crafting japanese: western revision
By Heather on Monday, February 20th, 2006
Crafting Japanese? What does it mean? Whipup has links to the main resources on the web for crafting japanese.
Every new generation in the west has re-discovered East Asian culture. And every new Japanese generation has re-interpreted Western culture since the Meiji era when Japan first ‘opened’ up to the West. With the internet, it’s easier to share and get materials from other countries like Japan. (Albeit at a price… 49USD for some common Japanese sketchbooks at a chic-chic shop in NYC ’salvorkiosk’? Eek!)
So it’s hard for me to tell if there is a zeigeist going on, or if I am just caught up in my own generation’s version of re-discovering Japan. Esp. since I’m in the thick of studying Japanese and settling myself in Japan for a little while.
When I first heard the phrase “crafting japanese”, it brought to mind (and too google’s search) images of origami, calligraphy, kokeshi dolls… traditional japanese crafts. More frequently, it is a phrase used in the crafty blog world to mean contemporary Japanese crafts, which overwhelmingly have roots in Western culture or crafts.
Many of the Japanese books and periodicals I drool over are filled with images of a Japanese-interpreted western culture. You can see many images from these books at Craftlog’s Crafting Japanese list, a great resource. Baked goods are often featured in these magazines with recipes- most people don’t own ovens here. Images of rooms, with wooden floors or carpeting; high beds with mattresses and quilts. Rather than tatami rooms, futons and kabutons you’d see in Japan more commonly.
“American country” is a popular theme. I often see Raggedy-Ann and Andy dolls in American folksy patterns, presented as ‘american country’ dolls. French culture, or the suggestion of French culture is also popular. Think tins with French words on them or red cross-stitch with French words on linen. If I were to do one of these patterns out of a Japanese book, am I crafting Japanese, or crafting French?
It’s a cultural moment of reverb and feedback: giving and taking; back and forth. There is an obvious fascination with Japanese products and materials. And in these products and materials you can see Western culture and reinterpreted for Japanese culture. The next thing to see would be Japanese people getting ga-ga for a western version of Japanese culture, but I don’t know that the West has that to offer?
NB: Pages above from Couturier by Felissimo That magazine is more like a catalogue of kits you can buy. But it’s full of inspiring images, and does have a few patterns at the front; and it’s not soo expensive- about 1/3 price of other mooks (periodical books).
February 20th, 2006 at 10:26 pm
This is so interesting !
It’s late here now, but I’ll be back in the morning to look at your site properly - what a great post.
February 21st, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Great post! I agree completely. Another good example of the crosspollination is all those Japanese patchwork books with modern interpretations of old American blocks. Certainly you can get western craft books of the same sorts of crafts, but they lack the style of the Japanese books. I think if some western author made books in the same aesthetic, we’d all like those too, and in fact there are a bunch of really good ones coming out lately. But then again, I’ve never seen a stuffed toy book anything like some of the Japanese ones. Lots of food for thought in this post!
August 9th, 2006 at 7:46 pm
Have you figured out how to order the kits from Felissimo? I would love to, but I cannot figure out how to sign in and order. Not everything gets translated.