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Paper short abstract

This paper offers a comparative study of Seto and Tokoname’s ceramic industries, examining how central stakeholders navigate resource inequality, differing sales channels, and revitalization pressures as they experience changing social and economic conditions in Japan’s craft sector.

Paper long abstract

Craft has long played a crucial role in shaping regional identity, livelihoods, and local economies across Japan, and the ceramic centers of Seto and Tokoname offer two revealing sites through which to examine these dynamics. Historically grounded in place-based ecologies, apprenticeship relations, and specialized production systems, both regions were also integrated into broader national agendas that reframed craft as cultural heritage and as a basis for accelerating industrial development. Today, however, these sanchi navigate profound demographic and socioeconomic pressures.

This paper presents a comparative study of Seto and Tokoname through the analytical lens of Strategic Action Fields theory, with particular attention to the evolving relationship between incumbents and challengers within each field. SAF theory offers a framework for examining how long-established actors (incumbents) – such as long-standing traditional potters, wholesalers, and industry associations – and emerging actors (challengers) – including younger artisans, in-migrants, and tourism-oriented entrepreneurs – navigate structural constraints and unequal access to resources. The study explores how disparities in resource acquisition, unequal access to sales channels, and the (un-)availability of local support mechanisms shape strategic behavior and reshape field configurations.

Situating Seto and Tokoname within debates on rural revitalization and post-growth futures, the study examines how narratives of authenticity, locality, and heritage are mobilized to generate new social and cultural value. Such narratives – linked to craftsmanship, slow production, and regionally embedded skills – are used both to attract visitors and to articulate alternative visions of community amid demographic decline. As these discourses intersect, they reshape the strategic action fields of Seto and Tokoname by shifting resources, alliances, and cultural frames. This reconfiguration opens space for collaboration while heightening tensions between innovation and preservation, revealing how incumbents and challengers navigate competing pressures of revitalization and the maintenance of established norms.

Through this comparative and theory-informed approach, the paper illuminates how stakeholders in both sanchi interpret shifting conditions and attempt to renegotiate their positions within their respective ceramic fields. In doing so, it contributes to a deeper understanding of how traditional industries adapt to maintain social, economic, and cultural relevance amid ongoing transformations across the craft sector in Japan.