About

From Craft to Kōgei
Masahiro Karasawa, Chief Curator of Kogei, Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art

In 2013, the Nihon Kōgei Kai (Japan Crafts ‘Kōgei’ Association) organized the commemorative 60th exhibition of Japanese traditional crafts exhibition “From Craft to Kōgei” at the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art Crafts Gallery, sponsored by the Ministry of Cultural Affairs and newspapers. Since that exhibition, whenever the word “kōgei” is translated into English, rather than using the word “craft,” the use of word kōgei, written in Romanized letters of the Japanese alphabet, has been …