Mingei
民藝 / 1926– / Style / Craft Movements
The movement in which Yanagi Sōetsu and his circle found 'the beauty of use' in the everyday wares of unnamed craftsmen — anonymity, repetition and utility as the measure of healthy form, the bedrock of Japanese design thought.
Anonymous craftsmanship / Form following use / The steadiness born of repetition / Local materials and hand habits
Dictionary entry
- Best used for
- Comparing primary sources and canonical works · Extracting principles that transfer to other media
- Type
- Observe the letters, signs and scale of reference works
- Composition
- Extract the one structure that governs gaze and information
- Material
- Verify the materials and behaviors specific to era, region and process
- Caution
- Don't reduce it to surface signs. Verify the context of era, region, technology and makers.
- Further study
- Yanagi Sōetsu, The Way of Crafts / Hamada, Kawai and Bernard Leach / the tension between mingei and modern design