Special Exhibition II, Crafts and Design: Kogei in Daily Life—Curations by 13 Creative Directors, is a project-based exhibition that explores the creation of everyday housewares and utensils that both meet the demands of daily life and inspire an emotional connection. Thirteen directors paired up with 13 groups of artisans, craftspeople, and producers to create new products.
Looking back on the history of modern design and crafts, rapid population growth and increases in quality of life during the 1940s, ’50s, and ’60s fostered a culture of manufacturing that had to provide both volume and quality.
The craft and design industries commingled and interacted, exploring models of production that would meet the market’s needs. This relationship between crafts and design resulted in a large number of products of enduring value. Today, there is a greater tendency to think of crafts and design as mutually exclusive categories, but the fields are too rich to be so neatly packed away. The concept for this exhibition was inspired by the manufacturing attitude of the 1940s–1960s.
The project’s first concern was valuing the perspective of the end user. Not in the sense of marketing methodologies, but from a more concrete, individual perspective. Each of the projects departed from an authentic personal need or desire. The project’s 13 creative directors fulfilled this role, coming up with ideas for products that they wanted to try or that would fill a need. While this approach may ostensibly seem overly personal, given the sheer diversity of lifestyles in contemporary society, it is also the most honest basis for product ideation.
The project’s second concern was connecting the design and hand manufacturing process—bringing together diverse teams to acquire different points of view. By transcending a top-down order-based hierarchy, each party was able to determine their strengths, divide labor, and engage in creation. While this results in a certain level of opacity, the project embraced it as an opportunity to explore new creative processes. The question of price was also considered and factored. This exhibition features the products created through this process, along with the original concepts and design notes from the research and development stage. Visitors are invited to look behind the products and witness the creative processes of skilled designers, cultural leaders, artisans, and craftspeople.

Akimoto Yuji
Go for Kogei Special Exhibitions Curator