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Concepts and Movements

Mingei

MIN-gay
Also Known As Folk craft movement

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Bowl with a Brushstroke

The Japanese folk craft movement, built on Yanagi Soetsu's claim that true beauty lives in ordinary objects made anonymously, by hand, in quantity, for daily use. Developed in the mid 1920s with the potters Hamada Shoji and Kawai Kanjiro, it gave the world a vocabulary for honoring the unknown craftsman.

Facts
Origin Year
1925 1
Origin
The word mingei, folk craft, was coined in 1925 by Yanagi Soetsu with Hamada Shoji and Kawai Kanjiro 1
Cross-Tradition Connections

Associated With

Shoji Hamada, Figures

Hamada co-coined the word and was the movement's leading potter

Developed By

Sources
1. Mingei (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationOrigins section
Quote, Origins section
the phrase that they coined to describe the craftsman's work was mingei (民藝)
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1. Mingei (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia FoundationTheory section
Quote, Theory section
beauty was to be found in ordinary and utilitarian everyday objects made by nameless and unknown craftsmen
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