- Convenors:
-
Harald Conrad
(University of Duesseldorf)
Shilla Lee (University of Duesseldorf)
Send message to Convenors
- Format:
- Panel
- Section:
- Anthropology and Sociology
Short Abstract
Japan still has various crafts and craft districts with distinct regional characteristics, but recent developments remain poorly researched. This panel looks from a comparative perspective at the challenges, current situation, and reorganisation of different craft districts.
Long Abstract
Despite its rapid development as the fourth largest industrialised country, Japan has managed to maintain various crafts and craft districts with distinct regional characteristics into the present. While research has cited demand- and supply-side factors for the ‘success’ of Japanese crafts, it remains unclear to what extent these explanations are still relevant today and how the crafts have evolved since the early 1990s.
Around the world, the middle classes are showing a growing preference for handmade products, which play an important role in discourses on sustainable production, ethical living, consumer values and authenticity. In the wake of this development, the new Western crafts entrepreneurship has also received academic attention. However, the current reorganisation of existing craft districts in Japan is poorly researched.
Our analysis of recent changes in Japanese crafts focuses not only on the specific Japanese dynamics of organising in craft districts, but hopes also to contribute to broadening our basic understanding of the structural foundations for a possible revitalisation of communities and regional development through craft production in industrialised countries. The purpose of this panel is to discuss research findings and future directions of Japanese traditional crafts more widely. Among other topics, we will address a) the changing social and economic structures of the respective organisational fields, b) the role of expert knowledge and training systems and their respective effects on entry barriers and generational renewal of the organisational field, c) discourses about the relationship between craft and machine production, d) the influence of national craft policies and the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
| Abstract in Japanese (if needed) |
Accepted papers
Paper short abstract
The paper sheds light on recent developments of the obi silk-weaving industry in the Nishijin district in Kyoto. Based on rich interview data, the paper maps change and continuity in the industry and explains the findings referring to concepts from the economic sociology and economics literature.
Paper long abstract
This paper sheds light on recent developments in the 500-year-old obi silk-weaving industry of the Nishijin district in Kyoto. Based on rich interview data collected in 2016-2017 and 2025, the paper maps change and continuity in the industry and aims to explains the findings with reference to concepts from the economic sociology and economics literature. Overall, the paper argues that established social and economic structures, while having facilitated the successful growth of this industry during the economic boom years before the burst of the bubble economy, are now an important part of the explanation why Nishijin producers finds it difficult to adapt to various challenges, ranging from changing consumer demand, over difficult distribution channels to aging workforces and machinery. In particular, the paper will focus on the reasons behind the difficulty of cooperation among producers, wholesalers, and retailers in improving trading practices and in safeguarding important production practices.
Paper short abstract
A marked decline in production in Wajima has been seen in recent years due to a precipitous decline in demand for lacquerware due the westernization of food culture. We would like to discuss the ways to ensure the future of the lacquerware industry not only in Japan, but in all of Asia.
Paper long abstract
Japan’s traditional lacquerware industry, which centers on the city of Wajima in the Japan Sea-side Hokuriku region of northwestern Japan, enjoyed a relatively robust economy through the 20th century. However, a marked decline in production has been seen in recent years due to a precipitous decline in demand for soup bowls and other lacquerware items as a result of the westernization of Japanese food culture.
Further adding insult to the grievous injury of Japan's declining traditional lacquerware industry, on New Year’s Day, 2024, the Noto Peninsula was shaken by a major earthquake that caused devastating damage to the peninsula’s lacquerware industry, particularly in Wajima.
Given this situation, including the decline of local lacquerware sales due to the Westernization of Japanese food culture, natural disasters and world pandemics, and the aging of Japan’s craftsmen, could there be any way to predict the future of Wajima’s lacquerware industry?
We will be focusing on the works of not only Wajima’s artisans, but also younger lacquerware artists who will by extension become the leaders of the next generation, in order to explore the direction of these creators, and the possibility of developing their products into new industries.
Educational exchange activities were conducted by the Asian Lacquer Craft Exchange Research Project between 2014 and 2023 with the aim of promoting the development of lacquer crafts in the lacquerware production areas. By looking over the ten years of the Project, which the author also participated in, and introducing the current state of the lacquerware industry of lacquer-producing countries, we would like to discuss the ways to ensure the future of the lacquerware industry not only in Japan, but in all of Asia.
Paper short abstract
This paper explores the ways in which changes in social relations within the local craft industry are as significant as economic and demographic shifts in contemporary craft production. It focuses on the evolving division of labour at the Echizen lacquerware production site in Fukui Prefecture.
Paper long abstract
A recurring theme in studies of Japanese society is demographic shrinkage. This topic has been explored in a wide range of fields, including the study of the craft industry. Although the prevailing strategies for revitalising the local craft industry in Japan emphasise market expansion and increasing the number of practitioners, this paper argues that reshaping and reinventing existing social relations to adapt to a changing environment is equally important as analysing economic and demographic data. Identifying the conditions that enable craftspeople to sustain their craft as a livelihood, and ultimately the local industry as a whole, requires an understanding of the shifting social relations. Focusing on changes to the division of labour at the Echizen lacquerware production site in Sabae, Fukui Prefecture, this paper explores how a local craft industry can be maintained amid shrinking yet evolving local social dynamics.
Paper short abstract
Drawing on two years of fieldwork, this paper examines the social and economic reorganisation of woodblock printmaking in Japan. It maps supply-chain bottlenecks (kōzo, pigments, animal glue), assesses policy responses, and shows how these shifts reshape value and markets in Japan and abroad.
Paper long abstract
Woodblock printmaking was once a core medium of visual communication in Japan, underpinning publishing, education, and popular culture until the late nineteenth century. Following its rapid decline in the early Meiji period, the practice has persisted into the present as a highly specialised form of traditional craft, sustained by a small number of workshops and artisans. Today, however, traditional woodblock printmaking faces acute challenges: an ageing workforce, the erosion of long-term apprenticeship systems, and growing instability in the supply of essential raw materials and tools, including kōzo fibre, pigments, animal glue, and woodblocks. Climate change, shifts in land use, and the restructuring of rural economies have further intensified vulnerabilities within this craft ecosystem.
Drawing on two years of fieldwork in Japan and the UK, this paper examines how traditional woodblock printmaking is being socially and economically reorganised in contemporary Japan. Rather than focusing solely on artisans, it adopts a supply-chain perspective that encompasses raw-material producers, specialist manufacturers, workshops, cultural institutions, and policy frameworks. The analysis identifies key bottlenecks in material procurement and skill transmission, and evaluates how national cultural heritage policies intervene—often unevenly—across different nodes of production.
The paper further contrasts traditional workshop-based woodblock printmaking with contemporary woodblock practices that have emerged in art schools and global printmaking contexts. Differences in materials, techniques, and training models have reshaped not only production processes but also patterns of reception, valuation, and market circulation. While contemporary woodblock making often emphasises artistic autonomy and international visibility, traditional practice remains closely tied to collective labour, tacit knowledge, and material specificity. These distinctions shape how woodblock prints are perceived and consumed within Japan and abroad, and influence which forms of practice are supported by institutions and markets.
By situating woodblock printmaking within broader debates on sustainability, craft–industry relations, and post-industrial cultural economies, this paper contributes to comparative discussions on the future of traditional crafts in industrialised societies, and on the conditions under which craft knowledge, materials, and markets can be meaningfully sustained.