When I’m asked about my interest in craftsmanship, especially that of Japan, I explain that at its core is the fact that circular principles are inherently baked in. Modern designers rightly focus on using sustainable materials, reducing waste, ensuring repairability, and promoting recycling. Japanese crafts go beyond this, intertwining material sustainability with social systems and…

June Online meeting with our Craft Leaders Group (winners from our contests so far) to update new programs and discuss the February 2025 Exhibition in Ginza. Sponsored a public event in Tokyo on swordsmanship featuring a 500-year-old martial arts group. We secured a permanent exhibition space for our Craft Leaders at The Terminal Kyoto, a…

I’m Gian and thought it was appropriate to re-introduce myself to the hundreds of new subscribers who have joined in the last few months (welcome and thank you!). When I started The Craftsman Newsletter in 2017 it was about recommending craft-related objects and people I encountered through my frequent travels. In time it evolved into original long-form…

Ceramics and tea culture are both close to my heart so when Hosai Matsubayashi XVI invited me to practise pottery at Asahiyaki it felt like a dream come true. In November 2023 I embarked on a research trip to Japan for my book on what we could learn from Japanese craftspeople, shokunin, to improve how we…

Alongside the first-time English publication of his essays, an exhibition on the Mono-ha artist surveys his extensive work on the medium. Kishio Suga’s sculptures and installations are muted, simple in their elements. But after close observation, one may notice the hidden truths of our surroundings beginning to articulate themselves. An exhibition running from January 15…

Inherited from tales by Buddhist preachers and now secularised, this solo performance involves a storyteller making the audience laugh. Rakugo, which literally translates as ‘art of fallen words’, is making a comeback on Japanese stages. Dating back to the 17th century and originating from Buddhist tradition, rakugo experienced its heyday in the Meiji era (1868-1912) and particularly…

The white star is particularly celebrated in Japan and has inspired various artists, whose works are featured in this leporello. The moon occupies a special place in Japanese society, one that Anne Sefrioui’s book, La lune par les grands maîtres de l’estampe (‘The Moon by the Great Printing Masters’), seeks to examine. This set, made up of…

You can tell that September was the busiest time at work when all I could manage to write about was putting tomatoes on handmade ceramic plates and sharing daily Instagram Stories about preparing matcha (抹茶, Japanese powdered green tea) in a proper teabowl using a bamboo whisk. Truth is, these things were a palliative to a hectic period. Running…

‘Are you a collector or a maker?’ a chatty chap asked me during a ceramics exhibition months ago. He then went on to tell me how proud he was of his Japanese collection. ‘I’m a user’ I uttered without too much thought, and my answer has been lingering in the back of my mind ever…

My interest in Korean ceramics had been growing over the years, at first  as a way to better understand its Japanese counterpart, and later based on its own merit. While Japanese emperors, aristocrats and rulers like Toyotomi Hideshoshi had a penchant for karamono, elegant and luxurious tea wares and other objects originating in China, it…