Tokyo

Living Mingei: The Pursuit of Absolute Beauty

 

Cultural News, 2008 July Issue

 

The Mingeikan (The Japan Folk Crafts Museum) in Tokyo.

 

By Yuko Itastu

 

TOKYO - What exactly is the definition of “beautiful art”? Technical refinement? The reputation of the artist? Historical significance? Rarity? The Mingeikan (The Japan Folk Crafts Museum) in Tokyo provides one answer to this question.

 

  Yanagi Soetsu (or Muneyoshi), the founder of the mingei movement and the museum, defined it by stripping all of the excess and finding beauty by instinct. “Intuitive aesthetic value” is the only criterion at this museum. The mingei movement represents those who sought beauty in daily objects made by anonymous craftsmen that was beginning to be depreciated, due to the increase of cheap goods mass-produced and spewed out from industrial factories.

 

  The museum was founded in 1936 by Yanagi (1889-1961) along with his comrades master potters Hamada Shoji, and Kawai Kanjiro. Yanagi demonstrated what it means to eat, breathe, and sleep mingei by designing the museum building, and living in an annexed historical residence relocated from Tochigi.

 

  British potter Bernard Leach was Hamada’s student and founding member of the movement, who was instrumental in germinating the mingei aesthetics overseas through his English translations.

 

  While the exhibition includes potteries by Yanagi, Hamada, Leach, woodblock prints by Munakata Shiko, and other well-known artists, what is more captivating are the potteries, drawings, and textiles by nameless craftsmen from the Edo period to the early 20th century. Yanagi argues that this museum was the first of its kind that was specifically built to showcase objects of a particular aesthetic value. The effect is astonishing.

 

   The museum is currently showing a special exhibit of the works by master potter Shoji Hamada (1894-1978) commemorating the 30th anniversary of his passing.

 

   Mingeikan is a hidden gem just a few minutes from the ultra-modern fast-pace of Shibuya. Open Tue-Sun 10-5, adult admission 1,000yen. Seven-minute walk from the West gate at Komaba Todai-mae Station on the Inogashira-line. Two stops from Shibuya. For more info: www.mingeikan.or.jp

 

   Yuko Itatsu is a Ph.D. Candidate in History at the University of Southern California and Project Assistant Professor at the University of Tokyo, Japan.