crafts-skills
Mingei Movement
Image: Kamemaru2000 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0
Mingei Movement
Everyday objects. A modern way of seeing.
The Mingei movement (民藝運動, mingei undō) developed in the 1920s around the critic Yanagi Sōetsu, also known as Yanagi Muneyoshi, and the potters Hamada Shōji and Kawai Kanjirō. Mingei, usually translated as folk crafts, named a way of valuing everyday handmade objects, especially useful things made by craftspeople whose individual names were not recorded. The movement combined collecting, publishing, exhibitions and support for living production. It was not confined to Japan: Korean objects, British pottery and other traditions helped shape its outlook. Its history is most clearly understood by distinguishing the older objects it admired from the modern cultural movement that selected, interpreted and displayed them.
Use
Objects made for ordinary life.
Making
Materials, repetition and inherited skill.
Interpretation
Collectors, writing and museums.
At a glance
- Japanese name
- 民藝運動
- Term coined
- 1925
- Central figures
- Yanagi Sōetsu, Hamada Shōji and Kawai Kanjirō
- Museum landmark
- Japan Folk Crafts Museum, Tokyo, opened in 1936
- Characteristic objects
- Useful ceramics, textiles, woodwork and other handmade goods
01
An argument for the ordinary object
Mingei joined the idea of ordinary people with that of craft. Yanagi and his collaborators found aesthetic value in objects made for use rather than primarily for individual artistic display. Repeated work, familiarity with materials and inherited methods were central to this argument. Mingei is therefore an evaluative concept as well as a convenient label for a collection of things.
02
From encounters to an organised movement
Yanagi’s interest in Korean art preceded the naming of Mingei. He helped establish the Korean Folk Art Museum in Seoul in 1924. The term mingei was coined in 1925, followed by a museum prospectus in 1926 and the opening of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo in 1936. These milestones show an idea becoming an organised cultural project.
- 1924
- Korean Folk Art Museum established in Seoul.
- 1925
- Yanagi, Hamada and Kawai coin the term mingei.
- 1926
- A prospectus sets out plans for a folk crafts museum.
- 1936
- Japan Folk Crafts Museum opens in Komaba, Tokyo.
03
Materials, use and regional variety
The museum’s collections range from Japanese regional ceramics to textiles, wooden objects and Korean works. Tōhoku sashiko, Okinawan textiles and British slipware show why a single appearance cannot define Mingei. Comparing an object’s material, method and use is more informative than assuming all folk crafts are rustic, brown or undecorated.
- Material
- Clay, fibre, wood or other locally available resources.
- Making
- The repeated processes and acquired skills behind the object.
- Use
- The task the vessel, garment or implement was made to serve.
- Selection
- How collectors and museums later interpreted it.
04
Textiles and the survival of working knowledge
Rie Ishii’s study traces Yanagi’s interest in Japanese textiles from the 1920s, including collecting and research in Okinawa. Cloth made visible the relationship between everyday use, repeated skilled work and regional knowledge. The movement also sought to support new production, making preservation more than the accumulation of old objects. The conditions needed to sustain handwork remained a practical question.
05
Anonymous ideals and named artists
Mingei celebrated anonymous makers, yet prominent named artists helped establish and extend the movement. Hamada and Kawai were influential potters; Bernard Leach linked it with British studio pottery. The museum also holds work by Serizawa Keisuke and Munakata Shikō. This coexistence is part of its history: appreciation of inherited collective practice and the careers of individual artists developed together.
06
A movement that shaped how objects were seen
Collecting and exhibition changed the context of things originally made for ordinary use. A household vessel could become an example of an aesthetic argument or a museum object. Mingei’s ideals should therefore be attributed to the movement, rather than treated as the recorded intentions of every maker. Its international sources likewise matter: a purely national account would obscure the encounters through which its vision developed.
Sources
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