A Japanese Insight into Beauty

The Unknown Crafstman, A Japanese Insight into Beauty by Soetsu Yanagi

Soetsu Yanagi
Soetsu Yanagi is de grondlegger van de Mingei, een beweging die handwerk en volkskunst in ere wilde herstellen in Japan. Hij werd geboren in 1889 en stierf in mei 1961. In 1936 stichtte hij het Folk Crafts Museum in Tokyo. Yanagi is de auteur van onder andere The Unknown Crafstman, A Japanese Insight into Beauty.

Passages uit The Unknown Craftsman
“ Fundamentally, human beings, whether Eastern or Western, need belief, free play of imagination and intuition in their homes and workpshops or they become starved. (...) It is for lack of such essentials that we turn to dope of some kind or another, or to destructiveness. Basically the craft movement is not so much a revolution against science and the machine as a seeking of a means of counterbalance by employing man's first tools, his own hands, for the expression of his inner nature.”

Introduction by Shoji Hamada of The unknown Craftsman
by Soetsu Yanagi

"People judge whether a thing is new or old, but more important is whether it is true or false. If true, it will always preserve its newness."

The unknown Craftsman
by Soetsu Yanagi

Meer informatie:
MIN GEI KAN Folk Crafts Museum