suncraft describes three-layer steel, with a carbon steel core held between stainless blade steel, as a construction that draws on the properties of the carbon steel while reducing the maintenance burden by making the outer faces stainless.
(Source: Carbon steel or stainless? Choosing a knife by material｜Suncraft Kitchen)

Where the core is carbon steel and exposed at the edge, however, that part of the blade still requires attention to corrosion.

It is also worth noting that semi-stainless steel and clad or warikomi construction are not the same thing. Semi-stainless describes the properties of a steel itself, while clad and warikomi describe a blade body built from different metals joined together. The two are easily conflated at the point of purchase.

Terms Explained

• Uchihamono (hand-forged blades): blades made using forging techniques, in which metal is heated and formed by striking or pressing. The specific processes vary by region and by product.
• Tanzō (forging): a method of working metal by heating it and shaping it through striking or pressing. In knife-making it covers the forming and joining of the material — the groundwork of the blade.
• Hatsuke (final sharpening and edge finishing): the process of grinding a formed and heat-treated blade body on whetstones to produce an edge that actually cuts.
• Clad steel / warikomi: blade materials and constructions made by joining several metals of differing properties.

What Makes a Good Japanese Knife?

A steel name or a price tag will not tell you whether a knife is good. How the material is heat-treated, to what thickness it is ground, and at what angle and profile the edge is finished — all of it shapes the character of a single knife.

Forging and Final Sharpening

In Sakai, in Osaka Prefecture, a division of labour has long been established: a blade passes through forging, sharpening and handle-fitting before it is finished.

According to the City of Sakai, the forging stage heats the softer iron known as jigane together with the hagane that will become the cutting edge, then hammers them out to form and join them. The body produced by the smith is then ground by a sharpening specialist across a series of whetstones to form the edge. Finally the handle is fitted and the balance adjusted.
Sakai uchihamono was designated a Traditional Craft by the Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry on 5 March 1982.
(Source: Sakai uchihamono｜City of Sakai)

The point to hold on to is that forging alone does not determine how a knife cuts.

Forging concerns the forming and joining of the material and the groundwork of the blade. The heat treatment, grinding and final sharpening that follow also change the character of the finished knife. Two knives carrying the same steel name will not feel the same in use if their thickness, their taper toward the edge, their balance or their sharpening differ.

Alongside Sakai, Japan has other regions where blade-making has been carried forward as a local body of technique, among them Echizen in Fukui Prefecture. The chronology published by the Echizen Uchihamono Cooperative Association records national designation as a Traditional Craft in 1979.
(Source: Historical chronology｜Echizen Uchihamono Cooperative Association)

Rather than treating a regional name as a brand, look at which part of the process that region has accumulated. The price and the characteristics of a knife become far more legible that way.

What Happens After You Buy It?

If you are choosing a knife to keep, check not only how it cuts when new but whether it can be resharpened. Any edge wears with use, which makes maintenance after purchase part of the choice itself.

Finding a Sharpening Service

At home, a knife can be maintained with whetstones (toishi) or with a pull-through sharpener.

KAI describes pull-through sharpeners as primarily refreshing the very tip of the edge on a temporary basis, and directs users to proper resharpening on a bench whetstone once cutting performance no longer recovers.
It also states explicitly that stainless knives can be resharpened on a whetstone.
(Source: Knives｜Frequently Asked Questions｜KAI)

Not every knife can be sharpened the same way. Whether the blade is double- or single-bevelled, whether it has an unusual profile, and whether the maker has applied proprietary work all change what is appropriate.

Some knife specialists and workshops offer resharpening. It is worth confirming the following before you buy.

• Whether resharpening is accepted
• Whether chipped edges can be repaired
• Whether handles can be replaced or repaired
• Whether knives can be sent in by post
• Whether knives bought elsewhere are accepted
• Whether single-bevel or specialist blades can be handled

Charges, turnaround times and the extent of damage that can be addressed differ from one business to another. Check the official information before sending anything in.

“Built to last” means more than a durable material.
The life of a tool also rests on there being a way to sharpen it, someone able to repair it when needed, and a route back to a usable state for the person who owns it.

A Checklist Before You Buy

Setting out your own conditions before you start browsing shops or listings keeps the sheer number of products from taking over the decision.

• What you mainly cut: vegetables, or meat, fish and larger ingredients as well
• Size of your cutting board: whether a long gyuto can move freely on it
• Blade length you want: considered together with storage space
• Material: whether you can take on the care carbon steel needs, or prefer the manageability of stainless
• Sharpening: whether you will use whetstones yourself or send the knife to a specialist
• Handedness: with single-bevel knives in particular, check right- and left-handed versions
• Weight and balance: handle the knife in person if you can
• Handle: whether the thickness and shape sit comfortably in your grip
• Dishwasher: if you want to use one, check compatibility product by product
• After-sales service: resharpening, chip repair, handle replacement

Where several knives are in contention, setting them side by side across six columns — use, blade length, material, weight, resharpening and price — makes the comparison easier to hold.

Choosing a knife does not require memorising every steel designation and technical term. What it requires is being able to put your own conditions into words.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Santoku or gyuto — which suits a beginner?

Either works. If manageability and chopping vegetables matter most, the santoku is the candidate; if you want a longer blade, a finer tip and more freedom for slicing motions, a gyuto may suit you better. Rather than assuming a beginner should take the santoku, choose from the ingredients you actually cook and the size of your board.

Q2. Do carbon steel knives really rust quickly?

Carbon steel requires more attention to corrosion than stainless. Wash the knife after use, dry it, and do not leave it wet.
How corrosion appears also varies with the steel, the kitchen environment and the care given.

Q3. Is it true that stainless knives cannot be sharpened?

They can. Stainless knives can be resharpened on a whetstone. How easily they sharpen depends not on the stainless-or-carbon distinction but on the individual steel, its hardness and the blade profile.
(Source: Knives｜Frequently Asked Questions｜KAI)

Q4. How much should a first knife cost?

Price varies widely with steel, method of manufacture, blade length, brand, finishing and route to market, so there is no single correct figure.
Decide on use, size, material and maintenance conditions first, then compare prices among the knives that meet them.

Q5. What are clad steel and warikomi?

They are blade constructions joining several metals of differing properties.
One example is a three-layer build with a carbon steel core held between stainless outer layers. This is a separate concept from semi-stainless steel.

Q6. Where should I send a knife for resharpening?

The maker, the retailer, knife specialists and workshops offering sharpening services are all options.
Charges, turnaround, whether knives bought elsewhere are accepted and whether chip repair is possible all differ by business, so check the official information in advance.

Q7. Can left-handed cooks use santoku and gyuto?

Many double-bevelled santoku and gyuto can be used with either hand.
Single-bevel Japanese knives such as the deba and yanagiba, on the other hand, come in right- and left-handed versions, so this needs checking before purchase.
(Source: Frequently asked questions｜Sakai Ichimonji Mitsuhide)

Q8. Do Damascus-patterned knives cut better?

The pattern alone says nothing about cutting performance.
How a knife actually cuts is determined by the core steel, hardness, heat treatment, blade geometry, grinding and final sharpening. Judge the appearance and the performance separately.

Before You Choose Your First Knife

Santoku and gyuto are not ranked against each other: what suits depends on how you cook, the size of your board and the cuts you make. The same holds for carbon steel and stainless.
The question is not which cuts better, but how much maintenance you can carry out while continuing to use the knife.

Looking at knives through the lens of craft brings another criterion into focus.

A single knife involves not only materials but forging, heat treatment, grinding, final sharpening and handle-fitting. In regions such as Sakai, each of those processes belongs to a different specialist, and one knife is what their division of labour produces.

The relationship does not end at purchase either.
You use the knife, the edge changes, you sharpen it, repair it if necessary, and use it again. That ongoing cycle of use, sharpening and repair is part of what it means to own the tool.

A knife built to last is not the most expensive one available at the outset, but the one that fits your kitchen and can be maintained as you go.

Before looking for the top-ranked product, try setting out your own answer: what do I cut, what size do I work at, and how will I sharpen this over time?
Once that is clear, the volume of steel names and brands stops being an obstacle, and the knife that suits you becomes far easier to find.

The post How to Choose a Japanese Kitchen Knife: Santoku vs Gyuto first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

Kogei ranges from vessels and tools used day to day to works made to be looked at, in which material and technique are the means of expression. Because the materials and handling differ from painting or photography, a first purchase calls for attention not only to price but to technique, provenance, storage, and where to turn after the sale.

This article uses KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2026, held in Kanazawa in November 2026, as a starting point to set out how buying craft at an art fair works, and the criteria that help you choose a work you will feel confident owning over time.

What is KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2026? Japan’s only craft-dedicated art fair

KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2026 is an art fair built around the exhibition and sale of craft works, which its organisers describe as the only art fair in Japan dedicated to kogei (according to the organisers). It runs from Friday 27 to Sunday 29 November 2026 at the Hyatt Centric Kanazawa in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture.

The phrase “craft fair” may suggest a regional trade show or an artists’ selling event. At KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa, however, multiple galleries gather in one venue, each presenting works by the artists they represent and offering them for sale. As at a contemporary art fair, it functions as a market: visitors can not only look at the works but discuss prices and purchase terms with the galleries.

The fair began in 2017, and 2026 marks its tenth edition.
（Reference：ABOUT｜KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa）
（Reference：KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2026, Japan’s only craft-dedicated art fair, announced｜PR TIMES）

Visitor information: dates, venue, admission

The essential details for 2026, to check before you go.

General visitors can attend on 28 and 29 November. Note that 27 November is a VIP preview open to invited guests only. Ticketing and opening hours are subject to change, so check the official site for the latest information shortly before you travel.
（Reference：Visitor information｜KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa）

Why “Japan’s only”: ten editions since 2017

The organisers themselves describe KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa as the only art fair in Japan dedicated to craft. That claim, however, is made by the organisers.

What matters is less the word “only” than the fact that galleries dealing in craft have gathered at a single fair on a continuing basis, sustaining a market for craft across ten editions.

For 2026, a record 49 galleries from Japan and abroad are due to take part, nine of them exhibiting for the first time. Gallery LVS of South Korea is among the participants from overseas.

In 2025, 42 galleries exhibited, and the organisers reported that works by around 210 artists were shown and sold.

Related programmes are planned for the tenth edition in 2026. The official EVENT page already gives details of some of them, including a tenth-anniversary symposium on 28 November on the theme of how kogei relates to the wider world. Further details are expected, so it is worth checking for the latest information before visiting.
（Reference：KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2026 announcement｜PR TIMES）
（Reference：2026 edition confirmed, with 2025 results｜PR TIMES）
（Reference：EVENT｜KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa）

How do you actually buy a work at a craft art fair? The exhibition-and-sale format

Works at KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa are exhibited for sale, and you can discuss price and purchase terms with the gallery for any piece that interests you. Payment methods, handover timing, shipping and whether a work is already reserved all vary by work and by gallery.

Being at an art fair does not mean every work is sold in the same way. A piece on display may already be reserved, and some works are paid for at the fair but handed over once the exhibition has closed.

The art market also uses the term “primary market”, meaning the first sale of a work, from the artist through a gallery or similar.

That said, not every work at an art fair is a primary-market work. Alongside new pieces, earlier works or works from the secondary market may also be presented. Treating an art fair as entirely primary market is therefore not quite accurate.

What to do once you are there

On a first visit to an art fair, there is no need to set out looking for something to buy.

Walk the whole fair once, and note three to five works that caught your attention.

• The surface texture drew you in
• You could not tell what the material was
• You could picture it in your home
• You could not work out its use, but could not look away
• It struck you differently from the works around it

That is enough to start with.

On a second pass, check the artist’s name, the title, materials, technique, year and price. Approaching it this way lets you judge the works by your own response rather than starting from the price list.

The 2026 venue occupies floors 2, 4 and 5. The exhibiting galleries and artists are published on the official site, so if there is a particular gallery or artist you want to see, it is worth checking in advance.
（Reference：EXHIBITORS｜KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa）
（Reference：ARTISTS｜KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa）

What determines the price? Judgement criteria, not forecasts

The price of a craft work involves several factors: the artist’s standing, where the piece sits within their broader practice, the year, the size, materials and technique, scarcity and distribution. Pricing differs between artists and galleries, and cannot be judged simply by material costs and hours of work.

Writing about the craft market often turns on which artists’ prices will rise, or which works count as an investment. Future market prices, however, cannot be predicted with any certainty.

At Kogei Japonica, rather than encouraging purchases on the basis of unverifiable market sizes or price forecasts, we take one criterion as a starting point: whether you would still want to own the work if its price never rose.

With craft works, it is also worth thinking beyond the purchase price to how the piece will be displayed and stored.

What to ask the gallery

When you find a work you are drawn to, go beyond the price and check points such as these.

• The background to the artist’s practice
• The materials and techniques used
• The year, and where the work sits within the artist’s broader practice
• Whether it is unique, or part of a series or edition
• What comes with it, such as a tomobako or documentation
• Whether there are storage cautions regarding direct sunlight, humidity or water
• Whether display requires specific fittings or a stand
• Whether shipping, packing or insurance are charged separately
• Who to contact if maintenance or repair is needed in future

These are ordinary questions, asked in order to understand the work. If a technical term is unfamiliar, ask what it means on the spot.

For more on the provenance and market value of craft works, see the following article.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Collecting Japanese Kogei: Provenance, Market Value, and What to Verify

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/invest/japanesecrafts-collection/

Japanese kogei can be evaluated as a serious collectible on the international market when provenance, technique, artistic identity, and condition can be verified. That said, the evaluative framework does not map neatly onto the provenance model used in Western art markets. Hakogaki (box inscriptions), tomobako (the artist's original box), exhibition history, purchase lineage, and the regional and master-student context in which a work was made — understanding these kogei-specific structu...

Which galleries and artists are exhibiting? The 2026 line-up

A record 49 galleries are due to exhibit in 2026.

TARO NASU, Tomio Koyama Gallery, Shibuya Kuroda Toen, YOD Gallery, PAKUPAKUAN, Gallery Voice, Tajimi, and KOGEI Art Gallery Ginza no Kanazawa are among them, placing exhibitors of different backgrounds side by side: galleries specialising in craft alongside galleries dealing broadly in contemporary art.

This is a significant point for anyone thinking about craft today.

Craft does not circulate solely within the category of “traditional craft”. Work built around material, and contemporary approaches to form, also connect to contemporary art and to the context of collectible craft.

The nine galleries exhibiting for the first time are BrainBrunnGALLERY, Galerie NUAGE, Gallery Kenbiko and Kenji Taki Gallery, Gallery Ringosha, Kuon, MEDEL GALLERY SHU, MtK Contemporary Art, SASAI FINE ARTS, and Wa.gallery with Kobijutsu Ueda.

From overseas, Gallery LVS of South Korea is taking part.

Among the exhibiting artists, the official announcement names Sayaka Miyata, Koichi Uchida, Peter Voulkos, Mayu Nakata, Haruka Saotome and Mika Tajima.

What is worth noting here is not only how many well-known artists appear. The fact that galleries specialising in craft and galleries dealing in contemporary art exhibit at the same fair is itself an indication of the fields alongside which craft is currently being presented.

Exhibiting artists and the works shown differ by gallery, so check the official exhibitor and artist pages for the latest information.
（Reference：EXHIBITORS｜KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa）
（Reference：ARTISTS｜KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa）
（Reference：Exhibiting galleries and artists announced｜PR TIMES）

Who do you contact after buying? Shipping, repair and checking a work’s details

If questions arise after purchase about shipping or how to handle the work, the gallery you bought it from is the first place to ask. That does not mean galleries carry out all restoration or authentication themselves.

Craft works are handled very differently depending on the material.

Ceramics and glass require care against damage in transit. For urushi lacquer, wood and textiles, direct sunlight, humidity, dryness and contact with water can all affect a work.

It is therefore worth confirming the following points at the time of purchase.

• Whether you take the work with you on the day, or it is shipped after the fair closes
• Whether packing, carriage and insurance are included in the price
• Whether there are conditions to avoid in the display environment
• How to clean and care for the work day to day
• Who to contact if it is damaged
• Whether the artist can be consulted directly about repairs

Provenance, raireki in Japanese, refers principally to the record of ownership, sale and exhibition a work has passed through since it was made.

A tomobako, a box made for a specific work and usually bearing the artist’s inscription, known as hakogaki, along with certificates, invoices and documentation, gives you a way to verify a work’s details later on.

That said, the absence of a tomobako or a certificate does not in itself indicate a problem with a work. Contemporary craft is sold in a variety of ways. What matters is checking, work by work, what accompanies it.

If questions about authenticity or provenance arise later, start by asking the seller to confirm the transaction record and documentation, then consider the appropriate parties to approach as needed: the artist, the gallery representing them, or a specialist. It is also important not to treat the gallery you bought from as an authentication body.

For first-time visitors to a craft art fair: a pre-purchase checklist

On a first visit, preparing just two things — the practical details of the fair, and the points to check before buying — will make decisions on the day considerably easier.

There is no need to work through every item mechanically. Use it according to the type of work, its price, and how seriously you are considering a purchase.

Kogei Japonica also publishes a Japanese traditional craft collection checksheet, for organising information as you build a collection. It can be used to record works that catch your eye at an art fair.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Free Downloadable Resources on Japanese Crafts

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/feature/downloads/

Free Downloadable Resources on Japanese CraftsPDF DownloadsJapanese Kogei Collection ChecklistPre-Collaboration Checklist Craft Region × Brand PartnershipsBefore You Bid:A Pre-Auction ChecklistJapanese Traditional Games — Free PrintablesVideo Asset LibrarySAMURAI CORE サムライコアVideo Assets (Vertical and Horizontal Formats)Usage Guidelines

Frequently asked questions

Q. When and where does KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2026 take place?

From Friday 27 to Sunday 29 November 2026, at the Hyatt Centric Kanazawa in Kanazawa, Ishikawa Prefecture. The fair is open to the public on 28 and 29 November.

Q. How much are tickets, and where can I buy them?

According to the official information, advance tickets are ¥2,500 and door tickets ¥3,000, both valid for the two days open to the public. Check the official site for current availability.

Q. What should I prepare for a first visit?

Looking through the list of exhibiting galleries beforehand, and noting even a few artists or materials of interest, makes the fair easier to navigate. If you are considering a purchase, be ready to ask about storage and shipping.

Q. Can works be bought at the venue?

Yes. Works at KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa are exhibited for sale. Whether a work is already reserved, and how payment and handover are handled, differ by work and gallery, so confirm at the venue.

Q. What is the price range?

It varies considerably by work, artist, size, year and gallery. No single price range is published for the fair as a whole, so the reliable approach is to ask each gallery about the works that interest you.

Q. Does every work come with a tomobako or a certificate of authenticity?

Not necessarily. What accompanies a work — a tomobako, hakogaki, documentation, certificate or invoice — differs from piece to piece.

Q. Who do I contact about shipping or repairs after purchase?

Start with the gallery you bought from. Confirming shipping terms, and who to approach if repairs become necessary, at the time of purchase will save trouble later.

Q. Will craft works rise in value?

Future prices cannot be predicted with any certainty. Rather than buying on the expectation of a price rise, consider whether you want to own the work itself, and whether you want to follow the artist’s practice over time.

Q. Can visitors from overseas buy works?

The official site does not indicate any nationality-based restriction on purchasing. Payment methods, international shipping, insurance, customs and export procedures do vary by work, gallery and destination, so if you plan to take a work home with you, confirm the details with the gallery before buying.

In closing

KOGEI Art Fair Kanazawa 2026 runs from 27 to 29 November 2026 in Kanazawa, and is described by its organisers as the only craft-dedicated art fair in Japan.
It is open to the public on 28 and 29 November, with a record 49 galleries expected to take part.

There is no need, though, to think of the fair only as a place to find well-known artists, or to buy works whose prices might rise.

Look at the work first. Consider why it holds you. Learn about the artist and the material. Ask the gallery. Confirm the practicalities of storage and shipping, then look at the work again.

Buying craft means choosing a work by understanding, in your own terms, the background that price alone cannot convey.

An artist works with a material, pursues a technique and arrives, over time, at a single expression. Someone then chooses that work, owns it, and carries it into the time that follows. Buying at an art fair is a way of taking part in that sequence.

There is no need to look for the “right” answer with your first work. If a piece stopped you before you had even looked at the price, begin there: with why you kept looking at it.

The post Buying Japanese Craft at Art Fairs: A Collector’s Guide first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

If you have seen the name but are unclear on when, where and what actually happens, or if you want to know what to look for when crafts from across the country are gathered in one hall, this guide is for you. For people working in local government or in a craft-producing region, there is also the question of how a national exposition can help raise the profile of a local craft.

Drawing on primary sources published by Kanagawa Prefecture, the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) and the KOUGEI EXPO organisers, this article sets out the difference in dates and venues between the awards ceremony and the main event, the three crafts the organisers present as Kanagawa’s designated traditional crafts, the pre-events held across the prefecture, and the points worth considering for regions and public bodies thinking about the exposition as a platform.

Individual programmes and workshops may be updated from here on. The event information in this article is current as of 16 September 2026.

What is KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA 2026?

KOUGEI EXPO is the public-facing name of the National Convention for Traditional Craft Month, an exposition held in a different part of Japan each year to broaden understanding and use of designated traditional crafts. It has run since 1984, and the 2026 edition is the 43rd. This is the first time Kanagawa Prefecture has hosted it.

METI has designated November as Traditional Craft Month every year since 1984, and stages the national exposition as its centrepiece, moving the host region annually. For 2026, the awards ceremony takes place in Odawara and the main public event in Yokohama.
（Source: 2026 National Convention for Traditional Craft Month – event outline | KOUGEI EXPO）

The official outline lists the organisers as METI, the national organising council for Traditional Craft Month, The Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries, the national association of certified traditional craftspeople, and the Kanagawa prefectural organising committee for Traditional Craft Month.

Kanagawa Prefecture describes the national exposition as an event that has typically drawn between 50,000 and 100,000 visitors. It is less a retail event than a large-scale occasion for visitors to encounter crafts, makers and production regions from across Japan.
（Source: Kanagawa selected as host of the 2026 National Convention for Traditional Craft Month | Kanagawa Prefecture）

The history of the National Convention for Traditional Craft Month (KOUGEI EXPO)

The event’s formal name is the National Convention for Traditional Craft Month. It is presented publicly as KOUGEI EXPO, and 2026 marks its 43rd edition.

The important point is not to read KOUGEI EXPO simply as an occasion where crafts from around the country are put on display. The event also has a broader policy purpose: to make designated traditional crafts better known, and to carry that awareness through into future demand and future makers.

KOUGEI EXPO and Kanagawa Prefecture both present Kamakura-bori carved lacquerwork, Hakone yosegi-zaiku marquetry and Odawara lacquerware as the prefecture’s three designated traditional crafts.
The 2025 designation for Tokyo hand-carved seals, meanwhile, covers production areas in both Tokyo and Kanagawa.

To avoid confusing two different things, this article refers throughout to the three crafts the organisers present as Kanagawa’s designated traditional crafts.
（Source: KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA | Kanagawa Prefecture）
（Source: Tokyo hand-carved seals designated as a traditional craft | METI）

When and where? The awards ceremony and the main event are not in the same place

KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA uses two venues: the awards ceremony on 6 November, and the main event from 7 to 9 November. For anyone coming to see the exhibitions, the sales areas or the demonstrations, the venue to head for is Pacifico Yokohama.

Opening hours for the main event are 10:00 to 17:00 on Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November, and 10:00 to 16:00 on Monday 9 November.
（Source: KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA | Official site）

The awards ceremony (Odawara Sannomaru Hall)

The ceremony on 6 November is held at Odawara Sannomaru Hall. The official outline lists awards for service to the traditional craft industries among the proceedings.

Odawara is also the production area for Odawara lacquerware, one of the three crafts the organisers present as Kanagawa’s designated traditional crafts.
The ceremony itself is not a regional promotion programme, and the two should not be read as the same thing. Even so, the decision not to hold the whole exposition in Yokohama, and to place a venue in a craft-producing area in the west of the prefecture, is worth noting in understanding how this edition has been put together.

The main event (Pacifico Yokohama)

The main event runs from 7 to 9 November at Pacifico Yokohama. Admission is free.

The official site lists the main stage, Takumi no Hibiki Stage, alongside live craft demonstrations and workshops, a KOUGEI collaboration gallery with Touken Ranbu ONLINE, and a section titled The Future and the World of Kōgei.
（Source: KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA | Official site）

If this is your first visit, rather than trying to give every display equal attention, it helps to decide in advance which one of these matters most to you: seeing finished work, watching the making process, taking part in something, or buying.

Demonstrations are especially worth watching closely. Instead of registering only that the handwork is skilled, look at which stage of the whole process you are watching, and at what materials and tools are in use. Those are the things a finished object on a plinth cannot tell you about a technique.

What can you see? Kanagawa’s three designated traditional crafts

The three crafts KOUGEI EXPO presents as Kanagawa’s designated traditional crafts are Kamakura-bori, Hakone yosegi-zaiku and Odawara lacquerware.
All three use wood as a primary material, which they have in common, but the processes that give each its character are quite different.

Kamakura-bori is made by carving a design into a wooden base and then building up coats of urushi lacquer over it. That is a different sequence from chōshitsu, carved lacquer, where thick layers of lacquer are built up first and the carving is done into the lacquer itself. When you watch a demonstration, asking what exactly is being carved makes the distinction easy to see.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

[Introduction to Kamakura-bori] A Gentle Guide to the 800-Year-Old Traditiona...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/crafts/kamakura-bori/

Kamakura-bori is a traditional Japanese craft that has continued since the Kamakura period, characterized by woodcarving techniques and multiple layers of lacquer finish. It is highly valued for its unique beauty and practicality, from everyday utensils to tea ceremony tools and artistic pieces.This article explains the history and appeal of Kamakura-bori, places where you can experience it, and how to purchase it, all in an easy-to-understand way for beginners. For craft collectors and those...

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Japanese Carved Lacquer "Choshitsu" Techniques and Terms

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/skills/choshitsu/

Choshitsu (彫漆) is a lacquer art technique in which layers of urushi lacquer are built up to substantial thickness, then carved to reveal patterns and depth within the lacquer itself.Anyone researching choshitsu will quickly encounter a cluster of related terms: tsuishu (堆朱), tsuikoku (堆黒), kokarokuyou (紅花緑葉), guri (屈輪). Layer in chinkin (沈金), kinma (蒟醤), Kamakura-bori (鎌倉彫), and Murakami kibori tsuishu (村上木彫堆朱) — all of which involve carving in some sense — and the fi...

Hakone yosegi-zaiku is a woodworking tradition that draws on the natural colours of different timber species, assembling them into geometric patterns. The pattern is not the only expressive element: the colour and grain of the woods themselves are part of the work.

Looking at a piece in person, consider more than whether the pattern is finely worked. Look at where two different woods meet, and at the unit from which the pattern has been built up.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Hakone Yosegi-zaiku: The Art of Japanese Marquetry - A Complete Guide to Its ...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/crafts/yosegizaiku/

Hakone Yosegi-zaiku is a traditional Japanese craft from the Hakone region of Kanagawa Prefecture, known for its beautiful geometric patterns in woodwork. This intricate craft involves combining different types of wood to create patterns, supported by highly skilled craftsmanship. Beyond the beauty of its detailed patterns, it's also known for playful designs like puzzle boxes with hidden compartments.This article will explain in detail the history of Hakone Yosegi-zaiku, its techniques,...

Odawara lacquerware is known for lacquer that works with the beauty of the wooden base.
The organisers describe its characteristics as including accomplished hikimono lathe-turning to produce the base, and finishes such as suri-urushi, in which raw ki-urushi lacquer is rubbed into the surface repeatedly so that the grain remains visible.

Kamakura-bori carves the wood. Hakone yosegi-zaiku assembles it. Odawara lacquerware builds on the form of the turned wood and its natural grain, then finishes the surface with lacquer. Set out that way, it becomes clear how differently three woodworking traditions within one prefecture think about technique.

The exposition’s catchphrase translates as: the maker has a story, and a story begins for the user. Kanagawa Prefecture also explains that the logo took its inspiration from Katsushika Hokusai’s Under the Wave off Kanagawa.
（Source: KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA | Kanagawa Prefecture）

Are there pre-events? Related programmes around the prefecture

KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA does not begin and end with the main event in November. Through 2026, related pre-events have been held in craft-producing areas across the prefecture.

In the Kamakura area, the Kamakura-bori Fureai Exhibition ran from 26 to 28 June 2026 at Lumine Wing Ofuna, with displays and sales of Kamakura-bori, demonstrations by makers, and hands-on making sessions. That programme has now finished.
（Source: KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA | Kanagawa Prefecture）

Next, in the Odawara and Hakone area, the Odawara and Hakone Wood, Technique and Craftsmanship Festival takes place over two days, Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October 2026, at Odawara Sannomaru Hall. Opening hours are 10:00 to 16:00 on both days.

The programme includes the 2026 Mokkō-1 Grand Prix, woodworking workshops, a woodwork market with local makers, karakuri puzzle box sessions, and an exhibition on the history of woodworking in Odawara and Hakone. The Mokkō-1 Grand Prix takes as its theme the idea of drawing on the past to create something new, and 171 works in total, including the prizewinners, are due to be shown.
（Source: Odawara and Hakone Wood, Technique and Craftsmanship Festival | Kanagawa Prefecture）

This pre-event is a chance to see the woodworking culture of Odawara and Hakone together in one place without waiting for November. Beyond Hakone yosegi-zaiku and Odawara lacquerware, it also shows the broader range of woodworking traditions that have developed in the region, karakuri puzzle boxes among them.

How can regions and public bodies take part? Sponsorship and exhibiting

KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA is an event for the general public. It is also, for local authorities, regional craft associations and businesses, an opportunity to introduce a regional craft to a national audience.

Kanagawa Prefecture opened sponsorship applications for the exposition to companies, organisations and individuals on 15 July 2026. Details of what sponsorship involves and how to apply are available on the official application page.
（Source: KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA sponsorship applications | Kanagawa Prefecture）

The official site for the main event also carries an application route for prospective exhibitors.
Conditions, eligibility and current application status should be checked against the latest official guidance in each case.
（Source: KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA | Official site）

That said, presenting a region does not end when the stand comes down.

After a visitor has seen the work, can they find out about the maker and the workshop? If they want to visit the region, will they reach the information? If a buyer or designer overseas searches for it, is there anything in English to find? The information that remains after the exposition is part of the planning, not an afterthought.

At a national event in particular, it is more effective to connect what visitors see at the event with what they can find online afterwards. An article or an English-language page that sets out the region, the technique, the makers and workshops, the materials, and where to buy or ask, makes it easier to carry an exposition beyond a one-off publicity moment and into enquiries and continued interest in the area.

KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA: frequently asked questions

The following sets out what is worth checking before visiting KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA, based on official information as of 16 September 2026.

Q1. When is KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA held?

The awards ceremony is on Friday 6 November 2026, and the main event, which is open to the public, runs from Saturday 7 to Monday 9 November.

Q2. Where is it held? Are the ceremony and the main event in the same place?

They are in different places. The awards ceremony is at Odawara Sannomaru Hall, and the main event at Pacifico Yokohama.

Q3. Is admission free? Is booking required?

The main event at Pacifico Yokohama is free to enter. Individual programmes such as workshops may have booking requirements or conditions of participation, so check the latest guidance on the official site for anything you want to join.
（Source: KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA | Official site）

Q4. What are Kanagawa Prefecture’s designated traditional crafts?

KOUGEI EXPO and Kanagawa Prefecture present three: Kamakura-bori, Hakone yosegi-zaiku and Odawara lacquerware. The 2025 designation for Tokyo hand-carved seals covers production areas in both Tokyo and Kanagawa.

Q5. When and where are the pre-events?

The Kamakura-bori Fureai Exhibition in the Kamakura area was held in June 2026 and has finished. In the Odawara and Hakone area, the Odawara and Hakone Wood, Technique and Craftsmanship Festival takes place on Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 October at Odawara Sannomaru Hall.
（Source: Odawara and Hakone Wood, Technique and Craftsmanship Festival | Kanagawa Prefecture）

Q6. Can you buy work, or only look at it?

You can buy. The official outline lists exhibitions, sales and demonstrations among the content of the main event. Individual exhibitors, products, stock and prices should be checked with the exhibitors themselves or against the latest official guidance.

Q7. How can local authorities, regions and businesses take part?

Sponsorship applications are open to companies, organisations and individuals, and the official site carries guidance for prospective exhibitors. Conditions and current status should be checked against the latest application documents.

KOUGEI EXPO in KANAGAWA 2026 is the 43rd National Convention for Traditional Craft Month, and the first to be held in Kanagawa Prefecture.

Dates and exhibitor information matter. But what interests us more is this: because the crafts of the whole country are in one hall, the differences in materials, processes and regional traditions become much easier to see.

Kamakura-bori carves the wood and then builds up the lacquer. Hakone yosegi-zaiku sets the colours of different woods against each other. Odawara lacquerware works from the turned form and the grain, and finishes in lacquer. Three woodworking traditions from one prefecture, thinking about their material in three different ways.

If something in the hall catches your attention, follow it one step further: where is this made, by whom, from what, and how?

Meet the work at the event, learn the technique, then turn back towards the region it came from.

Once that sequence starts, KOUGEI EXPO stops being an exhibition and sales floor, and becomes a way into the places across Japan where things are still being made.

The post KOUGEI EXPO Kanagawa 2026: Japan’s Traditional Craft Guide first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

Cases like this make one thing clear: a hotel art commission is not the same as buying a finished work and putting it on the wall.

In 2026, the work commissioned through Art in Resonance, the global art programme of The Peninsula Hotels, was Metamorphic Modulation by the ceramicist Albert Yonathan Setyawan.

The work was first shown at The Peninsula Hong Kong, then reconfigured for the galleries of the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in London. What matters here is not the simple picture of a work proving itself in a hotel and graduating to a museum afterwards. The Peninsula and the V&A worked together from the commissioning stage, developing a single commission across two very different kinds of space — and that is what makes this case worth reading closely.

This article sets out how the hotel, the V&A and the artist each came into the project, and what hotels, retailers and other commercial clients should be thinking about when they commission craft or art of their own.

Why a ceramic work commissioned by a Hong Kong hotel reappeared in a London museum

The short answer is that Metamorphic Modulation reached the V&A through an ongoing collaboration between the hotel group and the museum. 2026 marked the second year of that partnership, and the V&A did not assess the finished work from the outside — it was part of the project from the point of commissioning.

The Peninsula states that its 2026 edition of Art in Resonance continued the V&A collaboration into a second year, and describes Setyawan’s work as a site-specific commission created and presented in partnership with the museum.
(Source: The Peninsula Announces 2026 Edition of Art in Resonance Programme｜The Peninsula Hotels)

What Art in Resonance is

Art in Resonance is a commission-based global art programme launched by The Peninsula Hotels in 2019. The hotel group describes it as providing emerging and mid-career creators with the resources, expertise and curatorial support needed to realise new public works.
(Source: Art in Resonance｜The Peninsula Hotels)

The 2026 edition was staged at The Peninsula Hong Kong to coincide with Hong Kong Arts Month, presenting three commissioned works: by the Hong Kong artist Angel Hui; by Setyawan, an Indonesian-born ceramicist based in Tokyo; and by the Hong Kong architect and artist Dr William Lim.

Setyawan’s commission was curated by Dr Louis Copplestone, the V&A’s curator for South-East Asia. One distinction is worth drawing here: the published material does not establish that Copplestone was responsible for selecting all of the artists. What it does confirm is that he curated Setyawan’s commissioned work.
(Source: 2026 Art in Resonance Programme｜The Peninsula Hotels)

How Metamorphic Modulation is made

Metamorphic Modulation is a large-scale installation built from more than 700 ceramic elements.

The forms are first modelled by hand in clay, then reproduced in red terracotta by slip-casting — a method in which liquid clay, or slip, is poured into a mould to take its shape.

The finished elements are left unglazed, so the colour and surface of the red terracotta remain visible. Two forms dominate: one suggesting a leaf, the other a flower. Repeated across the installation, they read differently depending on where the viewer stands and how the light falls.
(Source: Albert Yonathan Setyawan – Metamorphic Modulation｜V&A)

In a related event, the V&A notes that Setyawan describes this approach as “art labour”, producing original objects through replication from a mould. Where that phrase is used, then, it should be treated as the artist’s own framing of his practice, as set out by the museum.
(Source: Friday Late: Awakenings｜V&A)

Setyawan was born in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1983. He studied ceramics at the Bandung Institute of Technology and went on to a graduate programme in ceramics at Kyoto Seika University. He is now based in Tokyo.
(Source: Albert Yonathan Setyawan｜MIZUMA ART GALLERY)

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Japanese Pottery for Beginners: Techniques, Tools, Classes, and Ceramic Tradi...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/introduction/pottery/

If you've ever wanted to try pottery but weren't sure where to begin, you're not alone. What tools do you need? How does a one-day experience class differ from enrolling in a regular course? And what exactly are all those different types of Japanese ceramics? The moment you start researching, the volume of information can make the entry point feel harder to find, not easier.This guide is written for people who are just starting out — or simply considering their first experience...

Who did what, from commission to display

Three distinct roles run through this project: the hotel operating the commissioning programme, the museum involved in curating, and the artist making the work. This was not a case of a hotel selecting a work on its own and putting it on show.

The parties and their roles

For the London display, the V&A credits Copplestone as curator, working with Carrie Chan, and Katya Spiers as producer.
(Source: Metamorphic Modulation｜V&A)

What this division of labour shows is not a hotel securing a museum’s stamp of approval. It is closer to the truth to say that a company and a cultural institution planned the project jointly, building the structure that would connect the artist’s work to the space from the start.

When museum specialists join at the planning stage, the curatorial thinking can take in the artist’s background and the cultural and art-historical context of the work — rather than stopping at whether a piece suits a room. That is a model worth noting for any organisation working with craft or art.

The hotel lobby in Hong Kong and the museum gallery in London: what changed

Metamorphic Modulation was shown in Hong Kong and London under the same title, but the two presentations were not identical. The V&A describes the installation, first shown in Hong Kong, as having been adapted for the museum.

In Hong Kong, a structure was built specifically for the work in The Lobby of The Peninsula Hong Kong. According to the hotel group, that structure surrounds the viewer, with the shadows cast by the ceramic elements blurring the boundaries between sculpture, structure and the person standing inside it.
(Source: The Peninsula’s 2026 Global Art in Resonance Programme｜The Peninsula Hotels)

The 2026 Art in Resonance works went on view in Hong Kong on 17 March and remained until 5 May.

At the V&A, Metamorphic Modulation is presented in Sculpture, Room 21a at V&A South Kensington. The museum’s event page gives the dates as 15 September to 18 October 2026, with free admission.
(Source: Albert Yonathan Setyawan – Metamorphic Modulation｜V&A)

The work also sits within Awakenings, the V&A’s programme for London Design Festival 2026.

One line needs drawing carefully here. Whether every ceramic element used in Hong Kong travelled to London, or whether some were newly made, cannot be established from the information publicly available.

What is confirmed is that the work first shown in Hong Kong was adapted for the V&A. Rather than saying the piece was moved from the hotel to the museum as it stood, it is more accurate to say that its underlying thinking and material were kept, while its relationship to a different architectural space was rebuilt.

In a hotel, people encounter a work while doing something else: staying, eating, waiting, passing through. In a museum, looking at the work is among the reasons for being there. The same forms meet different conditions — how long people look, from what distance, and with what degree of attention.

That said, it would be too neat to claim that hotel visitors always read the work as atmosphere while museum visitors always study its structure. How anyone experiences a work varies. The fair conclusion is simply that when the purpose of a space changes, so do the conditions under which people meet the work.

What hotels are actually commissioning art for

Hotel art commissions serve several purposes at once: not only furnishing a space, but supporting artists, enabling cultural exchange, bringing new work into existence and creating points of contact with visitors. Brand building can be part of the picture, but describing it as the sole purpose would be inaccurate.

The Peninsula presents Art in Resonance as a programme that supports cultural expression and gives emerging and mid-career creators the resources, expertise and curatorial support to realise new public works.

On the V&A collaboration, the hotel group frames its aims in terms of artistic exchange and international cultural exchange.
(Source: Art in Resonance｜The Peninsula Hotels)

From a company’s side, cultural activity of this kind may well end up contributing to brand recognition or to the distinctiveness of a property. But that is one outcome among others. What can be confirmed directly from this case is that rather than acquiring an existing work, a company and a cultural institution together created the conditions for an artist to make a new one.

That distinction matters in craft as well.

When craft is brought into a commercial space, thinking only about which work to buy tends to mean matching an existing object to a room after the fact. A commission allows the relationship between maker and space to be designed from an earlier point: what should happen in this place, and what this material or technique can do there.

Commissioning is not the right answer in every case. Buying an existing work, or renting one, can make better sense in terms of timescale, budget and upkeep.

No one route is better than the others. What matters is choosing the approach that fits the purpose and the space.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Japanese Crafts for Commercial Interiors: An Architect’s Guide to Materials a...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/invest/introducing-japanese-crafts/

As inbound tourism demand grows, luxury hotels and high-end commercial spaces increasingly emphasize local culture and experiences.For architects and interior designers, integrating Japanese craft traditions (Kogei)—which embody regional history and aesthetics—can serve as a strong point of differentiation.This article outlines the practical knowledge needed to incorporate crafts not merely as decoration, but as integrated architectural materials. It also addresses how to navigate practical c...

What to settle before you commission

Starting a commission by deciding who to approach is the wrong order. The first thing to work out is what the space is for and what you want people to experience in it.

Once that is clear, decisions about the artist, curatorial arrangements, materials, installation, budget and schedule become far easier to make in practice.

• Purpose: whether the aim is the experience of the space, a relationship with the local area, support for artists, a curated display, or something else
• Who will see it: hotel guests, customers, staff, business partners, local residents
• Curatorial arrangements: selection in-house, or working with a specialist, gallery or museum
• Choosing the artist: looking beyond profile to suitability for the space and material, and capacity to deliver
• Material and installation conditions: weight, fixings, distance from people, light, temperature and humidity, cleaning
• Delivery and installation: access routes, who installs, and where responsibility for installation and removal sits
• Safety and insurance: risks of toppling, contact and damage, and how they are handled
• Budget: not only the cost of making, but transport, installation, lighting, insurance and maintenance
• Schedule: working back from making, prototyping, installation, delivery and the display period
• Rights: the permitted use of images of the work in photography, social media, advertising, websites and film
• After the display: storage, return, relocation or re-exhibition, agreed in advance
• Communications: how the artist’s name and the title of the work are credited, and how announcements are made jointly

Craft works are particularly sensitive here, since ceramics, lacquer, wood, metal, paper and textiles each carry different handling requirements. The question is not only whether a work suits the space, but whether it can be kept safely in that space.

It is also worth noting that buying a commissioned work does not automatically transfer copyright to the company. If photography, advertising use, social media posts or video are anticipated, that needs to be settled in the commissioning agreement.

At Kogei Japonica we advise hotels, ryokan, retail spaces and workplaces on bringing craft and art into their spaces: not only selecting or renting existing works, but planning commissions in collaboration with artists and workshops from the earliest stage.

en.kogei-japonica.com

Japanese Craft Services for Business

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/enterprise/

Kogei Japonica helps businesses, organizations, artisans, and local governments work with Japanese craft through sales development, artist collaborations, creative projects, product sourcing, and rentals for exhibitions, photography, and interiors.

en.kogei-japonica.com

Comprehensive Support for Introducing and Producing Traditional Craft Artists...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/enterprise/client/

Kogei Japonica connects you with vetted professional traditional craft artists and businesses, while our experienced directors oversee the entire production process.

Frequently asked questions

A few points worth clarifying about hotel art commissions and Metamorphic Modulation.

Q1. Is the same physical work on display in Hong Kong and London?

The two presentations are not identically configured. The V&A states that the work was adapted for the museum. Whether every ceramic element was transported from Hong Kong, or whether some were newly made, cannot be established from the published information.

Q2. What is Art in Resonance?

A commission-based global art programme launched by The Peninsula Hotels in 2019. The hotel group describes it as providing emerging and mid-career creators with the resources, expertise and curatorial support to realise new work.

Q3. Why was a hotel commission shown at the V&A?

The V&A was not brought in after the work was finished. It was a partner of The Peninsula from the commissioning stage. Setyawan’s work was commissioned in collaboration with the museum, first shown in Hong Kong, and subsequently adapted for the V&A.

Q4. How long is it on view at the V&A?

The museum’s event page gives the dates as 15 September to 18 October 2026. The work is installed in Sculpture, Room 21a at V&A South Kensington, and admission is free.

Q5. What should a company decide first when commissioning art or craft?

Not who to commission, but what the space is meant to achieve and what experience it should offer. Decisions about the artist, curatorial arrangements, budget and installation conditions follow from that.

Q6. Who is Albert Yonathan Setyawan?

A ceramicist born in Bandung, Indonesia, in 1983, now based in Tokyo. He studied ceramics at the Bandung Institute of Technology and at Kyoto Seika University, and makes ceramic works and installations concerned with repetition, pattern, materiality and meditative experience.

What the case of Metamorphic Modulation shows is that a hotel art commission involves more than buying a finished piece and placing it in a room.

In the case of The Peninsula and the V&A, the institution did not assess a completed work and draw it into the museum afterwards. The two worked together from the commissioning stage, and Setyawan’s work — first presented in a hotel space in Hong Kong — was then reconfigured for a different setting at the V&A.

That difference matters for any company thinking about how it engages with craft and art.

The value of craft does not sit in the finished object alone. Which material is used, who makes it, where it is placed and how people come across it: the meaning and the experience of a work shift across that whole set of relationships.

Before asking which work to put in the space, ask what you want to make with an artist in this particular place.

Bringing that order of thinking to craft in hotels, shops and workplaces is what moves a project beyond decoration — towards something where both the space and the work have a reason to be there.

The post Hotel Art Commissions: A Peninsula Work Reaches the V&A first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

Washi can be used on walls in hotels and retail spaces, but where interior-finish restrictions apply, the substrate and installation method specified must meet the required fire performance.
With custom washi, the paper maker, the fire-treatment company and the installer may all be different parties, so sampling, dimensions, fire performance and the division of responsibility are best settled before you order.

This article sets out what to check when specifying washi for walls in hotels, ryokan, restaurants and retail spaces, drawing on documented projects and primary sources.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Japanese Crafts for Commercial Interiors: An Architect’s Guide to Materials a...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/invest/introducing-japanese-crafts/

As inbound tourism demand grows, luxury hotels and high-end commercial spaces increasingly emphasize local culture and experiences.For architects and interior designers, integrating Japanese craft traditions (Kogei)—which embody regional history and aesthetics—can serve as a strong point of differentiation.This article outlines the practical knowledge needed to incorporate crafts not merely as decoration, but as integrated architectural materials. It also addresses how to navigate practical c...

Can washi be used on walls in hotels and retail spaces?

The short answer is yes: washi can be used on walls in hotels and retail spaces.
Depending on the building’s use, scale, number of storeys and the particular area involved, interior-finish restrictions under Japan’s Building Standards Act may apply, in which case the installation must meet the fire performance required there.

What matters here is that neither “a hotel always requires non-combustible materials” nor “washi is paper, so it cannot be used” holds as a general rule. The scope of the restrictions and the performance demanded vary with the building and the area in question.

Interior-finish restrictions, or naisō seigen, are set principally under the Building Standards Act and prescribe the fire performance required of interior wall and ceiling finishes in buildings of certain uses, sizes and structures. Hotels and ryokan, restaurants and retail premises all fall within scope under certain conditions.
（Reference: Interior finish restrictions｜Wall Covering Association of Japan）

Separately, Japan’s Fire Service Act sets its own flame-retardancy requirements: curtains, carpets, fabric blinds and display plywood used in designated premises such as ryokan and restaurants must meet specified standards. The interior-finish restrictions under the Building Standards Act and the flame-retardancy rules under the Fire Service Act are distinct, and need to be checked separately.
（Reference: Flame-retardant products｜Fire and Disaster Management Agency）

When planning a washi wall, then, the question is not simply whether the material is washi. It is which area it will occupy, and with what substrate and installation method — the specification as a whole.

What the interior finish restrictions cover

The technical requirements sit across several provisions of the Building Standards Act and its Enforcement Order.
The Wall Covering Association of Japan publishes a summary table setting out the finish performance required of walls and ceilings, broken down by category: special-use buildings, building scale, rooms where fire is used, underground shopping areas and so on.
（Reference: Interior finish restrictions｜Wall Covering Association of Japan）

There are also provisions that exempt an area where certain fire-protection or smoke-extraction systems are installed, though the presence of such equipment does not lift the restrictions across the board.
Which provisions apply to a given project is best confirmed through the designer and contractor, and with the relevant building authority where necessary.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Complete Glossary of Japanese Traditional Craft Terms

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/feature/glossary/

【Complete version】Complete Glossary of Japanese Traditional Craft TermsMetalwork - KinkoMetalwork refers to the techniques of processing metals to create decorative items and crafts. In Japan, these techniques have been used since ancient times for swords, Buddhist implements, and tea ceremony utensils, with skilled artisans passing down sophisticated techniques through generations. Metalwork includes various methods such as casting, forging, metal carving, and inlay, each with distinct cha...

How do you confirm the fire performance of washi wallcovering?

Fire performance for washi wallcovering cannot be read off the surface material alone: it has to be confirmed as a combination of certified substrate and installation specification.

The Wall Covering Association of Japan explains that for thin finishing materials such as wallcoverings, fire performance is certified as a combination of substrate and installation method.
In other words, a wallcovering described as compatible with a non-combustible assembly does not necessarily carry that certification once it departs from the substrate or the conditions under which the certification was granted.
（Reference: Fire performance of wallcoverings｜Wall Covering Association of Japan）

This is easy to miss if material selection proceeds from samples alone. When ordering, confirm not only the certification number but which substrate and installation conditions that certification assumes.

The Wall Covering Association of Japan also operates a searchable register of wallcovering product information. Final judgements on compliance, however, should not rest on a search result alone: pair it with the manufacturer’s certification documents and specifications, and with confirmation from the designer and contractor.
（Reference: Wallcovering quality information search system｜Wall Covering Association of Japan）

Which washi can be treated for non-combustibility, and which cannot

The assumption that washi, being paper, cannot serve as a non-combustible material is not accurate either. Post-treatment allows some companies to produce washi wallcoverings that comply with specific certifications.

Asano Funen Co., Ltd. offers a process that applies non-combustible treatment to washi supplied to it, and its Selfnen non-combustible washi is covered by MLIT non-combustible-material certification NM-0996 for an applied washi wallcovering.
The certified specification calls for a statutory non-combustible substrate, excluding metal sheet.
（Reference: Selfnen non-combustible washi｜Asano Funen Co., Ltd.）

The company also treats thicker papers and client-supplied washi, though not every paper is suitable for the process.
Thickness, surface treatment and water repellency all affect whether treatment is possible, so once a candidate paper has been chosen, it needs to be checked individually.

A concrete example: at The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Nagoya, washi made by Senda Takanori, a papermaker in Mino, Gifu Prefecture, was treated for non-combustibility and installed across large wall surfaces in guest rooms.
An interview with Takenaka Corporation and Asano Funen describes the use of Senda’s Mino washi as an interior material in the premium rooms, treated to meet non-combustible requirements while preserving its texture and colour.
（Reference: Mino washi made non-combustible with its character intact: the washi wallcovering used at The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Nagoya｜Kenzai Navi SumaiRing）

How should you request samples?

Requesting samples is not the end of material selection but the point of entry into working out a specification the space can actually take. Once colour and pattern are settled, the substrate, location, dimensions and fire performance follow.

Look at more than colour in a sample: the character of the fibre, the surface relief, the sheen, the translucency and the thickness.
Washi reads differently depending on the direction and level of the light, so for hotel and retail use it is worth viewing samples under conditions close to the installed lighting where possible.

Kami Asakura (Asakura Shigyo Co., Ltd.) describes a made-to-order process that works from photographs and floor plans of the intended space, together with material and colour samples.
Samples are generally chargeable, with free samples available for some plain white washi.
（Reference: Q&A｜Kami Asakura）

The company also publishes its production sequence: enquiry, consultation, design proposal, order, production, delivery and after-sales support.
On hotel and retail projects, the dimensional checks and the decisions on substrate and installation conditions from the architectural side are layered onto that sequence.
（Reference: Production process｜Kami Asakura）

Kami Asakura publishes work for accommodation projects, including washi made for the wall surfaces of the hotel GRAND BASE KANAZAWAEKI.
Projects of this kind show that beyond selecting from existing ranges, there are workshops and manufacturers who will take on the planning and production of a paper to suit a given use and dimension.
（Reference: Washi created for hotel wall surfaces｜Kami Asakura）

How far can custom sizes, curved surfaces and column wraps go?

Whether a given dimension, curve or column wrap is feasible depends on the paper, the method of forming, the treatment and the installation conditions, so it is a matter for case-by-case discussion.

With handmade washi, the dimensions that can be produced are governed by the tools — the sukibune vat and the sugeta used to form each sheet — as well as by the drying and finishing equipment.
Rather than specifying a single continuous sheet on the basis of the wall dimension alone, it is better to establish first what the workshop can make and how it will be installed.

Awagami Factory notes that among its large-format washi, the largest sizes have for the most part been produced as custom orders.
Some are now available as part of its standard product range, but this reflects that company’s production and sales, not a standard shared across washi workshops.
（Reference: Large-format washi｜Awagami Factory）

The Fukui Prefecture Washi Industry Cooperative publishes the traditional standard dimensions for Echizen handmade washi, including the shi-roku, go-shichi and roku-hachi formats.
Those standards are a useful way into understanding paper types, but a standard dimension and the maximum size a particular workshop can produce are two different things. On a custom project, confirm with the maker.
（Reference: Echizen handmade washi standard dimensions｜Fukui Prefecture Washi Industry Cooperative）

Where a wall is meant to read as a single expanse, making the largest possible sheet is not the only answer.
Aligning the divisions with column centres, joinery, fixtures or a change in the wall composition allows the seams themselves to be handled as part of the spatial arrangement.

What to confirm about seams and pattern alignment

Large wall surfaces often use several sheets of washi. Where they do, seam placement and the continuity of pattern and colour are worth settling before installation.

Alongside methods for making seams less visible, there are approaches that treat them as part of the design from the outset: aligning them with corners or architectural lines, introducing a trim, or dividing the surface into panels deliberately.

With hand-dyed or handmade washi, no two sheets are entirely identical.
Rather than forcing uniformity at the installation stage, agreeing with the maker how much variation is acceptable and in what order adjacent sheets will be placed will reduce any gap between expectation and result.

Curved surfaces and column wraps likewise vary in workability according to the thickness of the paper, the shape of the substrate, the adhesive and the treatment applied. Rather than settling feasibility in conversation alone, consider a trial installation using the actual material and substrate.

Who handles production, fire treatment and installation?

Washi production, fire-performance treatment and on-site installation may each be handled by a different company. Before placing a firm order, the client needs a clear picture of who is responsible for which stage.

In the case of The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Nagoya described above, the original Mino washi was made by Senda Takanori, with Asano Funen involved in the non-combustible treatment.
The architectural design and construction side, the papermaker and the treatment company worked together to integrate a craft material into an architectural interior.
（Reference: Mino washi made non-combustible with its character intact: the washi wallcovering used at The Royal Park Hotel Iconic Nagoya｜Kenzai Navi SumaiRing）

Kami Asakura, by contrast, states in its published Q&A that it does not carry out site measurement or installation. Being able to commission made-to-order washi and being able to commission the installation are not the same thing.
（Reference: Q&A｜Kami Asakura）

Left unclear, this is where mismatched assumptions arise: that the workshop would handle measurement, that the contractor would decide the divisions, that someone had checked the dimensions after treatment.

Before ordering, it is worth putting at least the following in writing.

• Who carries out site measurement
• Who approves the final production dimensions
• Who produces the washi
• Who arranges fire treatment, where it is required
• Who designs and builds the substrate
• Who arranges delivery
• Who carries out application and fixing on site
• Who is the point of contact for repairs after installation

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Japanese Crafts for Commercial Interiors: An Architect’s Guide to Materials a...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/invest/introducing-japanese-crafts/

As inbound tourism demand grows, luxury hotels and high-end commercial spaces increasingly emphasize local culture and experiences.For architects and interior designers, integrating Japanese craft traditions (Kogei)—which embody regional history and aesthetics—can serve as a strong point of differentiation.This article outlines the practical knowledge needed to incorporate crafts not merely as decoration, but as integrated architectural materials. It also addresses how to navigate practical c...

Kogei Japonica can also advise on introducing craft works and craft materials into hotels, ryokan, retail spaces and offices, and on working with makers and workshops suited to a particular use.

en.kogei-japonica.com

Japanese Craft Services for Business

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/enterprise/

Kogei Japonica helps businesses, organizations, artisans, and local governments work with Japanese craft through sales development, artist collaborations, creative projects, product sourcing, and rentals for exhibitions, photography, and interiors.

How do you deal with soiling, fading and replacement after installation?

Repair and replacement methods depend on the washi, its surface treatment and how it was installed, so they are best confirmed at the time of the first order.

The colour and surface of washi may change with the raw material, the dyeing and decoration, the surface treatment, ultraviolet light, temperature and humidity, and the conditions of use.
In hotels and retail spaces there is also soiling and damage from people and luggage to plan for.

Alongside how the surface will look on completion, then, the following are worth confirming at the point of order.

• What method of routine cleaning is suitable
• Whether damp cloths or cleaning agents can be used
• Whether a single section can be repaired or replaced
• Whether the same material can be remade in future
• Whether spare material should be held
• Who to contact when repair is needed

For its own art panels, Kami Asakura offers a chargeable service that replaces the washi while reusing the existing panel base.
Not every washi wall can be handled this way, but designing so that only the surface material needs renewing is a useful principle when considering the upkeep of a commercial interior.
（Reference: Q&A｜Kami Asakura）

Composing a large wall from multiple panels is likewise an option where future partial replacement is a consideration. Designing for renewal some years on, rather than only for the coherence of the finished surface, makes a craft material easier to live with over time.

Frequently asked questions

Q1. Can washi wallcovering be used in hotel guest rooms?

Yes.
Where interior-finish restrictions apply, however, you need to confirm a substrate and installation specification that meets the fire performance required there. Handmade washi has been used on guest room walls in completed hotel projects.

Q2. How do I request samples?

Practice varies by workshop and manufacturer. Kami Asakura, for instance, offers material and colour samples.
Telling the maker the location, use, dimensions and intended substrate when you request samples will make the subsequent discussion easier.

Q3. Can custom sizes, curved surfaces and column wraps be accommodated?

It depends on the paper, the method of forming, the thickness, the substrate and the installation method. For large formats and curved installations, confirm the producible dimensions and the seam placement together, case by case.

Q4. Where can I check the fire certification number?

Start with the certification documents and specifications issued by the manufacturer or treatment company.
The Wall Covering Association of Japan’s wallcovering quality information search system is a useful reference, but check the certified substrate and installation conditions as well.

Q5. Should I approach the washi maker or the contractor first?

Either will do, but it is better to establish the scope of both from the early planning stage.
In particular, settle early who is responsible for site measurement, substrate, fire performance, division of the surface and installation.

Q6. Who do I contact about soiling or discoloration after installation?

Speak first to the original maker or the contractor.
Whether the material can be remade, or a section replaced, depends on the material, the treatment and the installation method, so it is worth confirming the approach to repair when you first place the order.

Q7. How long does it take from quotation to installation?

Custom dimensions, design, fire treatment, sample approval and the extent of the installation all affect the timeline, so no single figure applies.
Where the work has to fit a construction programme, share your target installation date at the first conversation with the workshop.

In closing

Specifying washi for a wall in a hotel or retail space involves more than deciding which paper is the most beautiful.

The fire performance required in the area concerned, the certified substrate and installation specification, the producible dimensions, the seams, the site measurement, who installs and how it will be repaired in future: these are best considered as a single continuous piece of design.

With custom washi in particular, the person making the paper, the company applying fire treatment, the designer and the contractor may each hold a different part of the work.
Simply establishing who confirms what before the order goes in will remove a good deal of rework later.

At the same time, the value of bringing craft into architecture does not lie in demanding the uniformity of an industrial product.
Understanding the conditions particular to the material — the size that can be made, the variation between one sheet and the next — and designing the jointing and division from those conditions can produce something that belongs to that space alone.

A completed photograph shows only the final state. Behind it sit a great many decisions connecting material, technique, regulation and construction.
Designing that process with care is what allows washi to work as a craft material within a contemporary interior, rather than as decoration in a Japanese idiom.

If you are considering washi or other craft works for a hotel, ryokan, retail space or office, we can advise on working with makers and workshops suited to the use and the installation conditions.

en.kogei-japonica.com

Japanese Craft Services for Business

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/enterprise/

Kogei Japonica helps businesses, organizations, artisans, and local governments work with Japanese craft through sales development, artist collaborations, creative projects, product sourcing, and rentals for exhibitions, photography, and interiors.

The post Custom Washi Wall Panels for Hotels and Retail Interiors first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

Nakata is taking part in an exhibition titled “Ethnography of the Body and Material — Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society”, held to coincide with the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. It is a separate project from the Biennale itself, staged in Venice during the same period, and it reconsiders contemporary craft through material, the body and time.

Nakata is a lacquer artist whose practice centres on kinma, a technique in which a lacquered surface is carved, the incisions filled with iro-urushi (pigmented urushi), and the whole surface then polished back. In her work, roughly forty layers of pigmented urushi — and the months or even year of making that they require — are bound up with the expression itself.

This article sets out Mayu Nakata’s background and technique, what to look for in the work, and the 2026 Venice showing, drawing on primary sources throughout.

Who Is Mayu Nakata? From Kagawa Lacquer Training to International Recognition

Mayu Nakata trained in lacquer at the Kagawa Prefectural Institute of Lacquer Arts and continues to work with kinma as her principal technique. She is a full member of the Japan Kogei Association, and in 2019 she was selected as a finalist for the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize with “Flame”.
（Source: Mayu Nakata, Works | Japan Kogei Association）
（Source: Craft Prize 2019 Finalists | LOEWE FOUNDATION）

Biography | From Hokkaido to Kagawa, and on to Kanazawa

Nakata was born in Hokkaido in 1982. She graduated from the Faculty of Fisheries Sciences at Hokkaido University in 2005 before turning to lacquer art. She completed her training at the Kagawa Prefectural Institute of Lacquer Arts in 2017 and entered Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo in 2018. The current profile published by A Lighthouse called Kanata states that she completed her time at the workshop in 2021.

What can be confirmed is that she studied fisheries science at university and then turned to lacquer. Her own reasons for that change, however, are not something the primary sources consulted here set out. Rather than infer a motive from the chronology, we would prefer to put the question to her directly should the opportunity for an interview arise.

Within the Japan Kogei Association she is a full member in the lacquer division, affiliated with the Ishikawa branch and its lacquer section. Works including “Kanshitsu Kinma Water Jar: Thunderclouds”, “Kinma Bowl: Wind and Sea” and “Rising Clouds” show a sustained body of work built around kinma.
（Source: Mayu Nakata, Works | Japan Kogei Association）

Awards and Recognition (With Sources Noted)

One thing worth noting about Nakata’s career is that recognition has come from two directions: domestic juried exhibitions and an international craft prize.

Official records held by the Japan Kogei Association list Encouragement Prizes at the 58th Shikoku Traditional Kogei Exhibition in 2015 and the 59th in 2016. In 2019 she received the 60th Anniversary Meitetsu M’za President’s Prize, a department-store award, at the 60th Ishikawa Traditional Kogei Exhibition, and in 2025 an Encouragement Prize at the 65th edition of the same exhibition.
（Source: Mayu Nakata, Awards and Works | Japan Kogei Association）

The official profile published by Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo also records the Ohi Toyasai Jury Special Prize at the 4th Kanazawa World Craft Triennale, “Crafts Crossing Borders”, in 2019.
（Source: Mayu Nakata, Artist Profile | Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo）

Then, in 2019, she was named a finalist for the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize with “Flame”. The foundation’s own introduction to her work notes that by carving more deeply than kinma conventionally requires, she produces a more complex surface.
（Source: Mayu Nakata / Flame | LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize 2019）

The point here is not to conclude that the work has value because it reached an international shortlist. She has continued to develop her technique while exhibiting in domestic juried shows, and her work has also been presented within an international craft context. Seeing both together gives a clearer sense of the territory she moves across in her practice.

What Is Kinma? A Technique in Which Layered Lacquer and Polishing Make Time Visible

Kinma is a lacquer technique in which a design is carved into a surface built up from repeated coats of lacquer, the incisions are filled with pigmented urushi, and the surface is finally polished to bring the design out. To understand Mayu Nakata’s work, you need to know that the sequence of layering, carving, filling and polishing sits beneath the finished pattern, not only the pattern itself.

Definition | What Kinma Is

Nakata does not simply carry the technique forward. By carving more deeply, she increases the number of pigmented urushi layers that can sit within the incisions. Her own website explains that carving deeper than conventional kinma, and introducing more layers of colour, is what produces the complexity of her patterns.
（Source: NAKATA Mayu Official）

The official commentary published by GO FOR KOGEI in Venice is more specific still. In Nakata’s work, around forty layers of pigmented urushi are built up within a total thickness of roughly 0.5 mm. A single piece takes at least four months to make, and in some cases close to a year.
（Source: Mayu Nakata | GO FOR KOGEI in Venice）

Half a millimetre, taken on its own, is a very thin layer. Within it, though, some forty layers of colour exist. This is where the essential character of Nakata’s work lies.

The colour is not painted on in a single pass. It is applied, left to cure, carved, made to receive another colour, and finally polished. As a result, only part of what lies beneath comes to the surface.

In Nakata’s work, polishing is not merely a finishing stage but an act of forming, selecting which of the accumulated layers come to the surface. Seen that way, the pattern on the surface can be read not just as a design but as a cross-section through the layers of lacquer.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Kinma: Japan's Carved-and-Filled Lacquer Technique Explained

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/skills/kinma/

If you have come across the characters 蒟醤 and had no idea how to read them, you are not alone. Pronounced "kinma," it refers to a carved-and-filled lacquer decoration technique closely associated with the lacquer tradition of Kagawa Prefecture. Yet even among people with a general interest in Japanese craft, clear answers to basic questions are hard to find. What distinguishes kinma from chinkin? Why Kagawa? What is actually happening in the making process?This article works throu...

The article above sets out the kinma process in detail, along with how it differs from chinkin, maki-e and raden.

Technique Comparison | Kinma, Chinkin, Zonsei and Kanshitsu

To place Nakata’s technique in context, the table below sets kinma alongside chinkin, zonsei and kanshitsu, three techniques often discussed in relation to it. The final column is not a ranking of the techniques; it indicates what to look for when viewing work, in the terms this article uses.

Looking at Nakata’s titles in the Japan Kogei Association records, several works name both techniques together — “Kanshitsu Kinma Water Jar: Thunderclouds”, “Kanshitsu Kinma Serving Vessel: Mist”.
In other words, the technique that establishes the form and the technique that makes its surface need to be read as one.

It would not be right to conclude that forty layers make a work superior. The labour and time that go into a piece of craft are not, on their own, a measure of its value.

In Nakata’s case, though, GO FOR KOGEI explains that the memories and impressions that shift during the making are themselves taken into the work.
In that sense, the long making time is not simply a burden on production but bears on the content of the work itself.

Is the Venice Showing Part of the Biennale Itself? Reading the Primary Sources

As noted at the outset, “Ethnography of the Body and Material”, in which Mayu Nakata is taking part, is a separate project from the Biennale’s main exhibition. This section sets out its position more precisely, from the primary sources.

The exhibition is neither a Japan Pavilion presentation nor a Collateral Event officially recognised as such by La Biennale di Venezia. It is an independent exhibition organised by the certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa, held in Venice during the same period as the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia.

For 2026, La Biennale di Venezia has announced 100 National Participations and 31 Collateral Events as its official programme. “Ethnography of the Body and Material” does not appear on those lists. GO FOR KOGEI, for its part, describes the exhibition as running concurrently with the 61st International Art Exhibition, using the phrase “Presented in parallel with”.
（Source: National Participations and Collateral Events of the Biennale Arte 2026 | La Biennale di Venezia）
（Source: Ethnography of the Body and Material | GO FOR KOGEI）

Exhibition Outline | “Ethnography of the Body and Material — Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society”

The exhibition in which Nakata is taking part is titled “Ethnography of the Body and Material — Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society”. In Japanese it is given as “Shintai to Busshitsu no Ethnography — Kasoku Shakai ni okeru Ososa to Fukasa”.

It runs from 9 May to 22 November 2026, closed on Tuesdays. The venue is Palazzo Pisani Santa Marina in Venice.
Opening hours announced by the organisers are 11.00 to 19.00 until 30 September, and 10.00 to 18.00 from 1 October to 22 November.

The curator is Yuji Akimoto, artistic director of GO FOR KOGEI.
The participating artists are Shige Fujishiro, Yujin Kawai, Takahiro Komuro, Takuro Kuwata, Ritsue Mishima, Yoka Muta, Mayu Nakata, Junko Oki, Noritaka Tatehana and Yui Wata — ten in all.

The exhibition is not simply a presentation of Japanese craft.
Rather than treating craft as a self-contained discipline, the organisers position it as a way of rereading contemporary art itself, through deep engagement with material, embodied knowledge and repeated manual work.

Against a society that prizes speed and immediacy, it offers the different sense of time held by material and the body. That is the background to the subtitle, “Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society”.
（Source: Ethnography of the Body and Material — Slowness and Depth in an Accelerated Society | GO FOR KOGEI）

What “Taking Part” Actually Means Here

For reference, at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia in 2026, Japan’s official National Participation is commissioned by the Japan Foundation, with “Grass Babies, Moon Babies” by Ei Arakawa-Nash presented in the Japan Pavilion. It and the GO FOR KOGEI exhibition are organised separately, within different frameworks.
（Source: Japan — Grass Babies, Moon Babies | La Biennale di Venezia）

Works on Show | “Soundscape” and “Mirage”

As to which of Nakata’s works are on show in Venice, the information published by the organisers differs between sources, and the published record is therefore not fully consistent.

In the installation views released by the certified NPO Shuto Kanazawa when the exhibition opened, “Soundscape” (2024) and “Mirage” (2026) are given as her works on display.

The GO FOR KOGEI in Venice website, as it stands in September 2026, instead lists “Mirage” (2026) and “Thunderclouds” (2021) as on exhibit.
（Source: Mayu Nakata / Works | GO FOR KOGEI in Venice）

What to keep in mind when looking at “Mirage” is not only the finished pattern.
GO FOR KOGEI explains that Nakata’s work renders as layers of colour the memories left by actual experience — lightning, clouds, birds in flight. It also notes that the daily shifts across a making period of at least four months, and sometimes close to a year, enter the work, so that the original memory itself begins to waver.
（Source: Mayu Nakata | GO FOR KOGEI in Venice）

Here you can see why her work connects with the exhibition’s theme of slowness and depth.

Building around forty layers means forty layers’ worth of process, and the time that passes in between.

Over that span, the memory of a cloud first seen, and the artist’s own sense of it, can both change. Time in Nakata’s work means not simply that a piece took a long while to make, but the span of continuing to work while the memory itself shifts.

Where Can You See Mayu Nakata’s Work, and How Should You Look at It?

Rather than judging Nakata’s work solely on technical grounds — how fine the carving is, how even the finish — it becomes easier to grasp what is particular to her by taking the layers of colour, the polishing, the relationship of pattern to form, the viewing angle and the making time together.

A Checklist for Looking at the Work

When looking at Nakata’s work as contemporary lacquer, observing in roughly this order makes its structure easier to see.

• Look at the boundaries between colours, not the colours themselves: noticing where different colours emerge and how they meet brings the structure of polished-back layers into view.
• Look at the layers the carving produces: rather than judging fineness alone, consider how the depth of the carving translates into the overlapping of colours.
• Look at what the polishing brings to the surface: rather than assessing evenness, pay attention to how the colours beneath are being exposed.
• Look at pattern and three-dimensional form together: follow how the design runs across the curve, and which parts are hidden or revealed depending on where you stand.
• Move between close and distant viewing: up close for the fine layers of colour, then a few steps back for the larger movement across the whole piece.
• Consider making time as part of the context: think about how forty or so layers, and four months to a year of work, relate to shifts in memory and motif.
• Go back to primary sources for exhibition and award histories: if you are buying or collecting, check official information from museums, the Japan Kogei Association and prize organisers, not only the artist’s profile.

GO FOR KOGEI also notes that the work shows a different face depending on where the viewer stands. Rather than taking it in from one fixed point, it is worth moving, and changing your angle, where the display allows.
（Source: Mayu Nakata | GO FOR KOGEI in Venice）

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

How to Appreciate Japanese Crafts: A 7-Step Viewing Guide

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/events/kogei-viewing-guide/

Have you ever arrived at a craft exhibition, stood in front of a piece, and wondered, "Where am I supposed to look?" It can feel as though you can't enjoy the work without knowing the maker's name or the technique, or the wall text leaves you with nothing but specialist vocabulary.But you don't need to memorise anything before you go. Just keeping seven simple points in mind—material → form → surface → technique → light → sides and edges → maker information—makes the ...

If you are unsure how to approach craft works more generally, the article above sets out ways of looking at them through material, form, surface, technique and light.

Where the Work Is Shown, and Which Galleries Handle It

Nakata’s work has been shown through Japan Kogei Association exhibitions and museum programmes, and also through galleries.

A Lighthouse called Kanata continues to publish an artist page for Mayu Nakata, with works up to 2025. In 2024 the gallery held a solo exhibition, “The Skies Above – Kinma by Mayu Nakata”. Availability and whether a given work can be purchased change over time, so individual pieces need to be checked with the gallery directly.
（Source: Mayu Nakata | A Lighthouse called Kanata）

If you are considering a purchase, it is worth confirming not only price but the title, year, materials and technique, dimensions, provenance, exhibition history and any accompanying documentation.
Prices vary with the size of a work, the year it was made and the sales channel, so inferring a market rate from publicly available information alone is best avoided.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

How to Buy Japanese Artisan Craft: Provenance, Condition & Trusted Sellers

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/invest/buy-traditional-crafts/

You find a bowl that stops you mid-step. You pick it up, turn it over, and know you want to bring it home. Or perhaps you've been following the work of a local maker and want to support what they're doing — to own something of theirs and watch where their practice goes. The encounter with a craft object rarely begins with a checklist.That impulse — the pull of beauty, the desire to support a maker's work — is a legitimate and important reason to buy. It's what keeps craft ...

The article above explains how to check provenance, condition, the tomobako (the artist’s signed storage box) and the seller when buying craft works by named artists.

If you are considering showing lacquer work in a hotel, shop or office, the planning needs to cover lighting, installation, temperature and humidity, maintenance and coordination with the artist or gallery, not only the work itself.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Japanese Lacquer Panels for Hotels & Retail: A Chinkin and Kinma Commissi...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/invest/ordering-guide/

You have a vision: a lacquerware panel in a hotel lobby, a kinma composition on the wall of a ryokan guest room, a chinkin surface anchoring the far end of a restaurant. And then the questions arrive — who do you contact, what does this actually cost, is it even feasible within a construction schedule? Many hospitality and retail procurement teams stall at exactly this point.This guide addresses the practical commissioning of lacquerware panels — with a focus on chinkin and kinma — for hospit...

Kogei Japonica advises on bringing craft and lacquer works into interior spaces, and on collaborations with artists and workshops. We do not, however, guarantee the availability of a particular artist’s work or act as an intermediary for it. For purchases, please check current availability directly with the artist or an authorised gallery or dealer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Below are brief answers to the questions that most often come up about Nakata’s technique, background and the Venice showing.

Q1. What technique does Mayu Nakata work in?

She is a contemporary lacquer artist working principally in kinma. In some works she also uses a kanshitsu body, carving deeply into the lacquered surface, layering several pigmented urushi coats and polishing back to produce complex colour.

Q2. Is Mayu Nakata exhibiting in the Biennale itself or the Japan Pavilion?

No. “Ethnography of the Body and Material”, in which she is taking part, is an independent exhibition held in Venice during the same period as the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. It is neither a Japan Pavilion presentation nor an official Collateral Event.

Q3. When and where can the “Ethnography of the Body and Material” exhibition be seen?

It runs from 9 May to 22 November 2026 at Palazzo Pisani Santa Marina in Venice, closed on Tuesdays. Please check opening hours and other details on the official GO FOR KOGEI information before visiting.

Q4. How do kinma, chinkin and zonsei differ?

In kinma, the lacquered surface is carved and the incisions filled with pigmented urushi, then polished back. In chinkin, carved lines and dots are filled mainly with gold or silver leaf or powder. In the form of zonsei typical of Kagawa, a design is painted in pigmented urushi, outlines are then carved, and gold powder or leaf is set into the incisions.

Q5. How many layers of lacquer go into Mayu Nakata’s work?

GO FOR KOGEI in Venice describes her method as building around forty layers of pigmented urushi within a total thickness of roughly 0.5 mm. This does not mean every work follows the same specification; it is the figure given in that exhibition’s account of her technique.

Q6. What is Mayu Nakata’s connection to the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize?

In 2019 she was selected as a finalist for the LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize with “Flame”. This is confirmed in the foundation’s official records.

Q7. Where can Mayu Nakata’s work be seen or purchased?

Her work has been presented through Japan Kogei Association exhibitions and at museums and galleries. A Lighthouse called Kanata continues to publish artist and work pages, but availability and prices change, so please check current availability with each gallery or dealer.

Q8. What should collectors and gallerists look for in Mayu Nakata’s work?

Beyond the fineness of the carving: how the layers of colour emerge, the boundaries between colours created by polishing, the relationship between pattern and three-dimensional form, how the work changes with viewing angle, and the relationship between making time and motif.

Conclusion | Reading the Artist Through Technique, Not Credentials

Mayu Nakata trained in lacquer at the Kagawa Prefectural Institute of Lacquer Arts, went on to Kanazawa Utatsuyama Kogei Kobo, and has developed a body of work built around kinma. She continues to work as a full member of the Japan Kogei Association, and in 2019 became a LOEWE FOUNDATION Craft Prize finalist with “Flame”, with her work presented in craft and contemporary art contexts in Japan and abroad.

What most concisely defines that work is carving more deeply, introducing multiple layers of pigmented urushi, and polishing so that the colour within comes to the surface — kinma taken further. The figures given in GO FOR KOGEI’s account, around forty layers within a total thickness of roughly 0.5 mm, offer a way of grasping that density.

And the 2026 Venice exhibition repays a closer reading when you attend to how her work has been placed within the show’s questions of material, the body and slowness in the making.

With craft, what prize a work won or which international exhibition it appeared in is sometimes the first thing said about it. But a career summary alone does not let you see the work itself.

In Nakata’s case, what remains in the layers of lacquer is not only colour. Applying, waiting for it to cure, carving, filling with colour, polishing back. Taking in the memories that shifted across that span reveals another dimension of her work: the relationship between material and time.

The post Contemporary Japanese Lacquer: Mayu Nakata’s 40-Layer Kinma first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

Drawing on The Met’s official information as of 16 September 2026, this article sets out the rotation schedule and the works that can be confirmed on view, then sets out how to read Japanese ceramics through form, technique and use.

The aim is not to memorise style names. Look in turn at the shape of a vessel, its material, its glaze, its decoration, how it was used and who it was made for, and the single phrase “Japanese ceramics” begins to separate into distinct technical systems with distinct social conditions behind them.

Opening hours, closing days and admission rates are subject to change. Please check the official website for current information before travelling or visiting.
(Source: The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics | The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Plan Your Visit: The Met Fifth Avenue | The Metropolitan Museum of Art / The Metropolitan Museum of Art official website | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

What Is on View Right Now? A Guide to The Met’s Rotations

As of 16 September 2026, the exhibition is in its third rotation. The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics runs from 19 January 2026 to 8 August 2027 in the Arts of Japan Galleries (Galleries 223–232) at The Met Fifth Avenue.

The current exhibition page divides the run into five display periods, with a schedule for exchanging part of the selection. Not everything changes at once. Instead, some works come off view between periods and are replaced by others.
(Source: The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

A visit in October 2026 therefore falls within Rotation 3, and part of the display will differ from what was shown in May or from what will be shown after 10 December 2026. A long run does not mean an unchanging one.

One point worth noting: the press release of 13 January 2026 announcing the exhibition described some 350 works presented across three rotations. The current exhibition page lists five display periods, Rotation 1 through Rotation 5. When planning a visit, the updated exhibition page is the more reliable reference.
(Source: Exhibition at The Met Explores the Artistry of Japanese Ceramics | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Where the Galleries Are, and What Admission Costs

The exhibition occupies the Arts of Japan Galleries (Galleries 223–232) on the second floor of The Met Fifth Avenue. The exhibition page states that it is free with museum admission, so no separate ticket is required for this show.
(Source: The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

As of 16 September 2026, general admission for adults is $30. New York State residents and certain other visitors are eligible for pay-what-you-wish admission, under which the visitor decides the amount paid. Eligibility conditions and rates may change, so check the official website before travelling or visiting.
(Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art official website | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

What Is the Packard Collection, and Why Does It Matter Here?

One thing to understand about this exhibition is the part played by the Harry G. C. Packard Collection. The Met presents the show as marking the fiftieth anniversary of that collection’s acquisition. The exhibition draws primarily from The Met’s own holdings, and the Packard Collection accounts for a substantial share of it.
(Source: Exhibition at The Met Explores the Artistry of Japanese Ceramics | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The Packard Collection was assembled by the collector Harry G. C. Packard (1914–1991). In 1975, The Met acquired more than 400 works by gift and purchase, including archaeological material, medieval Buddhist sculpture and painting, folding screens, hanging scrolls and ceramics. The acquisition significantly expanded both the scale and the range of The Met’s Japanese art holdings.
(Source: Five Thousand Years of Japanese Art: Treasures from the Packard Collection | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

The exhibition is curated by Monika Bincsik, who is responsible for Japanese decorative arts at The Met. According to the museum’s announcement, the selection includes works that have rarely, or never, been shown before.
(Source: Exhibition at The Met Explores the Artistry of Japanese Ceramics | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

It is worth drawing out that entering a major museum collection does not fix a work’s meaning or standing once and for all. The theme a piece is redisplayed under, what is placed beside it, and the research it is connected to all change how the same object reads.

How Do Form, Technique and Use Actually Differ? A Framework for Comparison

With Japanese ceramics, checking form, then technique, then use makes the differences easier to grasp than memorising kiln names and style labels first.

Form tells you what a vessel was meant to hold, how it was meant to be held and how it was meant to be used. Technique reveals whether you are looking at stoneware or porcelain, and what glazes and decoration have been applied. Use places the object socially: everyday tableware, tea utensil, gift, or a piece made for formal presentation.

Among the works currently on view at The Met is an Edo-period piece, Dish with Three Jars. As of 16 September 2026, it was listed as on view in Gallery 223.

It is a Hizen ware porcelain of the Nabeshima type, with cobalt blue applied beneath a transparent glaze and polychrome enamels added over the glaze. It measures roughly 4.1cm high and 15.2cm in diameter, and its accession number is 1975.268.563. The Met’s object page dates it to the 1680s–90s.
(Source: Dish with Three Jars | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Resist stopping at the impression that Nabeshima means luxury, or that enamelled decoration means showiness. Observe the size of the dish, how the flat surface for food has been set out, how the three jar motifs are arranged, and how the blue relates to the overglaze colours, and the design logic of the piece starts to come into focus.

And if you note the accession number from the label, you can return to The Met’s online collection afterwards and check technique, dimensions, credit line and provenance. Titles shift slightly between translations and sources; accession numbers do not, which makes them the most dependable way to follow a specific work.

What Separates Nabeshima, Imari (Hizen) and Oribe?

Nabeshima, Imari and Oribe are not three interchangeable style labels. What each name refers to is different in kind: region of production, distribution, how the kiln was run, materials and intended use.

The Met describes Nabeshima ware as porcelain produced at an official kiln established within the Nabeshima clan’s Saga domain during the Edo period, made as presentation pieces for the shogunal house, senior figures in the shogunate and the three Tokugawa branch houses. Dish with Sacred Jewels, Pine, Bamboo, and Plum, currently in Gallery 223, is another example of Hizen ware of the Nabeshima type.
(Source: Dish with Sacred Jewels, Pine, Bamboo, and Plum | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Imari, by contrast, does not name a single official kiln system in the way Nabeshima does. Historically, porcelain made in Hizen, including at Arita, was distributed via the port of Imari, and the name came to be used broadly as a result. Keeping that in mind makes the term easier to handle: Imari does not denote one fixed set of designs.

Kogei Japonica has covered the historical relationship between Arita and Imari, and how the two names are used today, in a separate article.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Imari Ware and Arita Ware: A Comprehensive Guide to Their Differences, Histor...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/crafts/imari-ware/

These Japanese traditional crafts are highly valued worldwide for their beauty and advanced techniques. However, few people may accurately understand the differences between Imari and Arita ware. This article will explain in detail the differences between Imari and Arita ware, as well as their history, origins, and production processes.We'll explore their respective characteristics and backgrounds, introducing their appeal in a way that's easy for beginners to understand.What are th...

We would not treat the difference between Nabeshima and Imari as a matter of rank. What matters is the difference in the conditions of production: who controlled the making, who the pieces were made for, and by what routes they were distributed.

Oribe and the Aesthetics of Wabi-cha

Oribe refers to a group of Mino wares associated with Furuta Oribe and the culture of tea. Rather than simplifying it into the idea that Furuta Oribe created a single style, it is more accurate to see it as ceramics formed where kiln technology, the practice of tea, food culture and changes in form intersected between the Momoyama period and the early Edo period.

At The Met, an early seventeenth-century piece, Covered Vessel with Plum Tree, is on view in Gallery 228. It is Mino ware of the Oribe type, using iron for brown decoration, a transparent glaze, and a vivid green glaze derived from copper. The Met explains that the vessel was used to serve food at the meal accompanying a tea gathering.
(Source: Covered Vessel with Plum Tree | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Words such as distortion and imperfection are not enough to account for Oribe. You also need to look at the vivid green glaze, the brown lines, the changes in vessel form itself, the function of the piece as tableware, and its relationship to the visual culture of the period, textiles included.

The same applies to wabi-cha. Reducing it to the idea that imperfection is beautiful leaves out much of what tea practice involves: the selection of utensils, the space, the meal, seasonality and conduct. When visiting this exhibition, it is worth setting aside fixed ideas — that asymmetry equals wabi, or that roughness equals Japaneseness — and observing the structure and function of the actual vessel.

Kintsugi: Reading Repair as Value Rather Than Defect

Kintsugi is a technique in which a broken vessel is joined with urushi, Japanese lacquer, and the repair is finished using metal powders such as gold. Repaired ceramics form one of the significant themes of this exhibition.

The Met presents kintsugi as a practice that not only restores a vessel’s function through lacquer repair but gives the object new value by emphasising the repaired areas with gold and other metals.
(Source: The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

That said, explaining kintsugi solely through contemporary language about ecology, sustainability and waste risks narrowing its historical and art-historical meaning.

At Kogei Japonica, we treat a repair not as a flaw that could not be erased but as one way of reading the record of a vessel being used, broken and repaired. What matters is seeing how the object arrived at its present state, the repaired form included.

How Should You Look at the Works in the Gallery? A Practical Framework

The first things to establish are period, technique, use, credit line and provenance, and current display status. Working through those five points in order gives you a fuller picture of a work’s background than reading the style name alone.

In a museum it is easy to read only the title and move on to the next case. But The Met’s object pages let you check date, materials and technique, dimensions, accession number, credit line, provenance and exhibition history.

Labels in the galleries will not always carry all of that. A practical approach is to check the essentials in the gallery, then use the online collection to fill in provenance and other details afterwards.

Five Things to Check in the Gallery

• Period: when the work was made. For an Edo-period piece, narrowing it down to the early seventeenth century or the eighteenth century makes shifts in technique and use much easier to see.
• Technique: whether it is stoneware or porcelain, which glazes have been used, and whether the decoration is underglaze, such as sometsuke in cobalt blue, or overglaze, such as iro-e polychrome enamels.
• Use: what the piece was made for — tableware, a tea utensil, a storage vessel, a presentation piece.
• How it was acquired: from the credit line or the online collection, whether it came by gift or purchase, and from which former collection.
• Current display status: whether the online object page shows the work as on view, and whether a gallery number is given.

These five points apply well beyond this exhibition, to any show of Japanese ceramics.

To go a step further, look beyond the upper surfaces to the kōdai, or foot ring, the tatamitsuki where the foot meets the surface, the glaze edge, me-ato or spur marks, and any mark. In a museum, of course, you cannot pick a piece up, so you are limited to what the display and the published images allow you to see.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

How to Read the Foot (Kōdai) of Japanese Pottery

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/crafts/pottery-kodai/

When you pick up a bowl or plate, the first things you notice are usually its colour and form, the painted decoration, and the character of its glaze (yūyaku). But if you want to look a little more closely at a studio piece or an older ceramic, try turning it over gently, just once.The foot, or kōdai, is the supporting part formed at the base of a vessel. Beyond the foot itself, looking at the footring's contact surface (tatamitsuki), the trimming, the clay, the glaze, the traces left by...

Beyond The Met: What to Know If You Are Thinking About Collecting

Looking at works in a museum and choosing craft objects on the market call for different kinds of information. A museum presents research that has already been done. When buying or collecting, you may have to establish the maker, workshop, region, route of distribution, tomobako storage box, marks, certification papers and certificates of authenticity for yourself.

Avoid relying on any single piece of evidence: that a certification paper means genuine, that a tomobako automatically makes a work valuable, or that a mark means the work of the named maker.

Certification papers indicate information based on particular systems and standards, but they do not necessarily verify that a maker produced a given piece. Marks and storage boxes are important evidence too, but you need to establish separately what each one actually attests to.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Is the "Traditional Mark" Proof? Japanese Craft Seals

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/invest/dento-mark-authenticity/

When choosing a piece of craft, it is tempting to reason "it carries the traditional mark, so it must be genuine" or "it comes with a tomobako, the maker's own signed box, so I can trust it." But the traditional mark, the traditional certification seal, an artist's mark, a tomobako and its box inscription (hakogaki), and a certificate or letter of authentication each play a different role.To put it plainly: no single mark or document can establish a piece of craf...

The habit of noting accession numbers in a museum feeds directly into this kind of checking. Looking at materials, dimensions, date, credit line and provenance alongside the title is what lets you separate what has been established about a work from what remains unknown.

Kogei Japonica also takes enquiries from Japanese craft makers and workshops, and from galleries, art-fair organisers, interior designers, hotels and retailers seeking to introduce Japanese work to international audiences. We welcome enquiries about maker introductions, craft research, collaborations and exhibition planning.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Q1. How long does the exhibition run?

From 19 January 2026 to 8 August 2027. The current official page sets out a schedule dividing the run into five display periods, with part of the selection exchanged between them.
(Source: The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Q2. When is Rotation 3?

From 29 August to 8 December 2026. A visit in September or October 2026 falls within Rotation 3. Note that the display is not replaced in its entirety with each period.

Q3. Is there a separate charge for the exhibition?

The exhibition is described as included in general museum admission. General admission for adults was $30 as of 16 September 2026, but check rates and eligibility on the official website before visiting.
(Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art official website | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Q4. What is the difference between Nabeshima, Imari and Oribe, briefly?

Nabeshima is Hizen porcelain produced under controlled conditions at the Nabeshima domain’s official kiln, closely tied to presentation wares and gifts for the shogunal household and others. Imari is historically a name applied broadly to porcelain made in Hizen and distributed through the port of Imari. Oribe is a group of Mino wares associated with Furuta Oribe and the culture of tea, including pieces with green glazes and bold forms and patterns.

Q5. What is the Packard Collection?

A collection of Japanese art assembled by Harry G. C. Packard. In 1975 The Met acquired more than 400 works by gift and purchase, significantly expanding its Japanese art holdings.
(Source: Five Thousand Years of Japanese Art: Treasures from the Packard Collection | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Q6. How can I research a work in detail after seeing it?

The most reliable way is to note the accession number from the label and search The Met’s online collection. You can check materials, dimensions, how the work was acquired, and its exhibition history.

Q7. Can I check whether a particular work is on view?

For some works, The Met’s online collection shows an on-view status together with a gallery number. Dish with Three Jars, for instance, was listed as on view in Gallery 223 as of 16 September 2026.
(Source: Dish with Three Jars | The Metropolitan Museum of Art)

Running over a long period with works exchanged along the way, The Infinite Artistry of Japanese Ceramics does not gather Japanese ceramics under a single aesthetic. It lets you compare different periods, materials, uses and conditions of production.

At Kogei Japonica, we think that asking why a form took this shape, which technique produced this colour, and who used the object and for what builds a more lasting way of seeing than memorising style names first.

The precise porcelain of Nabeshima, the bold tableware of Oribe and a vessel repaired with kintsugi do not need to be explained by one idea of Japaneseness. Follow the material, technique, use, distribution and the background of the people who used each piece in turn. Doing that is what lets Japanese craft come into view as concrete cultural and technical practice rather than as an image.

If you visit The Met again, try choosing just one vessel that holds your attention and checking its form, technique, use and accession number. Following a single work that closely will change how the exhibition looks.

The post Japanese Ceramics at the Met: Nabeshima, Imari & Oribe first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

What passes down in a craft workshop is not only technique. Equipment, material suppliers, clients and trading partners, production records, contracts and reputation — the resources that keep a workshop running as a business — all have to be considered.

This article sets out how skills transfer and business succession relate to one another, the four areas most often overlooked on the workshop floor, what can be prepared before a successor is decided, succession to a third party, and the public offices available for advice.

What is craft business succession, and how does it differ from skills transfer?

Skills transfer is one essential component of business succession. But carrying a workshop into the next generation means handing over more than craft skills: the equipment, materials, people, clients, contracts and reputation that allow those skills to function as work.

Skills transfer (passing on the craft)

Skills transfer means passing on the technical ability and judgement required to make the work — handling the wheel, mixing glazes, carving, weaving, polishing, dyeing — to the next maker.

What is being passed on is not simply a set of steps to memorise. It includes tacit knowledge, which resists being written down: how to read the condition of a material, where the line falls between acceptable and rejected work, how to adjust a process for temperature and humidity.

The Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries runs training sessions for people working in production regions, including new entrants, as part of its successor development programme; participants learn from the techniques and working practices used in craft-producing regions other than their own. Delivery of the programme has been announced for the 2026 financial year, with opportunities to encounter methods and approaches across regional boundaries.
(Source: Public call for secretariat services: FY2026 successor development programme, regional workers’ training sessions | The Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries)

Training of this kind offers more than technical instruction. It also exposes participants to how other craft-producing regions work, and to how they think about sustaining their industry.

Business succession (passing on business assets)

Business succession covers not only craft skills but the resources that allow the business to keep operating.

The Small and Medium Enterprise Agency frames the resources transferred through succession in terms of people (management), assets, and intangible assets. For a craft workshop, that means technical know-how, relationships with trading partners, client information and reputation all form part of the value of the business, alongside equipment and capital.
(Source: Business succession support measures | Small and Medium Enterprise Agency)

A successor may be able to make the same work and still be unable to run the workshop in the same way — not knowing where the materials are bought, who can repair the kiln or the machinery, or what terms have been agreed with key wholesale clients.

If skills transfer enables someone to make the work, business succession must also ensure that the workshop itself can continue to operate.

What needs to be handed over? Four categories to review

The items requiring attention differ from workshop to workshop. This article concentrates on the four that most often depend on a single person in craft production: equipment, material suppliers, clients and trading partners, and production records.

Equipment

Kilns, wheels, looms, polishing machines, carving tools. Simply listing the equipment is not enough.

Equipment used over many years often carries adjustments or modifications made within the workshop itself. Purpose-built jigs, moulds and custom parts cannot always be reproduced by buying a replacement.

For the main items, it is worth recording not only manufacturer and model number but how the equipment is used, where it has been adjusted, why modifications were made, which parts are replaced, and who carries out repairs and maintenance.

Where technical refinements are built into the equipment itself, what needs to survive is not only the tool but the reasoning that brought it to its present form.

Succession may also require equipment to be valued, ownership to be transferred, or lease agreements to be amended. The procedure varies with the type of equipment and the form of succession, so it is sensible to work through it with a tax accountant, another professional, or a public advisory office.

Material suppliers

Craft production often depends on materials from particular regions, or specified to particular quality conditions. Some workshops have dealt with the same merchant, producer or wholesaler for decades.

Names and telephone numbers are therefore only the surface. Why a material is chosen, and what quality is being ordered against, matter just as much.

It is worth recording the material name, the region or manufacturer it comes from, the supplier, the order quantity, the standard used to judge quality, the storage conditions, and whether suitable alternatives exist.

Natural materials vary between batches. Rather than documenting only the ideal material, it helps to record the judgements around it — what condition makes a batch unusable, how the process changes when the material is slightly harder — so that a successor can apply the knowledge in actual production.

Sourcing materials is not simply purchasing; it is part of the technical foundation that makes the workshop’s quality possible.

Clients and trading partners

Relationships with individual clients, wholesalers, galleries, department stores and corporate customers are assets that the accounts alone do not show.

Who the workshop deals with, when and how each relationship began, and what products and specifications have been asked for. Over long relationships there is often information that appears in no contract: an order that arrives at the same point every year, a client for whom a particular dimension is always used.

Preparing for succession means setting down not only contact details for the main clients and partners but the history of the relationship, the terms, the individuals involved, past orders, and the approach taken to repairs and aftercare.

Where personal data for individual clients — names, addresses, telephone numbers, email addresses — is transferred, the Act on the Protection of Personal Information applies. Where personal data is acquired through a merger, corporate division, business transfer or other form of succession, it must in principle continue to be handled within the scope necessary to achieve the purpose of use that applied before the transfer.
(Source: Guidelines on the Act on the Protection of Personal Information (General Rules) | Personal Information Protection Commission)

Where possible, introducing the successor to long-standing wholesale partners before the handover — bringing them to meetings and negotiations — is one approach. Rather than simply passing across a client list, the aim is to hand over the reasons the relationship has lasted.

Production records and recipes

Glaze ratios, pattern dimensions, dye quantities, firing conditions, finishing sequences: a workshop holds a great deal of information that supports its production.

When that information exists only in the owner’s head, where nobody else can consult it, the workshop becomes dependent on one person.

Records need not be written. Movement suits video, equipment suits photographs and measurements, ratios suit figures, finish suits a physical reference sample. Matching the method to the content is more practical.

Failures deserve as much attention as successes. A note that a given temperature did not work, or that a particular material caused a particular problem, spares the successor from repeating the same trials.

Alongside what to do, it matters to record what is being looked at before moving to the next stage, and at what point a piece is judged defective.

A workshop’s technical knowledge accumulates not only from the methods that worked, but from the methods set aside and the failures absorbed over years of work.

A handover checklist for workshops

Start by checking how far each of the following is already documented in your own workshop.

• Equipment: is there a list of the main tools and machines, with their use and their repair and maintenance contacts?
• Material suppliers: beyond contact details, is the reasoning behind material choice and the quality standard recorded?
• Clients and trading partners: are the history and terms of the main clients, wholesalers and galleries written down?
• Production records: can ratios, patterns, dimensions, processes, judgement criteria and failures be consulted?
• Subcontractors and specialist processes: is it clear which stage goes to whom, and in what condition the work changes hands?
• Workshop name, trademarks and digital assets: are the workshop name, trademarks, domains and social accounts settled in terms of ownership and rights?
• Contracts: is it known where the trading agreements, leases, rental contracts and insurance documents are held?
• Digital information: are the storage locations and access methods for client data, production files and accounting records shared with anyone else?

Nothing has to be complete. Simply identifying what only you know is already the beginning of succession planning.

When should succession planning start, and how?

Succession planning does not begin when a successor is found. Taking stock of equipment, materials, production conditions and trading partners can proceed while the question of who takes over is still open.

The general sequence

Circumstances differ between workshops, but the following order makes the work easier to approach.

• Take stock of the assets of the business
  Make visible what exists and where, across craft skills, equipment, materials, trading partners, production records and contracts.
• Separate what is being handed on from what is being wound up
  Not everything needs to pass to the next generation. Divide it into what stays, what changes and what ends.
• Consult public offices and professionals
  Identify the items requiring specialist judgement: tax, legal matters, assets, succession to a third party.
• Draw up a handover plan with the successor
  Once the successor is settled — family member, employee or third party — run the learning of the craft and the transfer of business assets in parallel.

How long the preparation takes varies widely from one workshop to another. Size, equipment, employees, relationships, the structure of the assets and the successor’s experience all affect it.

Taking stock, however, can begin now.

Routes into craft work, and the ways successors enter through apprenticeship, employment or regional training programmes, are set out in the following article.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

How to Find Jobs in Japanese Traditional Crafts: A Guide for Beginners

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/introduction/job-openings/

When the idea of working in Japanese traditional crafts takes hold, the first instinct is usually to search for job listings. In practice, however, looking only at standard job boards reveals just a fraction of the actual entry points into this field.Work in kogei (traditional Japanese craft) takes many forms: formal employment, deshi-iri — a traditional apprenticeship under a named master — sanchi (production-region) training programs, the Regional Revitalization Cooperator scheme (a governm...

What options exist when there is no successor?

An absence of successors does not mean closure is the only course. A business can be passed to an employee, or to a third party outside the family.

Business Succession Support Centres handle enquiries according to the circumstances of the business, covering succession within the family, succession to employees and succession to third parties. They are public advisory offices established in all 47 prefectures, where succession and M&A can in principle be discussed free of charge.
(Source: Business succession support measures | Small and Medium Enterprise Agency)

The centres also run schemes connecting owners without successors to people who want to take on an existing business and run it themselves.

An important distinction applies here: a scheme for finding someone who wants to learn a craft and a scheme for finding someone who wants to take over a business are not necessarily the same thing.

In craft, receiving the assets of a business does not by itself confer the ability to make the work. Succession to a third party may therefore require the transfer of the business and the acquisition of the necessary craft skills to be planned separately.

Separating the question of who receives the business from the question of how that person learns to make the work is particularly important in craft succession.

Rather than treating family inheritance or long apprenticeship as the only routes, establishing early which forms of succession are actually available widens the options.

For a successor to continue in craft as an occupation, income and routes to market matter alongside making skills. The following article looks at how craft makers’ work and earnings are structured.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

How Japanese Craft Artists Earn a Living | Income, Sales Channels, and Going ...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/introduction/craft-artist-income/

"Can you actually make a living as a craft artist?" It's a question almost everyone who takes this path seriously will face at some point.Whether you're considering an apprenticeship, testing the waters as a side business, or already making work but struggling with unpredictable income — the circumstances vary, but the underlying concern is the same: making a living from work you care about.This is a practical look at what it takes to build a sustainable income through kog...

Where can workshops go for public advice on succession?

Succession touches management, tax, law, assets and personnel at once. Rather than deciding everything inside the workshop, it is worth using public advisory offices and professionals according to the subject.

SME Support, JAPAN acts as the national headquarters supporting the Business Succession Support Centres established across all 47 prefectures, providing help with implementation structures, practical advice and training, publicity and promotion of use.
(Source: National Headquarters for Business Succession and Transfer Support | SME Support, JAPAN)

The Business Succession Support Centres are public advisory offices for succession, covering transfer to family members, to employees and to third parties. The scope of what each centre handles can differ by region, so check the current information published by the centre covering your area.

The succession portal operated by SME Support, JAPAN sets out the basics and lists advisory offices nationwide.
(Source: Business Succession and Transfer Portal | SME Support, JAPAN)

Workshops in a designated traditional craft production region, or sanchi, should also look at the training and technical transmission programmes run by their regional association, the Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries and local government. These do not, however, perform the same function as the Business Succession Support Centres.

Deciding first whether the question concerns learning the craft and developing people, or succession as a matter of assets and contracts, makes it easier to choose the right office.

What Kogei Japonica can do

Succession involves more than legal and tax procedure. It also means putting the workshop in a position to explain to people outside it what it makes and what it has built.

This matters particularly for succession to a third party, for opening new accounts and for recruitment. Unless the workshop’s history, methods, materials, equipment, work and track record are organised, people outside it will struggle to understand the value of the business.

Kogei Japonica works with workshops, craft makers, manufacturers and craft-producing regions on coverage, business profiles and communication in Japan and abroad.

It is not a service that handles the practical side of succession — tax, legal matters or M&A. Those belong with public advisory offices, tax accountants and lawyers. What it offers is a way to organise a workshop’s methods and activities into information that can be passed on.

en.kogei-japonica.com

Contact Us

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/contact/

This form is for inquiries only. Sales-related messages will not receive a response. Thank you for your understanding.

Frequently asked questions

Q. What is the difference between business succession and skills transfer?

Skills transfer means passing on both the practical craft skills and the judgement involved in making the work. Business succession adds to that the resources needed to keep operating: equipment, suppliers, clients, contracts and reputation. Skills transfer is one essential component of business succession.

Q. When should succession planning start?

It can start before a successor is decided. Begin by taking stock of equipment, suppliers, production records and client information, and reducing the number of things only you know.

Q. If there is no successor, is closure the only option?

No. Succession to an employee or to a third party can be considered. Business Succession Support Centres across Japan can advise on which options suit a particular business.

Q. How should equipment and tools be handed over?

Start by listing the main equipment and tools, recording model numbers, how they are used, how they have been adjusted, who repairs them, and which parts were made or modified in the workshop. Where valuation, transfer of ownership or amendment of contracts is required, check with a tax accountant or another professional.

Q. How should client and trading partner information be organised?

Alongside contact details, record how each relationship began, what has been ordered, the terms, the individuals involved and how past issues were handled. Where personal data for individual clients is transferred, the purpose of use and other requirements under the Act on the Protection of Personal Information need attention.

Q. How should making knowledge be recorded?

Combine written notes with photographs, video, drawings, figures, material samples, finished reference pieces and rejected pieces. Alongside what to do, record what is being looked at when a judgement is made.

Q. Are there public offices that advise on succession?

Yes. The Business Succession Support Centres established in all 47 prefectures are the principal public advisory offices. What each centre handles can differ by region, so check the current information for the centre covering your area.

Q. Can a workshop be passed to someone outside the family?

Yes. Succession to an employee or to a third party is possible. In craft, however, taking over the business and learning to make the work can be separate challenges, so both need to be planned for.

Faced with the word succession, most people think first about who will take on the making. But keeping a workshop running involves equipment, materials, suppliers, clients, production records, contracts and reputation — the many elements that make the daily work possible.

Attending only to craft skills is how the conditions for continuing get missed: nobody knows where the materials were bought, who can repair a particular machine, or what was agreed with a key client.

At the same time, succession is not a matter of preserving the present workshop unchanged and for ever.

What matters is sorting out what stays, what changes and what ends, so that the next person understands the background they have received and can carry it into the work of their own time.

Begin by writing down what only you know.

Where the materials are ordered, the dimensions of a tool you made yourself, the firing conditions that failed. Looking across both craft skills and business assets, and establishing what is documented and what rests on one person’s memory: that is the first concrete step in thinking about craft business succession.

The post Japanese Craft Business Succession: What Gets Handed Down first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

Jewelry rooted in craft invites us to look beyond the finished piece. Its appeal also lies in the traditions that inspired it and the relationships behind its making. Understanding those connections can change how we see and wear it.

For its first collection, TSUZURE – Loose End, ARCELF draws on the workshop rather than incorporating Nishijin fabric as decoration. Taut warp threads, unevenly arranged bobbins, the light created by interwoven yarn, and the movement of artisans’ hands become starting points for jewelry design.

Here, we explore Nishijin tsumekaki hon-tsuzure-ori, the handwoven tapestry technique behind the collection; the jewelry it inspired; and the workshop and artisans involved. We also consider ARCELF’s ambition to connect the purchase of a piece with new value and opportunities for craft makers.

What Is ARCELF? A Japanese Jewelry Brand Launched in Paris

ARCELF is a Japanese brand that reimagines fragments of Japanese beauty—artisans’ handwork, local landscapes, inherited materials, and memories—as contemporary jewelry. Its first collection grew out of a collaboration with a tapestry workshop in Kyoto’s Nishijin district.

The brand is operated by ARCELF Co., Ltd. and led by Kyoto-born founder and designer Yukari Fujii. Its concept, “Re-Edit Fragments,” expresses the idea of bringing fragments of beauty into new relationships.
Source: About Us | ARCELF

These “fragments” encompass handwork, landscapes across Japan, and materials and memories passed down through generations. For the first collection, ARCELF also looked at tools encountered in the workshop and the structures and scenes that emerge as threads are woven.

Each collection begins with an encounter with a particular craft. ARCELF visits workshops and the regions around them, exploring materials and techniques alongside local culture and artisans’ perspectives. Those encounters inform the jewelry that follows.

“Re-editing” suggests an approach that goes beyond reproducing an existing motif. In the first collection, light moving through the workshop, overlapping threads, and the qualities revealed by handwork are reinterpreted in a different material and for a different use.

According to her published biography, Fujii grew up close to textiles and craft through her mother, a textile designer, and relatives in the kimono trade. She began her career at ISSEY MIYAKE in retail and visual merchandising before becoming an independent editor and writer. Her work for fashion publications and brands has spanned editorial planning, interviews, writing, and editing, including visits to workshops across Japan.

Fujii founded ARCELF in January 2026 with the aim of creating ongoing work for craft makers as well as telling their stories. This account of her background draws on the brand’s official profile and launch materials.
Source: Yukari Fujii, Founder and Designer | ARCELF

The Paris Debut: Bijorhca and Its BRILLIANT Section

ARCELF launched at Bijorhca Paris, the international jewelry trade show held at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles from September 5 to 7, 2026.

Bijorhca is a French international trade show specializing in jewelry, watches, and precious-metal accessories. The organizer describes it as a meeting place for brands, designers, and suppliers of materials, components, and services, where buyers and other industry professionals can discover products and develop business relationships.
Source: Bijorhca Paris | WSN Group

According to ARCELF, the brand presented TSUZURE – Loose End in BRILLIANT, a curated section for selected brands. Its official online store also launched on September 5, 2026.
Source: ARCELF Launches in Paris on September 5, 2026 | ARCELF

Choosing Paris, with its international buyers and specialists, as the setting for the debut reflects the brand’s intention to connect Japanese craft with audiences abroad.

An international launch is a starting point. The lasting opportunity lies in creating jewelry that appeals to people unfamiliar with Nishijin weaving, then opening a path from the piece itself to an interest in the techniques and workshops behind it.

What Is Nishijin Tsumekaki Hon-Tsuzure-ori?

Nishijin tsumekaki hon-tsuzure-ori is a handwoven tapestry technique in which an artisan follows a design placed beneath the warp threads and uses specially shaped fingernails to pack the weft into place, gradually building the pattern.

Woven textiles generally combine lengthwise warp threads with crosswise weft threads. In this technique, the weaver inserts each colored weft only where it is needed, then packs it down, one pass at a time, using fingernails shaped for the task.

The Nishijin Textile Industry Association also describes this as a highly skilled technique, with the design beneath the warp serving as a guide while the artisan’s fingernails bring the weft threads together.
Source: Learning About Nishijin Weaving | Nishijin Textile Industry Association

Soshitsu Tsuzureen explains that the tightly tensioned warp can produce a sound resembling a koto, a Japanese stringed instrument, when struck by a fingernail or shuttle. The fingernail is both part of the weaver’s body and a tool carefully adapted to the material.
Source: What Is Tsuzure Weaving? | Soshitsu Tsuzureen

Tsuzure-ori is a broader weaving tradition that also exists outside Nishijin. The full term Nishijin tsumekaki hon-tsuzure-ori refers here to the particular fingernail-assisted technique practiced in Kyoto that inspired ARCELF’s collection.

Nishijin textiles are designated as a traditional craft by Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry. That designation applies to the wider Nishijin textile category; the individual techniques used within it should be understood in that broader context.
Source: Traditional Crafts of the Kansai Region | Kansai Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry

Describing tsuzure-ori simply as luxurious or handmade misses much of what makes it distinctive. Its character emerges through precise decisions: how much pressure to apply, which thread to choose, where to change color, and how to shape a curve through the movement of a fingernail.

ARCELF’s interest extends to the process behind the finished textile: tensioned warp threads, irregular arrangements of bobbins, light emerging from interwoven yarn, and the movement of the weaver’s hands.

The name “Loose End” evokes both a thread’s free end and something still unfinished. As an editorial reading, rather than an official explanation of the name, it suggests the collection’s attention to fragments found around the finished work.

Soshitsu Tsuzureen and Master Weaver Kikuo Hirano

ARCELF’s first collection was developed in collaboration with Soshitsu Tsuzureen, a tsuzure weaving preservation association and workshop in Nishijin, in Kyoto’s Kamigyo ward.

The association brings together artisans led by Kikuo Hirano, a tsuzure weaver and certified Traditional Craftsperson. It works to preserve and develop the technique through exchanges between experienced and younger weavers, workshop visits, and hands-on weaving experiences.

Its work extends beyond obi, the sashes worn with kimono, to framed textiles, hanging scrolls, festival curtains, lighting, and accessories. This range shows how tsuzure weaving can take on new forms and uses.
Source: About the Tsuzure Weaving Preservation Association | Soshitsu Tsuzureen

According to the workshop’s official biography, Hirano was born in Nishijin in 1939 and learned from his father, who ran a tsuzure weaving business. He developed his skills over many years at Kawashima Selkon Textiles, later helped train successors at the Nishijin Textile Center, and founded Soshitsu Tsuzureen in 2011. The biography also records his certification as a Traditional Craftsperson and his receipt of the Order of the Sacred Treasure, Silver Rays.

ARCELF’s launch materials describe Hirano as having entered the craft at 15 and devoted 72 years to it. These figures and descriptions of his practice are drawn from the materials the brand released on September 5, 2026.

ARCELF records techniques and artisans’ words through photography, film, sound, and writing. A brand book documenting the workshop and the background to the collection is also provided to customers who purchase its jewelry.

Documentation cannot replace the physical knowledge of weaving. It can, however, preserve the workshop’s environment, the artisan’s thinking, and the discoveries made through dialogue across disciplines. Its value lies in helping others understand the practice and begin new conversations.

TSUZURE – Loose End: How Weaving Becomes Jewelry

TSUZURE – Loose End reinterprets qualities observed in the workshop as metal jewelry: layers of wound thread, the two faces of a textile, the fullness of silk bundles, and the light produced as threads interweave.

The collection is made to order, with each piece individually crafted by jewelry artisans in Japan. The official collection page presents rings, earrings, bracelets, and necklaces.
Source: TSUZURE – Loose End | ARCELF

The TSUZURE ring takes its inspiration from layers of wound thread in the Nishijin workshop and the subtle tonal variations of finished textiles.

A sequence of bars receives different surface treatments, including mirror polishing, hairline finishes, and diamond cutting, creating alternating areas of bright reflection and softer light. Diamonds set between the bars punctuate the continuous form.

The official product page describes a version in 925 sterling silver with a thick layer of 10K gold plating and lab-grown diamonds. Depending on the design, customers can also inquire about versions in 10K gold, 18K gold, or platinum.
Source: TSUZURE | ARCELF

The ORI ring draws on the way the pattern in tsuzure weaving appears on both sides of the textile. Surfaces with contrasting textures flow into a spiral, while the inside receives the same attention to finishing as the outside.

The design explores the relationship between front and reverse as parts of one continuous structure, rather than reproducing the textile’s pattern.

ORI — Spiral is inspired by silk threads gathering into a swirling bundle and gradually taking shape. According to the official description, the band varies in width from 1.5 to 3.0 millimeters and features 18 diamonds alongside a marquise-cut diamond.
Source: ORI — Spiral | ARCELF

TSUZURE — Bloom and Metalworker Katsuhiko Sakamoto

TSUZURE — Bloom began with the flower-like fullness of silk bundles piled beside an artisan in the workshop.

ARCELF explains that its five petals are individually formed by hand, with surface treatments suggesting the fine flow of silk fibers. Precious-metal artisan Katsuhiko Sakamoto developed the sculptural form, and jewelry artisans in Kofu make the ring.

The brand’s materials identify Sakamoto as a recipient of the Contemporary Master Craftsman distinction. This is the commonly used name for Japan’s commendation of outstanding skilled workers, awarded by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare to leading practitioners in their fields.

Sakamoto’s distinction is reported here as described in ARCELF’s announcement. Details such as the award year and official occupational category should be checked against the ministry’s recipient records.
Source: Commendation of Outstanding Skilled Workers | Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Reinterpreting soft thread in hard metal involves more than matching an outline. A designer must decide how texture becomes a finish, how overlapping strands become structure, and how the placement of stones recalls a particular quality of light. Each choice responds to what the new material can do.

Workshops hold forms of beauty that may leave no trace in the finished object: well-used tools, temporarily gathered thread, material offcuts, and shapes that exist only during making. TSUZURE – Loose End finds inspiration in those working moments as well as in completed textiles.

How Can Jewelry Help Sustain Craft?

For a craft collaboration to support a lasting cycle of value, it needs to bring work, income, recognition, documentation, and future commissions back to the workshops and makers involved.

ARCELF aims to create jewelry people want to wear today and direct the value it generates back toward craft practice. In this model, craft has an active place in contemporary life as well as a history to preserve.

The brand describes a process centered on one craft for each collection: visiting workshops, speaking with artisans, and documenting techniques, materials, ideas, culture, and aesthetics. It also states that it seeks to collaborate directly with workshops wherever possible, connecting demand for its pieces with value returned to craft makers.
Source: Sustaining Craft for the Future | ARCELF

Working with a workshop involves discussing techniques and the context of production, and sharing an understanding of each participant’s role. For its first collection, ARCELF identifies both the weaving workshop that informed the designs and the makers responsible for shaping and producing the jewelry.

Publicly available information describes the participants’ roles as follows.

This cycle of value is best understood as the business model ARCELF is working toward.

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Japanese Craft–Brand Collaborations: Pricing and IP

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/invest/craft-brand-collaboration/

Collaborations between overseas brands and Japan's craft regions can open new markets and new forms of expression. Yet the finished product — and the brand name on it — reveals little about the profit or rights that remained with the makers and workshops involved.Assessing a collaboration takes more than a story of international recognition. It means looking at prototyping cost, pricing, intellectual property, mass-production responsibility, credit and repeat orders.For a partnership bet...

The following are general principles Kogei Japonica considers valuable in collaborations between brands and craft makers. They are editorial considerations, not a list of concerns identified at ARCELF.

• Are the roles of artisans and workshops clearly described?
• Are there arrangements for paying or commissioning research, advice, production, and technical contributions?
• Is the workload associated with brand growth shared fairly?
• Do documentation and communications respect the craft’s background and the makers’ perspectives?
• Are artisans and workshops consistently credited?
• Is there scope for further commissions or joint development beyond the initial launch?
• Can customers understand whose work they are supporting and what it contributes?

Sales matter to the continuity of craft. When volume becomes the sole measure of success, however, pressure on costs and production speed can fall disproportionately on makers.

A lasting cycle of value includes the conditions that allow people to keep working: time to teach, appropriate recognition, and room to experiment with new forms of expression. Revenue is one part of that wider relationship.

ARCELF has announced that its next collection is being developed with a Kyoto urushi lacquer artisan whose work includes the restoration of temples and shrines.

Where to Buy ARCELF Jewelry and See the Collection

ARCELF’s jewelry can be explored through its official online store. The brand has also announced presentations in Paris and Japan. Check official updates for venue details and admission arrangements.

The brand debuted in the BRILLIANT section of Bijorhca Paris at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, September 5–7, 2026. Bijorhca is a trade event primarily for buyers, press, designers, and other industry professionals; admission requirements are set by the organizer.
Source: Bijorhca Paris Event Information | WSN Group

A solo pop-up is scheduled for September 10–13, 2026, at ESPACE SYLVIA RIELLE on Place des Vosges in Paris.

ARCELF says visitors will be able to view, try on, and order the jewelry. The presentation will also introduce the Nishijin tapestry weaving that inspired it, photographs and films from the workshop, and a sound work based on recordings of the weaving process.

Announced opening hours are noon–8 p.m. on September 10–12 and noon–4 p.m. on September 13, local Paris time. An invitation-only closing party is planned after 4 p.m. on the final day. Check the latest announcement before visiting, as arrangements may change.
Source: ARCELF’s First Pop-up at Place des Vosges | ARCELF

In Japan, ARCELF has announced its first domestic exhibition in Tokyo for October 29–31, 2026, followed by participation in New Jewelry TOKYO 2026 on November 27–29.

The dates for New Jewelry TOKYO 2026 are also listed by the organizer. For ARCELF’s participation details, the venue for its first Tokyo exhibition, and admission arrangements, consult the latest brand and event announcements.
Source: New Jewelry TOKYO 2026 | New Jewelry LLC.

The official store provides information on individual pieces, materials, dimensions, lead times, and care. The English-language collection page listed prices from $800 to $3,400 when checked for the Japanese edition on September 5, 2026. Prices may vary by design, material, displayed currency, and delivery region.

According to ARCELF, all products became available to purchase through its official online store on September 5, 2026. Check each product page when ordering for availability, pricing, sizes, lead times, and return conditions.

Band width affects how a ring feels on the finger. Some made-to-order designs cannot be resized after completion, so consider the ring’s inner circumference and width, as well as how it passes over the knuckle, rather than relying on a size number alone.
Source: Collection and Product Information | ARCELF

For updates, visit ARCELF’s official website and Instagram account.
Source: ARCELF Official Website
Source: @arcelf_official | Instagram

Businesses and organizations considering craft-based product development, collaboration with artisans or workshops, editorial coverage, or international communications can also contact Kogei Japonica. We help frame discussions around roles, compensation, rights, credits, and the scope for ongoing commissions.

en.kogei-japonica.com

Contact Us

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/contact/

This form is for inquiries only. Sales-related messages will not receive a response. Thank you for your understanding.

Frequently Asked Questions

Q1. Is tsuzure-ori the same as Nishijin tsumekaki hon-tsuzure-ori?

Tsuzure-ori is a broader tapestry-weaving tradition practiced beyond Nishijin. This article focuses on Nishijin tsumekaki hon-tsuzure-ori, the Kyoto technique in which artisans pack the weft threads into place with specially shaped fingernails.

Q2. How does this technique differ from other Nishijin weaving methods?

The artisan follows a design placed beneath the warp threads and uses fingernails to pack each pass of colored weft into the required area. This demanding handweaving technique gives the weaver considerable control over color and curved lines.

Q3. Does ARCELF use Nishijin fabric in its jewelry?

The featured rings are made from materials such as silver and diamonds, rather than incorporating the woven cloth itself. The first collection reinterprets the workshop’s overlapping threads, light, tension, and the relationship between the textile’s two faces as jewelry.

Q4. How does ARCELF work with the weaving workshop?

ARCELF names Soshitsu Tsuzureen as its collaborator for the first collection and draws on workshop research and dialogue with artisans. It records techniques and artisans’ words through photography, film, sound, and writing. Customers also receive a brand book documenting the workshop and the collection’s background.

Q5. What does ARCELF mean by returning value to workshops?

The idea is that demand for jewelry creates work and income for makers, helping support future production and the passing on of skills. This is the business model ARCELF aims to develop.

Q6. Where can I buy ARCELF jewelry?

You can purchase through ARCELF’s official online store. The brand confirms that all products became available to buy online on September 5, 2026. Exhibitions and pop-ups also offer opportunities to order. Check official product information for lead times and available sizes.

Q7. How much does ARCELF jewelry cost?

The English-language official collection page listed prices from $800 to $3,400 when checked for the Japanese edition on September 5, 2026. Prices may vary by material, specification, currency, and delivery region, so confirm the current price before ordering.

Q8. What materials does ARCELF use?

Materials vary by piece and include 925 sterling silver, gold-plated finishes, rhodium plating, and lab-grown diamonds. Some designs can also be discussed in 10K gold, 18K gold, or platinum.

Q9. Is every piece made to order?

ARCELF describes its jewelry as entirely made to order in Japan. Product pages give an estimated production time of around one to one and a half months for representative rings, although this may vary by piece and order timing.

Q10. What can other brands learn from this collaboration?

Naming the workshop, maintaining direct dialogue, documenting the making process, and producing to order are useful points of reference. For any new collaboration, the participants should also agree on prototype costs, compensation, intellectual property, credits, production responsibilities, and what happens when the partnership ends.

A New Relationship Between Jewelry and Craft

ARCELF seeks to reimagine fragments of Japanese beauty as contemporary jewelry, connecting the choice to purchase a piece with future work for craft makers.

TSUZURE – Loose End takes its cues from the process of weaving: tensioned warp threads, uneven layers of wound yarn, light created by interwoven strands, and the movement of artisans’ hands. The collection gives those observed structures and qualities a new form in jewelry.

At Kogei Japonica, our interest extends beyond the launch. We want to see how ongoing commissions support the collaborating workshops, how respect for craft and its makers is maintained, and whether these relationships help create space for future practitioners. Those possibilities will become clearer as the collaborations develop.

Following who gains work from a collaboration and what it makes possible next is one way to engage with craft beyond a passing trend.

The post ARCELF: Nishijin Weaving Reimagined as Jewelry first appeared on Kogei Japonica.

Beginning Wednesday, September 2, 2026, BS Asahi will broadcast the four-part documentary series Ningen Kokuhō × Ningen Kokuhō—translated here as “Living National Treasure × Living National Treasure”—on four consecutive Wednesdays. Each 30-minute episode airs from 11:30 p.m. to midnight JST.

The series brings together eight individually recognized holders of Important Intangible Cultural Properties in four pairings. Their fields span maki-e lacquer decoration, overglaze-enamel porcelain, indigo stencil dyeing, woodwork, metal hammering, lacquer coating and underglaze decoration.

ARTerrace states that it provided comprehensive support for the program’s planning, production and filming. Its initiatives in the field of traditional craft are also scheduled to be featured in each episode.

This guide covers the broadcast schedule and featured artists, while also considering a broader question: what becomes visible when masters of different materials and techniques enter into conversation?
(Reference: Ningen Kokuhō × Ningen Kokuhō｜BS Asahi)
(Reference: BS Asahi Documentary Ningen Kokuhō × Ningen Kokuhō｜ARTerrace)

Disclosure: This article was independently structured and written by the Kogei Japonica editorial team based on information provided by ARTerrace.

Why Pair Living National Treasures Across Disciplines?

The significance of this series lies not simply in its celebrated participants, but in its decision to bring masters of different materials and techniques face to face.

A documentary devoted to one artist can explore that person’s career, techniques and major works in depth. A dialogue operates differently. It creates space for ideas that emerge only in response to another maker’s words—and for reactions prompted by encountering a practice unlike one’s own.

Lacquer, clay, cloth, wood and metal behave in fundamentally different ways. One process depends on drying; another on firing. Some materials are hammered, others carved, dyed or coated. The point at which an error can still be corrected varies, as does the judgment that a work is complete.

Yet when artists speak across disciplines, they often arrive at questions that transcend technique. How should a maker respond to the material? How far can an inherited practice be changed? How can technical knowledge be passed to the next generation without reducing tradition to repetition? This is where the dialogue format becomes especially revealing.

According to BS Asahi, the first episode brings together Murose Kazumi and Imaizumi Imaemon XIV to discuss the meaning of tradition and creative practice through their experience of working with different materials and techniques.

Listening for what each artist seeks to preserve—and what each is willing to renew—offers a richer way to approach the program than simply observing an encounter between two Living National Treasures.
(Reference: Ningen Kokuhō × Ningen Kokuhō｜BS Asahi)

Four Episodes, Four Cross-Disciplinary Pairings

The four pairings offer a way to consider what different forms of Japanese craft share precisely because their materials and processes are so different.

The editorial perspectives in the final column below are based on the announced participants and their recognized fields. They are intended as viewing prompts and do not claim to predict what will be discussed in each episode.

Each episode airs from 11:30 p.m. to midnight JST. Broadcast dates and content are subject to change, so viewers should check the official program page for the latest information.
(Reference: BS Asahi Documentary Ningen Kokuhō × Ningen Kokuhō｜ARTerrace)

Episode 1: Maki-e × Iroe Jiki (Murose Kazumi / Imaizumi Imaemon XIV)

The first episode considers how an inherited technique can remain intact while continuing to produce expression that belongs to the present.

Appearing on September 2 are Murose Kazumi, an individually recognized holder of the Important Intangible Cultural Property “maki-e,” and Imaizumi Imaemon XIV, an individually recognized holder in “iroe jiki,” or overglaze-enamel porcelain.

Maki-e is a decorative lacquer technique in which gold, silver or other fine powders are sprinkled onto designs drawn in wet lacquer. Its principal forms include togidashi maki-e, hira maki-e and taka maki-e. Variations in the way powder is applied, lacquer is layered and the surface is finished produce an extensive range of visual effects.

Iroe jiki involves applying colored overglaze enamels to glazed and previously fired porcelain, followed by a further firing that fixes the decoration. Reds, yellows, greens, purples and other colors can be combined to create intricate pictorial and abstract designs.

One practice sets metallic powder into lacquer; the other fixes colored enamel onto porcelain through heat. Their materials and processes differ, yet both ask how the surface of an object can carry light, color and the maker’s aesthetic judgment.

BS Asahi describes the episode as a discussion of tradition and creation grounded in the artists’ respective experiences. Its central question is not simply how a technique is preserved, but how it can be inherited without allowing contemporary expression to become imitation.
(Reference: Important Intangible Cultural Property “Maki-e”｜Database of National Cultural Properties)
(Reference: Important Intangible Cultural Property “Iroe Jiki”｜Database of National Cultural Properties)

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

The Charm and History of Maki-e: Exploring Its Origins, Techniques, and Creat...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/crafts/maki-e/

Maki-e is one of the most artistically sophisticated techniques in Japanese lacquer craft. With its origins dating back to the Heian period, this art form involves sprinkling gold or silver metal powders onto lacquered designs, creating vibrant and delicate beauty.This article delves into the origins and historical background of Maki-e, explores various techniques, and provides an in-depth look at the production process undertaken by skilled artisans.What is Maki-e? The Foundational Tradition...

Episode 2: Nagaita Chūgata × Woodwork (Matsubara Nobuo / Watanabe Akio)

The second episode brings together a textile practice defined by exact alignment and repeated pattern with a woodworker’s response to the unique character of each piece of timber.

Appearing on September 9 are Matsubara Nobuo, an individually recognized holder of the Important Intangible Cultural Property of nagaita chūgata, and Watanabe Akio, an individually recognized holder of woodwork, or mokkōgei.

Nagaita chūgata is an indigo-dyeing technique in which cloth is stretched across a long board and resist paste is applied through a stencil. The pattern must be carefully aligned on both sides of the fabric before it is dyed, demanding exceptional precision from the maker.

Japanese woodwork encompasses techniques including sashimono joinery, kurimono carving, hikimono turning and magemono bentwood work. The maker selects, cuts, shapes and assembles the material while accounting for the species, grain, moisture and movement of the wood.

One practice establishes pattern through the controlled repetition of stencil and resist paste; the other responds to a material whose grain and behavior vary from one piece to the next. They may initially appear opposed, but neither relies on imposing form without negotiation. In both, the process must be adapted to the conditions of the material.

Where does the maker’s intention enter that negotiation? The episode offers an opportunity to listen for how the two artists describe the boundary between technical control and responsiveness to material.
(Reference: Important Intangible Cultural Property “Nagaita Chūgata”｜Database of National Cultural Properties)
(Reference: Important Intangible Cultural Property “Woodwork”｜Database of National Cultural Properties)

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

How to Read Japanese Wood Grain: Masame, Itame & Moku

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/introduction/wood-grain/

Many people have looked at a piece of wooden furniture or a wooden vessel and thought, "what beautiful grain." Yet if you were asked whether that grain is masame (straight grain), itame (flat-sawn grain), or a distinctive moku (figure), you might suddenly find yourself unsure.When you look at wood grain, the basics are to check not only the surface pattern but also the direction of the growth rings, the end grain (koguchi), and how the board was cut from the log. Once you can tell m...

Episode 3: Tankin × Woodwork (Ōsumi Yukie / Suda Kenji)

The third episode focuses on two very different materials—metal and wood—and the judgment required to shape each without working against its nature.

Appearing on September 16 are Ōsumi Yukie, an individually recognized holder of the Important Intangible Cultural Property of tankin, or metal hammering, and Suda Kenji, an individually recognized holder of woodwork.

Tankin is a metalworking technique in which sheet metal is repeatedly hammered into vessels and three-dimensional forms. Metal hammers and wooden mallets are used in combination with annealing and other heat treatments, allowing the material to be shaped without cracking or becoming excessively brittle.

In woodwork, shaping begins long before the first cut. The maker considers the species, grain, moisture and future movement of the timber, determines how each component should be taken from the larger piece and then joins multiple elements into a coherent form.

Metal and wood respond differently to pressure, heat and tools. What the two practices share is the need to judge whether to make one more intervention or to stop. The finished object conceals that sequence of decisions, but the dialogue may reveal how each maker balances the limits of the material with artistic intention.
(Reference: Important Intangible Cultural Property “Tankin”｜Database of National Cultural Properties)
(Reference: Important Intangible Cultural Property “Woodwork”｜Database of National Cultural Properties)

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

Who is Yukie Osumi? Japan's First Female Living National Treasure in &qu...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/lnt/yukie-osumi/

Yukie Osumi is the first woman in Japan's metal craft field to be designated as a Living National Treasure for "tankin" (forging metal).In the world of tankin, where metals such as copper and silver are hammered and shaped, she has established a unique style that combines both softness and strength.Behind this achievement lies her lineage and educational journey, and through numerous masterpieces, she has opened new horizons in Japanese metalwork.However, to properly understand...

Episode 4: Kyūshitsu × Yūkasai (Komori Kunie / Nakada Kazuo)

The final episode draws attention to the layers and processes that remain largely invisible beneath a finished surface.

Appearing on September 23 are Komori Kunie, an individually recognized holder of the Important Intangible Cultural Property of kyūshitsu, and Nakada Kazuo, an individually recognized holder of yūkasai.

Kyūshitsu centers on the application and finishing of lacquer. It encompasses the selection and preparation of the substrate, the building of foundation layers, successive coats of lacquer and the final treatment of the surface. Much of what gives the finished work its depth lies beneath what the viewer can see.

Yūkasai is a form of underglaze decoration in which color is applied to the ceramic or porcelain body before it is covered with glaze and fired. The relationship between the decoration and the translucent glaze above it gives the color a distinctive sense of depth.

One practice builds a surface through successive layers of lacquer; the other preserves color beneath a glasslike layer of glaze. In both, an accumulation of largely unseen processes determines what ultimately becomes visible.

The final episode invites viewers to listen for how the two artists articulate the time and labor embedded beneath color, depth and sheen.
(Reference: Important Intangible Cultural Property “Kyūshitsu”｜Database of National Cultural Properties)
(Reference: Important Intangible Cultural Property “Yūkasai”｜Database of National Cultural Properties)

en.kogei-japonica.com/media

What is Kyushitsu (Japanese Lacquerware)? A Complete Guide to the Traditional...

https://en.kogei-japonica.com/media/skills/kyushitsu/

Kyushitsu (Japanese Lacquerware) is an advanced technique representing Japanese lacquer crafts, where lacquer is applied multiple times to wooden surfaces, repeatedly sanded and polished to achieve the final finish. Some pieces undergo over 30 cycles of coating and sanding, resulting in deep luster, smoothness, and durability that combines the strength of practical items with the beauty of artistic works.This article provides detailed explanations of Kyushitsu's historical background, co...

Behind the Scenes: The Stillness of Maki-e

An account from the filming of the first episode illustrates that maki-e depends not only on the movement of the artist’s hands, but also on the careful control of the surrounding environment.

According to ARTerrace, staff members filming in Murose Kazumi’s studio described the workspace as “as immaculate as a dōjō.” They were instructed not to stir the air while he worked. In the resulting silence, the only sound was the steady tapping of the powder tube, or funzutsu, as fine gold powder was scattered across the lacquer.

The point is not simply to romanticize the stillness of the workshop. The stillness is itself a technical requirement. Fine powders used in maki-e can be disturbed by unintended air movement, meaning that the cleanliness of the room, the movement of people and even their physical presence become part of the conditions of making.

One ARTerrace staff member recalled feeling as though the gold powder itself were shimmering audibly as it was scattered. The quiet of the room brought forward a rhythm that would otherwise be almost impossible to notice.
(Reference: BS Asahi Documentary Ningen Kokuhō × Ningen Kokuhō｜ARTerrace)

What Is a Living National Treasure?

“Living National Treasure” is the commonly used term for a person individually recognized by the Japanese government as a holder of an Important Intangible Cultural Property.

Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs defines Intangible Cultural Properties as performing arts, music, craft techniques and other forms of human technical artistry that possess significant historical or artistic value. Particularly important examples are designated as Important Intangible Cultural Properties, while the individuals or groups who have achieved advanced mastery are recognized as their holders.

Recognition takes three forms: individual recognition, collective recognition and group recognition. “Living National Treasure” refers specifically to an individual who has received individual recognition.

The system therefore does not simply declare a celebrated person to be a national “treasure.” The skill comes first: a particular form of technical artistry is identified as worthy of protection and transmission, and a person who embodies that skill at the highest level is recognized as its holder.

The eight artists in this series were not selected merely because they are prominent makers. Each is the recognized holder of a specific craft technique: maki-e, iroe jiki, nagaita chūgata, woodwork, tankin, kyūshitsu or yūkasai.

The designation does not mean that a holder’s task is to reproduce an unchanging form. Holders continue to make new work, refine their practice and contribute to the transmission of technical knowledge. This is why their thoughts on inheritance and creation matter: they reveal how tradition is maintained through active judgment rather than passive repetition.
(Reference: Intangible Cultural Properties｜Agency for Cultural Affairs)

Broadcast Information

BS Asahi’s Ningen Kokuhō × Ningen Kokuhō is scheduled to air in four 30-minute episodes on consecutive Wednesdays from September 2 to September 23, 2026.

www.bs-asahi.co.jp

人間国宝×人間国宝 | BS朝日

https://www.bs-asahi.co.jp/ningenkokuho/

BS朝日「人間国宝×人間国宝」の番組サイト。日本の伝統文化を極め、その技と精神を次世代へ受け継ぐ「人間国宝」。番組では、二人の人間国宝が分野の垣根を越えて語り合う対談を4週に渡って紹介。「人間国宝」という一つの頂点を極めた二人だからこそ生まれる共感や発見、そして日本文化の奥深さを、対話を通してお届けします。

Broadcast dates and content are subject to change. Please consult the official BS Asahi program page for the latest information before watching.
(Reference: Ningen Kokuhō × Ningen Kokuhō｜BS Asahi)
(Reference: BS Asahi Documentary Ningen Kokuhō × Ningen Kokuhō｜ARTerrace)

Where to Experience the Works in Person

If the program sparks an interest in the works themselves, the next step is to encounter them through exhibitions, museum collections and carefully documented artist profiles.

ARTerrace provides online introductions to Murose Kazumi, Imaizumi Imaemon XIV, Ōsumi Yukie and Komori Kunie, offering one route from the conversations presented on screen to the forms and surfaces of the artists’ work.

ARTerrace describes itself as the cultural-promotion initiative of a corporate group that has entered into a partnership agreement with the Japan Kōgei Association. Its activities include circulating works and sharing information about traditional-craft artists, including Living National Treasures.
(Reference: Artists｜ARTerrace)

The four episodes bring together lacquer and porcelain, cloth and wood, metal and wood, and lacquer and ceramics. Simply cataloguing those differences, however, does not fully explain the value of the conversations.

Tradition in craft is not the passive preservation of past forms. It involves observing the material, understanding the logic of an inherited technique and deciding what form that knowledge should take in the present.

What is most worth hearing in these dialogues is not a set of definitive answers, but the judgment of artists who have continued asking difficult questions throughout long careers. In responding to another master’s work, each artist is invited to reconsider and articulate their own practice. The opportunity to witness that process is what makes BS Asahi’s four-part series especially valuable.

The post When Living National Treasures Meet | BS Asahi Series first appeared on Kogei Japonica.