Field of Craft Kurashiki 2024 (held May 11 and 12, 2024) 〜 An outdoor craft exhibition where makers and users can freely exchange

Don’t you want to choose the tools you use in your everyday life by seeing and touching them yourself?

In Kurashiki, every year during the season of fresh green leaves, the outdoor craft fair “Field of Craft Kurashiki” is held, where makers and users can freely exchange.

In 2024, it was held over two days, May 11–12, in front of Geibunkan Hall.

Here’s a report on Field of Craft Kurashiki, where makers say, “We exhibit because it’s held in Kurashiki.”

The information provided was current when this article was published in June 2024. Please note that it may differ from current information.

What Is Field of Craft Kurashiki 2024?

Field of Craft Kurashiki is held once a year with the aim of “holding an outdoor craft fair where makers and users can freely exchange, and helping many people learn about craft works and the background of how they are made.”

In 2024, 76 exhibitors of ceramics, glass, and other works from as far east as the Kanto region and as far west as Kyushu, 9 workshops, and 15 food vendors (including exhibitors participating for just one day) took part.

Artists gather from all over Japan, not just the area around Kurashiki City, so it’s a chance to find a favorite one-of-a-kind item that’s usually hard to get, or some delicious food.

See the images below for details about the exhibitors.

I visited the venue on the morning of the first day, May 11.

The venue had only just opened, but it was already packed with people.

It seems that people who came to buy a particular item they had their eye on were forming long lines.

Encounters with Artists and Their Works

Since many of the exhibiting artists are at their own booths, the event also serves as a valuable opportunity for makers and users of handmade goods to meet face to face and communicate directly.

Because handmade tools are things we use in everyday life, we want to actually pick them up and touch them, and, through conversations with their makers, consider how we might incorporate them into different aspects of our lives.

Every visitor picked up works they liked with excited expressions and enjoyed talking with the makers.

I also reunited with a ceramic artist I had met a few years ago at a pottery fair in Mashiko, Tochigi Prefecture.

They told me, “Perhaps because Kurashiki has a history of a thriving Mingei movement, many people here incorporate the handmade work of artists like us into their everyday lives. That’s why we actively take part whenever an event is held in Kurashiki.” As a Kurashiki City resident, I was very happy to hear that.

Encounters with Making Things

Every handmade tool has a story behind its creation, as well as the maker’s thoughts.

With the aim of showing that “what is commonplace to makers can be a fresh surprise to users,” the event featured not only works for display and sale, but also displays of tools and production processes, demonstrations of making and using items, and workshops where visitors could experience making things.

Many of the workshops were suitable for children, and lots of people took part with their parents.

I also spoke with a maker running a workshop, who said, “We usually work quietly in our studio, so it’s really refreshing to have people show interest in our handmade work and to work with our hands in the pleasant outdoors.”

It’s a wonderful initiative that offers new discoveries for both makers and users.

Encounters with Delicious Food

On the first day, the weather was so warm that it made us sweat, despite it being May, and long lines formed at the food vendors selling shaved ice, iced coffee, craft beer, and other cold drinks.

A rest area was set up beneath the wisteria trellis in front of Geibunkan Hall, where visitors could enjoy their meals out of the direct sunlight.

Some people brought picnic mats and enjoyed food and drinks at their own pace in a spot of their choosing, or showed each other the works they had bought, creating a very relaxed atmosphere.

From the Writer

I moved to Kurashiki from the Kanto region in December 2023.

As someone who enjoys visiting exhibitions and select shops, I think I had some lingering anxiety that moving to Kurashiki, far from the Kanto region—often described as a “cultural hub”—would leave me behind when it came to the latest culture.

But one of the artists I met at Field of Craft Kurashiki 2024 told me, “If an event where makers and users can meet is held in Kurashiki, we’ll always come with our work,” and the feeling of impatience I’d had seemed to melt away.

It was an event that made me feel, “I want to keep moving through each day, savoring each piece of handcraft that comes to Kurashiki and each piece made here in Kurashiki.”

I’m already looking forward to meeting many more makers and their work in Kurashiki next year, too, in the pleasant season of fresh green leaves.