Craft
Tsugaru-nuri津軽塗
A lacquerware of Hirosaki. Its 'karanuri' pattern emerges only when dozens of built-up coats of coloured urushi are ground back — so painstaking it earned the…
Satsuma Kiriko薩摩切子
Born in late-Edo Satsuma, lost to war, and revived from old records a century later — cut glass whose soul is the soft ‘bokashi’ gradient from…
Hiruzen Gama-zaiku蒜山がま細工
In a highland that lies “a hundred days under snow,” villagers weave the water-reed gama into boots, sandals and bags — a winter craft born of…
Okawa Kumiko大川組子
大川組子——福岡・筑後川河口の指物木工。釘を使わず、檜などの細い木を組んで麻の葉や亀甲の幾何模様をつくり、障子・欄間・書院を飾る。二百を超える組手を伝える、家具のまち大川の象徴的な技法。
Yame chochin八女提灯
Bon lanterns from Yame, Fukuoka. A single continuous bamboo rib wound in a spiral, skinned with paper thin enough to glow, painted with flowers and birds.…
Kurume-gasuri久留米絣
Kurume-gasuri - hand-tied, Awa-indigo cotton ikat from the Chikugo plain in Fukuoka; a National Important Intangible Cultural Property and one of Japan's three great kasuri.
Aizome (Japan Blue)藍染
Japan Blue — awa-ai, natural fermentation indigo from Tokushima. Green from the vat, blue in the air; true fermentation indigo is now about 1% of what…
Beppu Bamboo別府竹細工
Hot-spring bamboo — madake woven by hand in Beppu, from bath-house baskets to a Living National Treasure of bamboo art; the only Traditional Craft in Ōita.
Mino Washi美濃和紙
Paper strong enough to be light — 1,300 years of hand-couched mulberry sheets from the clear water of Mino, Gifu.
Nambu Ironware南部鉄器
Cast ironware from Iwate — kettles, teapots and wind chimes. Japan's first designated Traditional Craft (1975); nearly lost, now prized worldwide.
Onta Ware小鹿田焼
Made for the hand, not the shelf — iron-dark clay thrown since 1705 in one Kyūshū valley, never signed.
Every word is a door to the next.
Onta's clay leads to the river, the river to a hot spring, the spring to the table. The relations are the route.