Serial: Auxiliary Lines for Things and People #12: Free 'MINGEI'
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PROFILE
Mai Tsunoo / Design Writer
After graduating from Keio University's Faculty of Environment and Information Studies, she worked for a manufacturer before becoming an assistant to design engineer Shunji Yamanaka from 2012 to 2016. After that, she spent a year in Scotland and is currently working as a freelancer. While exploring expressions to express what needs to be conveyed with ease, she writes for media such as "Nikkei Design" and also handles exhibition organization and copywriting. Her main projects include the composition of the Tokyo University Institute of Industrial Technology's 70th Anniversary Exhibition "Maybe the Future: Engineering x Design" (The National Art Center, Tokyo · 2018), and writing for the "Bug Exhibition – Role Model of Design" (21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, 2019). Instagram / Web
The "MINGEI – Beauty in Daily Life" exhibition (hereafter, "MINGEI Exhibition") is being held at Osaka Nakanoshima Museum of Art, famous for its black exterior. The "folk craft movement" was proposed around 100 years ago by Soetsu Yanagi, a potter, in a joint signature with Kenkichi Tomimoto (more commonly known as 'Tomimoto Kenkichi'), Kanjiro Kawai (more commonly known as 'Kawai Kanjiro'), and Shoji Hamada, in the "Purpose statement for the establishment of the Japan Folk Crafts Museum", a lifestyle culture movement. 'MINGEI' is an abbreviation for 'folk crafts'. The general explanation is that it was not just for aesthetic crafts, but rather about recognizing the beauty of the everyday handwork created by craftsmen.
To be honest, I have never fully understood Mingei. Of course, I am attracted to and interested in what are called Mingei crafts. However, I was not quite sure about the definition or the difference between crafts. In "民藝とは何か" by Soetsu Yanagi, there is a clear definition of Mingei. "Things that are used every day, daily essentials, and items directly necessary for daily life and living. These are what are called Mingei. Therefore, it's not rare, it's mass-produced, it's readily available, it's inexpensive, it's omnipresent – that's Mingei."
