From Local to Global

Japan Handmade is a joint collaboration between six crafts companies from Kyoto that apply traditional crafts to new designs aimed at the international market. Japan Handmade embraces a playful approach and is guided by a bold ambition to explore new design typologies and introduce the world to the tactile pleasure, poetry and soul of Japanese design.

It all started as a government-sponsored initiative in 2012 when the six crafts companies – Kaikado, Hosoo, Kanaami-Tsuji, Kohchosai Kosuga, Asahiyaki and Nakagawa Mokkougei – teamed up with OEO Studio to create the umbrella brand Japan Handmade, which aimed to bring new, revitalised life to their unique heritage products that all draw on the time-honoured traditions of Kyoto craftsmanship within ceramics, metal weaving and teaware as well as wood, bamboo crafting and textile.

The world was first offered a glimpse of Japan Handmade at Maison&Objet Paris in 2013, which experienced impressive international media coverage. In 2015, the Ki-Oke Stool for Nakagawa Mokkougei and the Objects Collection for Kaikado were included in the permanent collection at the Toshiba Gallery at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. The Starry Indigo textile created for Hosoo was included in the permanent collection at the Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum in New York.

Year of completion: 2012