Japan's living craft

Explores an extensive range of traditional Japanese folk art. Originally created to fulfill the needs of daily life, this work has survived the centuries to become an integral part of Modern Japanese culture. The artisans, considered living cultural treasures by the Japanese government, let their imaginations work in many media and styles. Each craft has its highly developed skill and each its own set of tools, often made by the artisan. Includes ceramics, iron casting, dyeing and weaving of delicate cloth, construction of paper dolls and the creation of lacquerware. Shows that the traditional loom, less efficient and more cumbersome than its mechanised counterpart, is incomparable when it comes to making material. An incredibly dextrous woman, nearly blinded by age, work nimbly and painstakingly at the loosening of long ramie fibres in order to make one long continuous thread. Also shows the cutting of patterns for the dyeing of fabrics; the powdered gold and silver creations of ‘makie’ lacquerware; the many and varied ideaas created for kimono fabrics.