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Japan Folk Crafts Museum
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Address: 4-3-33 Komaba, Meguro-ku
| About Museum |
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The private museum of Japan folk craft known as Nihon Mingeikan
is situated on a quiet street in the picturesque surroundings
of the Komada district. The beautiful traditional Japanese building
of the museum stands out at the background of newer high-tech
architectural constructions. The building with a black-tiled
roof and a white stucco exterior is itself worthy of notice.
It was completed in 1936 to the project of Muneyoshi Yanagi.
Across the street, there is a nagayamon (long gatehouse) of
the 19th century that was brought here bit by bit from Tochigi
Prefecture.
The museum was opened on October 24, 1936 thanks to the efforts
of Muneyoshi (Soetsu) Yanagi (1889- 1961), an aesthetic, philosopher
and writer, who exposed to the whole world previously ignored
art form - the objects of everyday use made by anonymous artists.
The term "mingei" was introduced by Yanagi Soetsu
to refer to works of folk craft that had been replaced by soulless
cheap mass-produced products. In his book "The Unknown
Craftsman" the founder of the Mingei movement stated the
principles of his aesthetic and examined the Japanese way of
viewing and appreciating beauty in everyday craft objects. He
thought that because of industrial revolution something very
important had been lost - the human touch and spirit. From his
point of view, the beauty and daily life isn't something incompatible.
On the contrary, the human life in each its manifestations should
be filled with spirituality and beauty. Muneyoshi Yanagi traveled
a lot around the country buying everyday objects and looking
for the masters of old crafts. He had set criteria for mingei
objects: they should be anonymous, produced by hand for everyday
use and representative of the region in which they were made.
Due to the Mingei movement that soon had become very popular
and won a lot of supporters, many traditions of craft have been
preserved.
The museum possesses the collection of over 170,000 items made
by ordinary craftsmen mainly from Japan. The collection includes
pottery, textiles, metal work, lacquer ware, woodwork, bamboo
work, stone work, paintings, glass, leather work, straw work,
and dolls from Japan, China and Korea. Most of them are dated
from the 15th to the 18th century.
The museum has been recently renovated. Needless to say, that
only folk technique was used during the reconstruction. For
example, the nagayamon's sixty-ton roof, made exclusively from
a special stone called oyaishi mined not far from Mashiko, needed
urgent renovation work. Only two craftsmen in Japan had the
skills to redo the unique roof. The Mingeikan staff managed
to persuade them to come to Tokyo and not only to restore the
roof, but also to train younger workers in the process - thus
another important aspect of the mingei philosophy was realized
- the succession of the tradition.
To enter the building, you have to remove your shoes like in
any traditional Japanese house. Inside the museum features the
home-like atmosphere, maybe because of the "warm"
wallpapers made of kuzu, Japanese arrowroot. So the visiting
of the museum is like visiting your old friend house, where
you're showed private collection - the pride of the hospitable
host.
There is a gift shop in the museum, where you can buy ceramics,
lacquer bowls, sleek cutlery, and many other traditional souvenirs
and to take home the object made with the cordiality and love.
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