Editorial features on Japan's regional crafts — the makers, the materials, and the places each piece comes from.
Yoshiwara Denchu is one of the few Japanese confections whose name still points at the room it was…
Takaoka, on the coastal plain of Toyama Prefecture, has been a casting town since 1611, when the Kaga…
Most yokan arrives as a firm rectangular bar. Tamashimaya, a confectioner in the old castle town of Nihonmatsu…
A Yoita-forged kanna carries four centuries of Echigo toolmaking in a laminated white-steel blade and oak dai. Where…
Etchu Seto-yaki is Toyama's oldest kiln town, founded in the 1580s. Its ash-glaze yuzamashi cools sencha water to…
A crinkle-textured ramie (choma) table runner woven in Niigata's snow country, finished by the yukizarashi snow-bleaching that gives…
Morokoshi is one of northern Japan's oldest dry confections, and Karakudo (唐土庵) in the old samurai town of…
Awa Shijira-ori, a puckered indigo cotton from Tokushima, uses a rippling shibo surface that lifts the cloth off…
Hida Shunkei-nuri finishes a turned cypress vase in translucent amber lacquer that lets the raw wood grain read…
Kaga Zogan is Kanazawa's damascene inlay craft, born from Maeda-clan armor and stirrup fittings. This guide covers a…
Hota-ori is Takamatsu's 330-year-old waffle-weave cotton, its tiny air pockets keeping it breathable and quick-drying all year. Here's…
Ojiya Chijimi is a snow-bleached ramie crepe from Niigata, a UNESCO-listed craft. Here is how a genuine hand-woven…
Kumano crafts about 80% of Japan's brushes. This hand-bound shodo brush pairs supple animal hair with a bamboo…
Kibi dango are soft, chewy millet-and-glutinous-rice dumplings pressed into small flat rounds and lightly dusted so they never…
Hand-woven Shinshu Tsumugi silk from Nagano's old sericulture belt, plant-dyed and cut into a slim card case. Here…
Hirado domain's official kiln still paints cobalt karako children on paper-thin white porcelain. A guide to buying a…
Hida Shunkei-nuri leaves the wood grain visible under clear amber urushi. These Takayama-made chataku saucers show why Gifu's…
Shodai-yaki's straw-ash nagashi glaze has run over Kumamoto clay since 1632. Where to buy a katakuchi sake pourer,…
Enshu cotton stripe has been woven by the Tenryu River since Tokugawa times. Where to buy an authentic…
Noshiume is a paper-thin sheet of ume plum pressed with sugar and agar, cut into strips and sandwiched…
Okinawa's Ryukyu lacquerware carries tsuikin relief patterns pressed from colored lacquer dough. We break down what the kashizara…
Kurume Kasuri is one of Japan's three great kasuri traditions, woven from pre-dyed indigo threads whose blurred edges…
Fukushima's oldest kiln town makes a rectangular amber-glazed vessel built for pickling and oven work. What it costs,…
Beppu Takezaiku baskets are woven from Oita madake bamboo by hand, a craft grown from hot-spring souvenir workshops.…
Hasami-yaki is Nagasaki's 400-year porcelain tradition, now known worldwide for clean, stackable, matte-glazed tableware. Here is where to…
A Fukuoka kiln favored by tea master Kobori Enshu, Takatori-yaki pairs thin, refined walls with warm amber ash…
A hand-woven copper tea strainer from Kyoto's Kanaami wire-netting craft, its hexagonal kikko mesh braided entirely by hand…
In the former castle town of Kanazawa, the confectioner Morihachi has been making sweets since 1625, when the…
Turned from Yakusugi, the ancient cedar of Yakushima's UNESCO forest, this tea caddy carries thousand-year growth rings and…
Kurume Kasuri, one of Japan's three great ikat weaves, turns hand-dyed indigo cotton into easy monpe trousers. Here's…
Takaoka is where roughly 90% of Japan's cast bronzeware is made, and its orin (rin gong) bells carry…
Yukari is the signature prawn cracker of Bankaku Sohonpo, a Nagoya confectioner founded in 1889 whose name is…
A free-forged Japanese grass sickle from Kochi's 400-year Tosa Uchihamono tradition. Learn what sets its jiyu-tanzo blade apart…
A hand-blown tumbler from Toyama, Japan's self-declared 'City of Glass,' where contemporary studio glassblowing grew directly out of…
Deep in the warm, sun-soaked south of Kyushu, Kagoshima has quietly become one of Japan's largest tea-growing regions,…
A two-tier Aizu-nuri jubako from Fukushima, finished in deep urushi lacquer with maki-e detail. Built for New Year…
Tsugaru Kogin-zashi is a counted-stitch embroidery born of Edo-era Aomori, white cotton worked into indigo hemp in geometric…
Takaoka Dōki is Japan's foremost bronze-casting craft, born in Toyama in 1611. This cast-bronze kabin flower vase pairs…
A yarn-dyed jacquard tie woven in Kyoto's Nishijin district, where court weavers have worked silk since the Heian…
Tsuboya-yaki is Okinawa's signature 'yachimun' pottery, thick-bodied and boldly glazed. This hand-thrown 5-sun plate carries the classic fish…
