Exploring differences and finding similarities – Craft traditions in Japan
I recently went to Japan for holidays. It was my first solo trip of over two weeks in a country so far and so different to where I live. And the good thing about a solo trip is that you can do anything and everything as you please. For me, this means exploring knitting and fabric shops in areas ‘off the beaten track’, going to craft museums and participating in creative workshops. I came back with a better understanding of Japanese crafts and finding connections I didn’t expect before.
In Japan, the crafting tradition is everywhere.
You can experience the deep history of the country and its crafts in public spaces, such as parks, streets or squares, in more or less specialized shops, or in cafes, restaurants and even hotel rooms. The variety is simply astounding and ranges from textiles to stone-, metal- and woodwork, to paper, pottery and ceramics. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I am interested in it all, so believe me when I say, in Japan – I came to the right place.
Japan has one of the oldest ceramic traditions in the world. As early as 10,500 BC Japanese craftspeople produced pottery.1 I learned that Japanese fabrics tend(ed) to be mostly natural, like silk, hemp and cotton. They also used the same word (asa) for both hemp and linen.2 Nowadays, the Japanese Ministry of Economy holds an official list of traditional crafts of Japan, which need to adhere to certain principles, such as (1) produced for everyday use, (2) handmade, and (3) using traditional techniques.3
A treasure trove of information for me in this regard was the Ishikawa Prefectural Museum of Traditional Arts and Crafts in Kanazawa. I stumbled into it more by coincidence, but it ended up becoming one of the highlights of my trip. It displays a wide array of traditional and historic craft products and the museum shop is stocked with modern versions of it. But what I appreciated the most were the illustrations of different processes, like embroidery or lacquerware.
Perfect, yet handmade
I often found that restaurants, for example, would only serve a couple of dishes but would do those really, really well. The Japanese are known for working a long time to improve every single aspect of a dish to end up with a final result that is simply perfect. This mentality is deeply ingrained across all other crafting traditions, too. Striving (and succeeding in my non-expert eyes!) to create the perfect matcha bowl or shibori-dyed fabric requires a level of commitment and time dedication that impressed me deeply.
However, what also struck me, was that while the handle on a mug or the stitching on an embroidery were impeccable, the pieces still had that handmade character about them. It happened to me a few times, for example, that I picked up a lacquered bowl and wondered if it was mass-produced or handmade due to the level of evenness and sheer perfection. (Usually, the price was a good indication though!) This combination of perfection without losing the ‘handmadeness’ truly inspired me.
Diving into the crafts myself
As there is so much to discover, I joined a few craft workshops both to learn more about traditional Japanese crafting and to nurture my creative heart.
Sashiko (embroidery) is used to repair holes or general wear and tear in textiles. Normally using a simple running stitch, the area is made stronger with multiple threads, beautiful patterns and colour play.
Kintsugi is the process of fixing broken pottery, porcelain, wood, etc — everything that is not plastic can be fixed. The breakage is later adorned with gold or silver and treated as part of the history of the object rather than something to hide.
Washi is traditional Japanese paper, which is processed by hand, using fibers from trees and shrubs native to Japan.
The workshops offered me a closer look into both the crafting and the culture. I am a learner by doing, and so they provided me with a way of diving into Japanese culture, while doing crafty things I know I always enjoy. It is also a great way to connect with a local expert as well as other participants, most of whom are also crafty at home and thus my kind of people anyway!
I also enjoyed a lot that these workshops gave me an escape from the ‘tourist everyday life’. While it is very rewarding to travel, it can be mentally draining, especially traveling solo, to always be switched on and planning the next meal, the next day, the next stop. It felt amazing to work with my hands and truly focus on learning a new technique – giving my racing mind a break.
I left all workshops with a deeper understanding of the crafts. What they all have in common is that the initial goal is to mend and reuse what you already have.
The idea is to repair and strengthen a piece first, but adorning it, too.
Sustainability is inherent in these traditions. It reminds me of how maybe our grandparents’ generation used to approach these things as well. Fix what you own rather than buying something new.
Sustainability as a key driver to learn knitting
Knitting being my ultimate (first) love, I of course had to also check out a few yarn shops. I visited the Daruma Store and Amimono Spin in Tokyo as well as the Walnut shop in Kyoto.
While there is a strong crafting history in Japan, a new generation of yarn lovers are taking up activities like knitting in troves. According to the shop assistants I met at Walnut Kyoto, young people cite sustainability and the environment as reasons to learn knitting. Picking up knitting needles also gives them the freedom to create their own clothes and reject the fast fashion found in many stores around Japan. How amazing that these sentiments seem to be a global phenomenon!
The lovely salesperson of Daruma echoed this sentiment. She is completely self-taught and recalled learning knitting through books and YouTube. According to her, there is not really a predominant age group. They have all older, younger, locals and tourists visiting the shop. There is, however, a very strong tilt towards female customers and men are only a few.
Lastly, I have to say that some of the yarn I saw in the shops in Japan is so unlike anything I have ever seen in Europe. The colours were really what struck me the most. But also, the softness of some yarn qualities was beyond me. (Of course, I didn’t leave any of the shops without a little something, but lucky for me, most of them ship worldwide!)
Crafting traditions become the future
Japan’s crafting traditions go back centuries. The fact that they are still relevant nowadays is a testament to the quality as well as adaptability of the products and craftspeople behind them. The idea to make something more beautiful while repairing it, will be key to get more people on board with sustainability in our day and age, I think.
Younger generations calling on sustainability and rejecting fast fashion to take up slow crafts like knitting sounds very similar to narratives over here and other places of the world. I tremendously enjoyed finding out about the similarities across the world and look forward to finding more elsewhere.
It gives me hope that the world or at least the community I feel a part of is moving into the right direction. We can use globalization to our advantage if we learn crafting traditions from each other - across borders, across generations, across techniques. Sustainability can connect us, rather than divide us.