Traditional Crafts of Japan

April 14, 2005 9:12 PM

Traditional Crafts of Japan is an incredibly detailed web site maintained by the Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries of Japan. It covers textiles, pottery, wood, metals, stationary and even tea whisks! It also includes detailed explanations of the background of each individual craft, in depth descriptions of production processes for each item, photo galleries for each product, contact information for manufacturers, interviews with craftsmen, tourist spots to visit in Japan to see each of the crafts being practiced and even quick time videos of these master craftsman at work. Truly a must see for anyone into anything old world Japanese.
posted by grandcrewno2 (5 comments total)

I'm not even into anything old world Japanese, per se, but this is good.
posted by blendor at 10:43 PM on April 14, 2005

I'm inspired to haiku:

Gorgeous stuff, really beautiful.
Unfortunate, the images aren't larger.
posted by scheptech at 10:59 PM on April 14, 2005

Those suzumi are cool as hell. Anybody know where I can order one (non-antique) online?
posted by GooseOnTheLoose at 1:45 AM on April 15, 2005

Fabulous content. Indeed, the pictures could be bigger, and the site could be a tad less rigidly designed. Still, an amazing find!

I found a google image search was an ok way to browse the site.
posted by Turtle at 10:17 AM on April 15, 2005 [1 favorite]

A truly wonderful site, grandcrewno2. Thanks for posting it. It is interesting to contemplate how much our appreciation for so many of life's beautiful things would grow if more artisans were to share there love of what they do in such a manner. For example, prior to learning about Higo Inlay I might have seen one and considered it to be costume jewelry. To understand the amount of work and learning that has gone into creating one of these pieces takes it to a whole new dimension.
posted by RMALCOLM at 5:15 PM on April 15, 2005