Crafting Life: Stories from the Japanese Studio

Crafting Life: Stories from the Japanese Studio explores Japanese craft from a fresh perspective, highlighting its dynamism and resilience.

Far from static, Japanese craft practices have always adapted to a network of variables, including access to materials, shifting patronage, intergenerational learning, and environmental challenges, including natural disasters. The ability of craft practitioners to innovate while valuing the tacit knowledge underpinning their traditions has ensured their continued relevance in contemporary Japan, and their esteem worldwide.

This exhibition showcases three craft practices from different regions of Japan, including a ceramic artist from Karatsu (Yukiko Tsuchiya), a maki-e lacquerware company originally from Wajima, now based in Kanazawa (Hikoju Maki-e Co. Ltd.), and a sashiko needlework collective turned ‘brand’ from Ōtsuchi (Ōtsuchi Sashiko).

Their distinct practices and stories reflect the diverse contexts through which Japanese craft traditions are expressed today, in objects of rare mastery, prized for their precious materials and technical expertise, through to garments or vessels of everyday functional beauty, by those new to craft practice, developing craft traditions in fresh and meaningful ways.

Historically close to special patronage networks, these practices are now finding fresh collaborations with markets that value the handmade, including bespoke fashion and fine dining. In this way, Crafting Life foregrounds the stories of these makers, highlighting their distinct yet complementary concerns, and inviting reflection on the role of creative adaptation in maintaining the currency of craft practices, in Japan and beyond.

Crafting Life: Stories from the Japanese Studio will be held at The Japan Foundation Gallery from April 11 to September 27, 2025.

Photos by Docqment Photography