The beauty of ordinary objects, the revaluation of artistic crafts in Japan

Conference by Ryoko Sekiguchi, writer, poet, translator.

In this lecture, Ryōko Sekiguchi explores the historical, cultural and spiritual dimensions of the movement. Mingei (民藝). Founded by Sōetsu Yanagi (1889-1961) in the 1920s, it was a movement created for the revaluation and recognition of folk crafts. The term Mingei literally means "people's art" and refers to crafts made by the people, for the people, primarily including ceramics.

Sōetsu Yanagi's work contributed to the preservation of craftsmanship in Japan, as well as its revaluation. This was possible thanks to the involvement of artists and craftsmen such as the ceramist Shōji Hamada, the potter Kanjiro Kawai and the potter Kenkichi Tomimoto. Through collective work, Sōetsu Yanagi became the architect of the Mingei movement. He published the first works on the subject from the 1920s to the 1960s. In these works, he advocated the idea of you no bi (用の美), literally meaning “the beauty of utility”, and thus defends the beauty specific to everyday objects.

Sōetsu Yanagi.

Shoji Hamada.

Kanjiro Kawai.

Kenkichi Tomimoto.

The genesis of the Mingei is part of the Arts&Crafts movement, which appeared in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century. Arts&Crafts advocates the rehabilitation of manual work and the preservation of traditional skills. The works of William Morris, founder of the Arts&Crafts movement, as well as those of the architect John Ruskin, are translated into Japanese, and profoundly influence the thinking of Sōetsu Yanagi. A few years later, he embarks on a journey across Japan to list the objects that he considers to belong to the movement. MingeiHe then realizes the richness and extent of his country's craftsmanship.

Shōji Hamada. Teapot. Porcelain stoneware. Underglaze decoration.

Kanjiro Kawai. Covered pot. Stoneware. Underglaze decoration.

Kenkichi Tomimoto. Pot. Stoneware. Underglaze decoration.

His friendship with Kanjiro Kawai and Shōji Hamada, with whom he began to collect objects, nourished his thinking. From this reflection, the term was born in 1925 mingei. In the process, he wrote a manifesto for the foundation of a museum dedicated to Mingei.

At the same time, which saw the development of the Mingei In the 1910s and 1920s, new terms emerged: Go (民具) (popular objects), Minka (民家) (traditional folk houses), Minzokugaku (民俗学) (ethnology), or even Kyodo (郷土) (native village, land). A new reflection on what the people are, in which Mingei is included, is then emerging.

Although it distinguishes the pieces of Mingei artistic works, Sōetsu Yanagi is guided by concerns related to museography. Through the actions of the group Shirakaba, a magazine founded by Sōetsu Yanagi and his writer friends, he saw the exhibition as an essential means of communication and dissemination, and dreamed of opening the Museum Mingei. Even before inaugurating the first Museum Mingei In Tokyo, Sōetsu Yanagi opened the Korean People's Museum in Korea in 1924, dedicated to the preservation of Korean art. For Sōetsu Yanagi, the Museum Mingei (Mingei-kan) is not just an exhibition space. It aims to highlight the beauty of objects. The exhibition is in itself an art and a creation. At the same time, the magazine entitled Mingei, which served as both a means of communication and archiving.

Japan Folk Crafts Museum. Tokyo.

Shōji Hamada Memorial Museum. Mashiko.

To ensure that the movement did not remain purely theoretical, artists played an essential role in the revaluation of traditional objects. Mingei was supported by the artists, who themselves possessed the know-how and scientific techniques.

Le Mingei has been making a comeback in recent years, marking the inextricable links between design, modern art and crafts. In 2008-2009, the exhibition was held at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris The Mingei Spirit in Japan. From Folk Crafts to Design. In 2019, Naoto Fukasawa was appointed director of the Museum Nihon Mingei-kan (日本民藝館) in Tokyo in 2012, organized an exhibition highlighting the link between Mingei with contemporary design. In the winter of 2022, the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo organized a major exhibition on the occasion of the sixtieth anniversary of Sōetsu Yanagi's death.

The first wave of interest in the Mingei spans from the 1950s to the 1970s. At that time, the term was overused and used in the sense of “souvenir”. This trivialization of the term led to a loss of its original meaning, which aimed to promote everyday craft objects as authentic expressions of Japanese folk art. A second wave began in the early 2000s. Researcher Takashi Kurada, in his book Mingei Privacy, explains that the revival that the movement is experiencing today is of a completely different magnitude. According to him, this renaissance is accompanied by a profound reevaluation of the aesthetic and cultural values ​​associated with the Mingei, reflecting a contemporary desire to reconnect with authentic traditions and rediscover beauty in everyday utilitarian objects.

Towards the end of his life, Sōetsu Yanagi wrote several works on Buddhist aesthetics. From an early age, his thinking was deeply rooted in the salvific role of beauty. He dreamed of building a paradise of beauty on earth, a paradise filled with the beauty of everyday objects.

Mokujikibutsu. Cypress wood.

Poster of the Mingei exhibition at the Musée du Quai Branly in 2008.

Poster for the centenary of Mingei at the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in 2021.

The intimacy of Takashi Kurada's Mingei.

“A good utensil invites love. It connects human to humanity, and humanity to nature.”

Soetsu Yanagi, The Beauty of Everyday Things.