Multiplying History, Techniques and Concepts: B-OWND Paves the Way for New Kogei Art

Japan has not yet established a distinctive presence in the busting contemporary art market. Last year, B-OWND, a craftworks-as-art platform service provided by Tanseisha, participated in Scope Miami Beach 2023, a satellite fair of the world's largest art fair, Art Basel Miami Beach (*1), intending to convey the value of Japanese contemporary crafts to the worldwide audience. In the same year, the platform also hosted a joint exhibition by ceramicists  Takahiro Koga and Hiromine Nakamura in Soho, New York, and is preparing to exhibit again at the Scope Miami Beach 2024. B-OWND producer Ken Ishigami and the exhibiting artists sat down to discuss the significance of contemporary crafts taking on the domain of contemporary art.

Behind the re-evaluation of Japanese traditional crafts

Ishigami: The three artists gathered here today and exhibiting at Scope Miami Beach this year all have a strong sense of Japanese identity, but they are also capable of creating a chemical reaction by multiplying contemporaneity in their own unique ways. After all, the people who created traditions were avant-garde, weren't they? Rather than preserving the old ways or adding modern touches, all three of them understand the true nature of history and are connected to the past. It's quite pop and impactful.

——While there are new forms of expression like this, for a long time, conservative open-competition exhibitions like the Japan Traditional Kogei Exhibition (*2) were responsible for evaluating Japanese crafts.

Nakamura: If we think of the “multiplication” mentioned by Ishigami as a kind of peaky challenge, then traditional crafts may seem to have become stale and mundane, resembling “addition” rather than “multiplication.” But I think artists really tried to break boundaries for about 50 years, starting in the 1950s.

The Japan Traditional Kogei Exhibition, while assuming that “crafts = something that is used,” has continued to push the artisans’ skills to the point that the works have reached an “unusable” status. This was a multiplication of essential craft transformation. They titled artisans Living National Treasures to preserve techniques, but the same techniques don't impress people as much as they used to. This led to a fragmentation and extreme refinement of skills. The task of preserving traditional crafts in the modern world became too far out of touch with the everyday lives of the Japanese people.

Koga: It turned into the idea that things like mingei (folk craft) and lifestyle crafts were better.

Sakai: I previously submitted my work to the Japan Traditional Kogei Exhibition. After being selected several times, the judges said, “This is not a traditional craft.” I didn't understand the reason, so I decided to stop there. I think it was probably because the shape of the work was not traditional. I thought “tradition is preserved through innovation,” so I didn’t see the line between the two.

Nakamura: I also ran into the same problem many times. I had submitted my work to the Japan Traditional Kogei Exhibition and had been selected several times, but then suddenly, I was not. One master explained the reason in a single, simple sentence.

Koga: What was it?

Nakamura: “We don't need new or interesting things; we just want something ‘brilliant.’”

Koga: Simple but hard to understand...

Nakamura: I also thought that the younger generation needs to come up with interesting and new things and take traditional crafts in a new direction. But actually, that's not the case. There's no need to change things. Traditional crafts are changing very slowly, in really subtle ways. I started to think that having a slow culture like that might be good. That made sense to me, so I started to present new and exciting things in other places.

Koga: No one but you can do that.

Nakamura: The Japan Traditional Kogei Exhibition is organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs. The president is a member of the Imperial Family, and Japanese culture is strongly linked to it. Those of us involved in traditional crafts can never neglect that history. I thought it would be fun to aim for the win in open competitions by working out the “tactics and countermeasures,” such as creating works that would likely succeed and be recognized for my art. 

Sakai: Koga, have you ever considered entering an open competition exhibition?

Koga: Never! It was just a rebellious spirit. I thought putting all my energy into the things that move my soul was better.

Materials and techniques: limitation or freedom for expression?

Ishigami: I think that contemporary art starts with a concept and involves a process of selecting materials. On the other hand, in the case of traditional crafts, the materials and techniques are more or less fixed, and the artist expresses themselves within those parameters. Don't you feel that this is restrictive?

Sakai: I chose ceramics as my form of expression. I used to work in a factory that made car engine parts, and I liked imagining things like celestial bodies and spaceships when working on small metal parts. Later, when I started university and used a potter's wheel, I realized that my emotions and memories were also incorporated into the spinning object. The wheel's spinning and the clay's plasticity were a perfect match for expressing my inner self.

Koga: When using a potter's wheel, the techniques and materials become a medium through which inspiration continually flows. The materials are not just an output method but also become the input itself.

Sakai: I agree. Clay, which you can touch directly and work with improvisationally, is very physical, and it connects to the unconscious within you. On the other hand, I wouldn’t be able to make things if I didn’t have a potter’s wheel. Even if I did them manually, I would become too conscious, and they would become overly designed.

Koga: It seems you are facing yourself while working on the potter's wheel. It's almost like a Zen-like experience…

Nakamura: It's like we are becoming one.

Koga: I discovered ceramics at university and immediately thought, “This is it!” I also started with the material before I even questioned which one to choose, material or expression.

Sakai: What made you think that ceramics was “it” for you?

Koga: I thought ceramics had it all. It includes painting, product design, traditional crafts, and contemporary art, which I am currently experimenting with. What's more, I can do it all by myself. Kneading the clay and seeing the work emerge from the kiln was a shockingly happy experience. 

Nakamura: You are so pure!

Koga: A defining moment was when I went to Spain with a university professor for a workshop and saw how much respect there was for ceramics and pottery. Europe has produced many great artists and is especially strong in fine art, but Japan is the strongest in pottery. “Raku ware” is exported under its Japanese name and is quite popular now. 

Thinking outside the box and rocking the Western art world

Koga: Western and Japanese approaches to art are entirely different. I was interested in why, and I also came to like thinking about how traditional crafts could be included in today's art context. This eventually became my artistic style. 

The West and Japan are often opposite, aren't they? Western paintings are drawn like photographs, without any outlines, but Japanese transitional paintings have clear outlines. I think it’s more innovative to start with this “opposite” style overseas, and there are all sorts of different approaches.

Ishigami: Western contemporary art is already over-explored in terms of words and concepts. I also wanted to know if there was any point in creating works of art as objects if we were to pursue the meaning of words. This is an extension of the materials and expression topic we discussed earlier, but I'm wondering if we can change how we evaluate traditional crafts by creating a value system that puts the techniques and materials above the concepts rather than the other way around or as an equal relationship.

Nakamura: Unlike our parents' generation, we don't yearn for Western things, do we? We may be the generation that has broken free from the spell of Western aesthetics.

Koga: We're not yearning for it. Moreover, we're pretty much anti-Western. We don't want to lose. 

Ishigami: Thanks to the growth of social media, things that go viral worldwide don't tend to have much of a time difference. Perhaps because of this, I've noticed that more and more entrepreneurs and business owners of my generation are saying they need to learn more about Japanese culture. They're starting to wonder what their own identity is.

Flexible and expandable traditional crafts

Ishigami: Over the past ten years, it has become more common for contemporary art galleries to exhibit traditional crafts, but this is still not a recognized category. I think we are in a situation where we can choose where to position ourselves. Rather than “decorative art,” I am deliberately trying to position it in the field of contemporary art. But is it really the direction we should be taking?

Nakamura: Isn't that similar to our earlier conversation about the Japan Traditional Kogei Exhibition? Ultimately, it's all about trends and countermeasures, and it seems that this time, the aim is to transform Japanese craft into something that will look good in a white cube. But ultimately, don't we all want to be free?

Ishigami: Yes.

Nakamura: I think the Japanese aesthetic is “to see beauty in every living space” and that we as a nation “turn everything into art.” But if you put it on display according to the format of contemporary art, that message will be lost. 

Ishigami: It seems we are now being held back because, during the Meiji era, the whole country got involved in selling traditional crafts. The fact that it was highly praised at the World Expositions (*3) in the West during the Meiji era has the opposite effect, slowly but surely hitting us. Before, Japanese crafts blended in with spaces like tea rooms and were widely accepted. However, when the West introduced the concept of art during the Meiji era, they began to be displayed in white cubes to emphasize works of art individually. That's why I've decided to create a tea room for the next exhibition in Miami. I think the tea ceremony has formalized and established rules for imparting value to objects. What I am most interested in doing now is questioning whether objects have value or whether the value is imparted to objects through traditional Japanese manners and behavior.

Nakamura: A tea room can be set up anywhere if it has four pillars, right? Shrines are also where you summon the gods by chanting prayers in an empty space. In the same way, the tea room format is a game where you can turn any space into an art gallery. It's a very Japanese way of thinking.

Koga: Earlier, we discussed whether there are any restrictions in crafts, but I'm more interested in the expandability of craftsーin the way they expand from being objects to being experiences through tools like the tea ceremony.

Overcoming the “gap” between art and craft

Nakamura: Interestingly, art is more expensive.

Koga: It's like, “I'm so cool because I’m able to recognize the value of something new and unknown,” isn't it?

Sakai: Sometimes artisans say, “How can I make my work be seen as contemporary art?” But that's just a sense of inferiority. The price and recognition of traditional crafts and art naturally differ. If crafts and art were treated equally, I don't think people would say they want works to be seen as contemporary art. Personally, I want to fully immerse myself in traditional crafts.

Koga: In a way, art is valuable because it expresses things that other people can't understand, isn’t it? On the other hand, we want to communicate through our work. That's one of the main differences.

Nakamura: That's why it's impossible to sell it for a high price, but that's fine this way. 

“Functional art” is cooler

Ishigami: How people in America view Japanese culture has changed over the past few years. Functionality used to be complex for traditional crafts. Still, at last year's exhibition, I was impressed by the positive evaluation of functional art, such as tea cups, and the audience comments like “Functionality is more interesting.”

Koga: Exactly. When I held exhibitions in Italy and America about ten years ago, I was told that since there was no culture of drinking from tiny cups, sake cups wouldn't sell. But when I went there recently, it was the opposite. There were no “cool” sake cups, so there was a lot of interest in my work.

Ishigami: What surprised me in America was the popularity of Japanese food. Sake and green tea were incredibly popular, too. Japanese food is already regarded as the best.

Koga: Japanese food culture and traditional crafts are inseparable. The tea ceremony and kaiseki cuisine have a fixed format, and the idea of presenting the simple act of drinking tea as a cultural axis is a little crazy, don't you think?

Nakamura: Japanese traditional crafts maintain their functionality, but they also push the limits, creating a dynamic similar to braking and accelerating simultaneously. They may be ahead of the rest of the world in terms of expression. For example, if you look at the Loewe Craft Prize, artists from other countries tend to lean towards the objects, or rather, they are “a bit different” from Japan, aren't they? Where exactly are Japanese traditional crafts located? I'm unsure where we are now and whether we're top runners. I wish someone would tell me the location like a car navigation system…

Participating in art fairs to understand the “location”

Ishigami: Participating in overseas art fairs is crucial to understanding the current location or position. Nobody even knows the materials used to make the traditional crafts on display. However, because the works are so different from those in other booths, the audience gets interested and involved, and it’s also easier to catch the eye of critics and curators.

Koga: When I exhibited in New York, the audience was so excited they started exaggerating and practically shouted, “You're on fire!” The sales process was also a bit different from that in Japan. It was whether it was cool or not. But I wonder if what I wanted to communicate was really conveyed. That's what you want to work on, isn't it?

Nakamura: I ran into the artist Ai Weiwei on the subway in New York. I showed him my work on the phone, and he asked me, “2D? or 3D?’” That's it. I thought about explaining that it was not a doll but a figural craft or something like that, but he just asked me, “2D or 3D?” I guess it’s all there is. I felt like I could let off some steam, and it felt good. Maybe only critics and certain art people think it's complicated. When you try to get in there, you must arm yourself with theory, right? It's better to give clear answers if you're questioned, but if you try too hard, it's kind of awkward and unnatural. There's no sense of ease.

Ishigami: We ask the question, “Is this craft or art?” and think about the differences and presentation strategies, but it may be important to say, “It is both craft and art,” or rather, “What's wrong with being both?”

Rising position of Fukuoka

ーーLastly, can you tell us about the role of Fukuoka and Aichi as a hub for artists rather than Tokyo?

Koga: There is no other choice other than Fukuoka, is there? I have studied Arita pottery and work with Amakusa clay, known as the whitest clay in the world.

Nakamura: I have a family business in Fukuoka, but I would probably live there even if I didn’t.

Sakai: I live in Aichi, and the lively city of Tajimi is nearby. Nowadays, you can buy clay online, and as long as you have a kiln, you can work anywhere. For me, the regional aspect is no longer critical. It's enough to say that it's “from Japan.”

Koga: You should create in places where it is easy to do so. But in an age when many people visit from abroad, places like Fukuoka, Kanazawa, and Kyoto are more accessible, and it is easier to get people to come to the studio.

Nakamura: Many people have been to Kyoto and Tokyo, so Fukuoka comes up when they are looking for the next place to go. Fukuoka has emerged from the Kyoto-Tokyo double spiral. It is easy to live in, the mountains and the sea are nearby, and the food is delicious. Various advantages of the area have simultaneously emerged. Art also emerges from the edges, doesn't it? Not from the center.

*1—— Art Basel Miami Beach
The American version of the Art Basel art fair, established in Basel, Switzerland, in 1970. First held in 2002, the fair is hosted every year in early December. In addition to the main venue, there are also a number of satellite venues, including Scope. Parties, dinners, and concerts are also held, providing a venue for socialising between collectors and related parties. Art Basel is also held in Hong Kong and Paris.

*2—— Japan Traditional Kogei Exhibition
Starting in 1954, the year in which the system for designating Intangible Cultural Properties and certifying Holders of Intangible Cultural Property (Living National Treasures) was established, this exhibition displays prize-winning works from open competitions in the genres of ceramics, textile dyeing, lacquerware, metalwork, wood and bamboo craft, dolls, and various other traditional crafts. The works are exhibited in department stores and other venues around the country. One of the most prestigious open exhibitions of traditional craft ("kogei") in Japan.
Japan Crafts Association: https://www.nihonkogeikai.or.jp/about

*3—— World Exposition
The first World Exposition was held in France in 1789 as an opportunity to display the culture and artifacts of various countries. Similar events followed in London, New York, and other cities across Europe and America. Japan exhibited its outstanding traditional crafts, intending to revitalize its industrial production and acquire foreign currency. "Arita ware" won a gold medal at the Paris World Exposition in 1900.

In cooperation with Kozendo