Kurashiki is home to many everyday items known as “folk crafts”, including Sakazu ware, Hashima ware, Kurashiki Glass, and dan-tsu (carpets).
I moved to Kurashiki from the Kanto region in December 2023, so I often show friends from outside the prefecture around the city. When I ask them which places in Kurashiki they would like to visit, they often say they want to go somewhere they can “learn about the history of folk crafts” or “actually handle folk craft items.”
Why did so many folk craft items come into being in Kurashiki, and how did the culture of incorporating them into everyday life become so widespread?
Let’s trace the history of how folk crafts took root in Kurashiki, starting with the folk craft movement.
Photography is normally prohibited inside the Ohara Museum of Art and Kurashiki Museum of Folkcraft. Special permission to take photographs was granted for this article.
The information provided was accurate when this article was published in October 2025. Please note that it may differ from current information.
Folk Crafts and Folkcrafts
The word “mingei” is a contraction of “minshuteki kogei,” meaning “crafts of the people,” and was coined by Yanagi Muneyoshi. Yanagi believed that objects used in everyday life possess a beauty rooted in their purpose—the “beauty of use”—and launched the folk craft movement with Kawai Kanjiro, Hamada Shoji, Tomimoto Kenkichi, and others.
They launched a movement to reappraise the value of locally made handicrafts that supported the everyday lives of ordinary people. Items recognized from this perspective, and whose production the movement sought to revive, came to be called “mingei” or “mingei items.”
Incidentally, although the Kurashiki Museum of Folkcraft in the Bikan Historical Area uses the characters for “Mingei” meaning “folk craft,” souvenir shops use different characters for the same term, but there does not seem to be much difference between them.
In this article, we will use “folk craft items” from here on.
Kurashiki and Folk Crafts
Ohara Magosaburo, a businessperson from Kurashiki also known as the founder of the Ohara Museum of Art, worked to share the appeal of local crafts with many people.
His encounter with Yanagi Muneyoshi led him to support the folk craft movement. As a result, works by people involved in the folk craft movement came to be exhibited at the Ohara Museum of Art, Craft and Oriental Art Gallery.
We spoke with Hasegawa Yuri, a curator at the Ohara Museum of Art Foundation, about the history of the Ohara family and folk crafts.
A place to collect and exhibit works by artists who also supported the folk craft movement
I heard that the Craft and Oriental Art Gallery at the Ohara Museum of Art exhibits works by artists who advocated the folk craft movement.
Hasegawa (surname only)
Ohara Magosaburo, founder of the Ohara Museum of Art, focused on supporting individual makers alongside his support for the folk craft movement.
Many supporters of the folk craft movement were active as artists. The Craft Gallery section of the Craft and Oriental Art Gallery (hereafter, “the Craft Gallery”) exhibits crafts by six artists who supported the folk craft movement, with each artist’s work displayed in a separate room.
| Artist | Genre |
|---|---|
| Hamada Shoji | Ceramics |
| Bernard Leach | Ceramics |
| Tomimoto Kenkichi | Ceramics |
| Kawai Kanjiro | Ceramics |
| Munakata Shiko | Woodblock prints |
| Serizawa Keisuke | Textiles |
Kurashiki also has the Kurashiki Museum of Folkcraft. Could you explain the respective roles of the Craft Gallery at the Ohara Museum of Art and the Kurashiki Museum of Folkcraft?
Hasegawa
The Craft Gallery at the Ohara Museum of Art opened in 1961, and the Kurashiki Museum of Folkcraft opened in 1948. In other words, the Kurashiki Museum of Folkcraft opened first.
Like the Japan Folk Crafts Museum, the Kurashiki Museum of Folkcraft exhibits folk craft items collected from around the world, as well as from Japan.
One of the roles of the Kurashiki Museum of Folkcraft is to exhibit “everyday items” that were, or still are, used in daily life.
The Craft Gallery at the Ohara Museum of Art, on the other hand, does not exhibit folk craft items.
Instead, it serves as a place to exhibit works by artists who supported the folk craft movement.
The works by artists exhibited in the Craft Gallery are treated as works of art, not folk craft items. Of course, they were influenced or inspired by folk craft items, but they are works of art rather than everyday items.
I think the artists themselves also understood that what they made were works of art, distinct from folk craft items.
The two museums have continued over the years, each exhibiting a distinct kind of work.
Ohara Magosaburo supported the folk craft movement
Could you tell us about the relationship between the Ohara Museum of Art and the folk craft movement?
Hasegawa
Even before the folk craft movement was advocated, Kurashiki was a city where people wanted to revive local pottery such as Sakazu ware.
For this reason, Ohara Magosaburo and his son Soichiro supported the folk craft movement.
In 1936, when the Japan Folk Crafts Museum in Komaba, Tokyo—the first folk craft museum in Japan—was established, Magosaburo also contributed to its construction costs.
Was there a particular event that prompted Magosaburo to support the folk craft movement?
Hasegawa
It is unclear exactly when, but it seems he had met Kawai Kanjiro by around 1930 at the latest. After that, he gradually deepened his friendships with supporters of the folk craft movement, including Yanagi Muneyoshi.
One story about Hamada Shoji is that Magosaburo was so impressed by the beauty of a teapot owned by Mihashi Tamami, the Ohara family’s personal physician, that he asked to acquire one of his works. Magosaburo did more than simply socialize with the artists whose work is exhibited in the Craft Gallery: he purchased their works, held exhibitions in Kurashiki, and supported their creative work.
He was probably first drawn to the artists’ works, then came to sympathize with the ideas of the folk craft movement, which led him to support it.
Continuing to discover and support contemporary craft artists
Does the Ohara Museum of Art still support craft artists?
And are there plans to exhibit works by new craft artists in the future?
Hasegawa
Of course.
In recent years, we held an exhibition of ceramic artist Tashima Etsuko’s work at Yurin-so Villa in 2004, and an exhibition of textile artist Yahata Harumi’s work at the Craft and Oriental Art Gallery in 2013.
We have no projects to announce at present, but I think there will be opportunities to create exhibitions with craft artists through the artist collaborative exchange projects carried out by the Ohara Museum of Art Foundation.
What are some highlights of the Craft Gallery at the Ohara Museum of Art?
Hasegawa
The works by Munakata Shiko and Serizawa Keisuke are made of paper or cloth, so they are rotated approximately every three months to protect them. Most of the other works are not rotated, so visitors can take their time appreciating the same works whenever they visit.
The Craft Gallery is also housed in a space that was originally a storehouse.
Serizawa Keisuke, a textile artist who was close to Soichiro, meticulously designed everything, from the exterior and interior to the displays and the arrangement of the storehouses.
Please enjoy not only the works but also the building itself, including the sound of the Korean-style flooring underfoot and the staircase handrail inspired by an escalator.
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