哲学

Mingei

Japanese: 民藝

A term coined in 1925 by Muneyoshi Yanagi (1889–1961) to refer to folk crafts. It involves discovering beauty tied to practicality (the “beauty of utility”) in the everyday items created by anonymous artisans for their daily lives. Together with Kanjiro Kawai, Shoji Hamada, and others, he launched the Mingei Movement and established the Japan Mingei Museum in Komaba, Tokyo, in 1936. He believed that wholesome beauty resides not in expensive works of art, but in everyday utensils crafted with a pure, unpretentious spirit. This is one of the sources of Rei Chikaoka’s artistic philosophy.

This entry is written in Japanese by Rei Chikaoka and translated for readers outside Japan. If something reads oddly, the original is the source of truth.