Discover the Craft
Learn From Real Artisans and Their Work
Find the experience that matches your interests — every profile here leads to a person you can actually meet.
Writing on the Curve
Kenichiro Murata, fourth-generation heir to Namidabashi Ōshimaya, on kago-moji, the outline-first lettering that lets characters sit on a curved chōchin.
Tokyo (City)
What a Bowl of Tea Reflects
Sokou Udagawa, 18th head of the Sowa school of tea, on chaji, wabi, and designing an entire evening around a single bowl of tea.
Tokyo (City)
The Laugh That Comes Later
Kyōgen actor Ohkura Motonari on holding a 700-year-old comic-theatre form intact.
Tokyo (City)
The Space Between the Flowers
Ikebana master Kouen Yokoi on arranging not flowers but the space between them—a craft over a thousand years old.
Kanto (Area)
Braiding a Thousand-Year Thread into the Present
A 300-year-old Tokyo workshop braiding silk cord by hand — Kiichiro Domyo on Yusoku Kumihimo and its living history.
Tokyo (City)
Toward the Unseen
A story-led interview with Takeda Tomoyuki, a Kanze-school shite-kata Noh performer, on prayer, discipline, and how Noh is handed down today.
Tokyo (City)
The Sword Polisher Who Chooses Not to Finish
Sword polishing (togishi): conserving Japanese swords centuries old — and the craftsman who hands them to the future.
Tokyo (City)
The Stroke That Cannot Return
A contemporary sumi-e painter rooted in a thousand-year lineage, on the single stroke that cannot return and a tradition kept alive by renewal.
Tokyo (City)
Zen, Beyond Self-Protection
A head priest in Asakusa on Rinzai Zen—a tradition some 800 years old in Japan—and quietly letting go of the comparing self.
Tokyo (City)
