The Beauty of Everyday Handmade Things 

Mingei is a Japanese word often translated as “folk craft” or “people’s craft.”

But it means more than a category of handmade objects.

At its heart, Mingei is a way of seeing beauty in ordinary things — bowls, baskets, cloth, furniture, tools, and other objects made for daily life. These were not originally created as museum pieces or luxury art objects. They were made to be used.

The beauty of Mingei is quiet.

It is found in useful things, honest materials, skilled hands, and forms that have been shaped by repetition, climate, local resources, and everyday life.

The Mingei movement began in Japan in the early 20th century.

At that time, Japan was rapidly modernizing, and many handmade local traditions were beginning to lose their place in daily life. Against this background, a group of thinkers, artists, and makers began to look again at ordinary handmade objects.

They saw beauty not only in rare or expensive art, but in the everyday tools made by unknown craftspeople.

The word “Mingei” was created from two Japanese words:

minshu, meaning “the people,” and kogei, meaning “craft.”

Together, they express the idea of craft born from ordinary people and everyday life.

One of the central figures of the Mingei movement was Soetsu Yanagi, a Japanese philosopher and art critic. He wrote about the beauty of handmade objects used in everyday life and helped bring attention to crafts that had often been overlooked.

Other important figures include the potters Shoji Hamada and Kanjiro Kawai, as well as Bernard Leach, a British potter deeply connected with Japan.

Together, they helped shape a new way of looking at craft — not as something separate from life, but as something deeply connected to it.

Mingei was not only about objects.

It was also about values: simplicity, usefulness, honesty, local materials, inherited skill, and beauty without excessive decoration.

Mingei is not found in only one place.

It can be seen across Japan, especially in regions where local craft traditions are still connected to daily life, materials, and community.

Mashiko

Mashiko, in Tochigi Prefecture, is closely connected with Shoji Hamada, one of the key figures of the Mingei movement.

Known for pottery, the town remains an important place for people interested in Japanese ceramics and folk craft.

Tottori and Shimane

The San’in region, including Tottori and Shimane, is one of the most meaningful areas for a Mingei journey.

Tottori is connected with Shoya Yoshida, who helped bring Mingei ideas into regional craft and daily life.

In Shimane, pottery traditions such as Shussai ware and Yumachi ware are often associated with the spirit of Mingei.

Oita

Oita is home to Onta ware, made in a small mountain village.

This pottery tradition has been passed down for generations, using local clay and traditional methods. It is a place where craft, family, community, and landscape remain closely connected.

Kyoto

Kyoto is not usually seen as the center of Mingei, but it offers an important contrast.

Here, highly refined craft traditions, tea culture, textiles, ceramics, and woodwork reveal another side of Japanese handmade culture. Visiting Kyoto helps us understand how Mingei relates to — and differs from — more formal traditions of craft and beauty.

Okinawa

Okinawa holds an important place in the story of Japanese craft.

Its textiles, pottery, dyeing, and weaving traditions are deeply connected to island materials, climate, and history. Bingata, bashofu, kasuri weaving, and Okinawan pottery all reveal a culture shaped by local life and exchange across the sea.

Tambasasayama

Tambasasayama is a meaningful place to experience the spirit of Mingei.

The area is home to Tamba ware, one of Japan’s Six Ancient Kilns. In the 20th century, Tamba ware drew attention from people connected to the Mingei movement, including Bernard Leach.

But Tambasasayama is not only about pottery. It is also about rural life, old houses, rice fields, seasonal food, and people living close to the land.

This makes it a beautiful place to experience Mingei as a living atmosphere, not only as an idea.

At Japan Sideways, we are interested in craft not as decoration, but as a doorway into place.

Through our journeys, we visit regions where craft is still connected to people, materials, landscape, and everyday life.

Our Okinawa journey explores island textile traditions such as bashofu, bingata, and weaving.

This is not a tour only about seeing finished objects. It is a journey into the land, plants, colors, makers, and historical layers behind them.

For travelers interested in Mingei, Okinawa offers a powerful way to understand how craft grows from climate, local materials, and cultural identity.

Tambasasayama can be visited with Japan Sideways as a private tour.

Here, travelers can experience Tamba ware, rural landscapes, old houses, seasonal food, and the quiet rhythm of a living countryside town.

For those interested in Mingei, Tambasasayama offers a gentle and personal way to see how craft and everyday life still belong together.

To travel through Japan with Mingei in mind is to look for beauty in quieter places.

Not only in temples, castles, and famous views, but in a bowl made for daily meals.

In a piece of cloth shaped by local plants.

In a farmhouse, a kiln, a workshop, or a village road.

Mingei invites us to see Japan through the things people make, use, and pass on.

And through those things, we begin to see the people and places behind them.