Japan: Kawai Kanjiro

While in Kyoto, I had the chance to visit the home-studio of the Japanese craftsman Kawai Kanjiro.

Kawai Kanjiro was a poet, potter, philosopher, and leader of the Mingei Craft Movement. In 1911, he made the acquaintance of Bernard Leach, the esteemed English potter, when he was visiting Japan. The meeting inspired him to set up his own kiln in Gojo-Zaka, Kyoto, where he began exhibiting works inspired by Chinese and Korean slip techniques.

(One of the unsung stories of Japanese aesthetics is that many of the things we think of as quintessentially Japanese are, in fact, imported and borrowed from neighboring Asiatic cultures, namely: Korea, China, and Indonesia. Tea ceremony, bonsai, wabi-sabi, and even Mingei pottery are all traditions that were imported and refined from other neighboring cultures.)

Like many artistically-minded spirits, as his work grew in popularity he became more and more dissatisfied with his body of work. Succumbing to what we would now label a period of depression, he became something of recluse for three years. His output slowed to a trickle and he largely receded from public life.

In 1936, he re-emerged from his hermitage to collaborate with Soetsu Yanagi and Hamada Shoji on the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, a domestic-museum dedicated to the preservation and exhibition of works that articulate the Mingei philosophy.

The Mingei Craft Movement pitted itself against “high art” by celebrating vernacular, quotidian aesthetics. It adheres to several key principles, which comprise a manifesto of sorts. While never expressly published as such, these principles are distilled from the writings and teachings of the aforementioned leaders of the movement: Kanjiro, Yanagi, and Shoji. They are as follows:

1. Beauty Resides in Functional Objects:

   Objects should be made for daily use, not decoration or display. Beauty is enhanced by wear, touch, and frequent interaction.

   • “An object is most beautiful when it is most useful.”
     
     —Mingei Philosophy

2. Hand-Made > Machine-Made; Imperfect > Perfect:

   Mingei objects are to be made by hand by artisans using traditional tools, not complex assembly lines. Their final form ought to be simple, imperfect, and unpretentious; irregularities are not flaws, but signs of life, process, and sincerity.

   • “When machines are in control, the beauty they produce is cold and shallow. It is the human hand that creates subtlety and warmth.”
     
     — Soetsu Yanagi, The Beauty of Everyday Things

3. Cultivate the Anonymity of the Maker

   Honest work is unsigned and made by unknown craftspeople, not capital-A artists. The focus of craft ought to be revealing the integrity of the object, not stroking the ego of its maker.

   • “I don’t want to be famous. I just want to be a worker among workers.”
     
     —Kawai Kanjiro

4. Craft is for the People:

   Mingei objects should be made for ordinary people, not elites. Luxury for luxury’s sake is anathema, as beauty is naturally democratic. Objects should be priced affordably and made accessible.

   • “Society cannot be proud when a product is available only to a select few. Equating the expensive with the beautiful cannot be a point of pride.”
     
     — Soetsu Yanagi, The Beauty of Everyday Things

5. Preserve Cultural Heritage from Threats of Modernization:

   Japan’s soul lies in the hands of rural artisans. The effects of Western modernization are deleterious to those of regional crafts. Its influence must be resisted.

   • “When tradition dies, so too does the meaning of beauty.”
     
     — Soetsu Yanagi

6. Foster Spiritual & Moral Integrity:

   Being a craftsperson is a spiritual practice first, a commercial endeavor second. Humility, sincerity, and devotion are as important, if not more important, than skill and talent.

   • “The path of crafts is not in pursuit of fame or money, but in pursuit of truth.”
     
     —Soetsu Yanagi

As I recalled these principles while roaming the grounds of Kanjiro’s compound, admiring the beautiful examples of raku pottery, it struck me that aspects of the Mingei craft movement and Japanese philosophy undergird the modern hipster ethos in the West. The emphasis on craft, quality, slow- and small-batch production all hearken back to the Mingei movement. There are of course historical examples of Western equivalent philosophies: the arts and crafts movement in Europe, American folkart, etc. But in their modern instantiation, the Japanese influence is evident in the appropriation of Japanese color-palette (beige, brown, black, white, navy), asymmetrical composition, and sparse styling.

However, there remain three key areas of differentiation.

1. We still struggle to divorce craft from commerce.

2. We still struggle to separate the practice of making from the ego of the maker.

3. We still struggle to cultivate taste independent of class.

While I encouraged by the turn towards traditions that question , I can’t help but feel we’re missing something essential as we continue to borrow liberally from other cultures. When we use meditation as an antidote to commercial noise, Yoga as a panacea for overwork, and matcha as an healthier alternative to coffee, it is as if with each swap that we forget to import the spiritual essence intrinsic to the cribbed tradition.

Perhaps that’s why we need spaces like Kawai Kanjiro’s home-studio, or the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, to instill in us the spirit behind the aesthetic.

—

Shortly after the museum’s completion, Kanjiro redesigned his house, using the same humble materials and local traditions he observed in Japan’s rural cottages. He then devoted himself to writing books, essays, and poetry, while continuing to create ever more expressive pots for personal use in his own home.

He died on November 18, 1966, but his home, a public museum, stands as a living testament to the enduring strength of his artistic spirit and vision.