Visited The Japan Folk Craft Museum, Osaka (Nippon Mingeikan)

I visited the Japan Folk Craft Museum, Osaka (Nippon Mingeikan), located in the Banpaku Memorial Park. I've been into Japanese folk craft so much lately. I like the idea of Mingei which Soetsu Yanagi advocated.

The concept of mingei (民芸), variously translated into English as "folk craft", "folk art" or "popular art", was developed from the mid-1920s in Japan by a philosopher and aesthete, Yanagi Sōetsu (1889–1961), together with a group of craftsmen, including the potters Hamada Shōji (1894–1978) and Kawai Kanjirō (1890–1966). As such, it was a conscious attempt to distinguish ordinary crafts and functional utensils (pottery, lacquerware, textiles, and so on) from "higher" forms of art – at the time much admired by people during a period when Japan was going through rapid westernisation, industrialisation, and urban growth. In some ways, therefore, mingei may be seen as a reaction to Japan's rapid modernisation processes.

Mingei Wikipedia

I love the idea that it tries to find beauty in everyday life and gives spotlights to millions of unknown creators. I feel that the Japanese cultural mindset lies in the heart of Mingei and the series of folk crafts.

So I have been to The Japan Folk Crafts Museum two times,

the Mingei exhibition (“100 Years of Mingei”) in 2021,

Tohoku Exhibition (“Eyes on Tohoku”) in Morioka, which included lots of folk crafts,

Tohoku Exhibition (Eyes on Tohoku) in 2022

And Shizuoka City Serizawa Keisuke Art Museum.

The Japan Folk Craft Museum Osaka is the base of folk craft culture in the west. It was originally established as one of the pavilions of the Japan World Exposition, Osaka, back in 1970. The objective was to introduce the beauty of Mingei to the world, and it continues today.

The exhibition at that time I visited featured Shoji Hamada, who was the first director of this museum. I had only known his name until the visit and learned that he was also a wonderful creator. His art pieces, especially dozens of pottery, were surely beautiful yet had the warmth of handcraft.

I also really loved the museum shop, featuring many pieces of beautiful pottery, textiles, woodwork, lacquers, baskets, etc. You can visit the museum shop without purchasing museum tickets, and I felt it would be worth a visit to just shop here.

The Japan folk crafts museum, Osaka

https://www.mingeikan-osaka.or.jp/en/info/

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