(Tokyo, Kyoto, etc.)
(Tokyo, Kyoto, etc.)
(Tokyo and Kyoto)
Activities
Japan Traditional Craft Revitalization Contests are designed to revitalize traditional Japanese craft to flourish in the 21st century. Each contest selects 10 exceptional individuals with outstanding ideas, talent, track record and passion, and provides them with a package of support designed to move them forward in their craft revitalization-related projects.
Shin-Machiya Juku
We co-founded the School of Traditional Building Arts (Shin-Machiya Juku) in Kyoto. To meet the growing demand for high-quality traditional construction, our school teaches nearly forgotten skills and provides tradespeople with a direct path to mastery. Our intensive, year-long Sunday courses accommodate those in the early stages of their careers. JapanCraft21 provides full scholarships to all students. Our program is intended for individuals who plan to live in Japan and help revitalize traditional Japanese architectural techniques.
Education
We at JapanCraft21 are committed to training young up-and-coming crafts people in such projects as our School for Traditional Building Arts, our apprentice training program and to educating the public about the value of fine Japanese Master Crafts through social media and our on-line mazagine. Also, in order to maximize our effectiveness in achieving our craft revitalization vision, it is imperative that we educate both our staff and our membership. We accomplish this with regular on-line lectures for all of our members and quarterly events for our patrons.
Research Page
Our research program aims to create a first-time ever, comprehensive, on-line database for all traditional crafts in Japan, many of which are unknown to the world.
Phase I: (Completed December 31, 2023) We researched all traditional crafts from northern Hokkaido to southern Okinawa and were able to create a list totalling about 1000 genres.
Phase II: (Scheduled Completion late 2025. 80% complete as of August, 2025) We are creating a site containing a photo, Japanese description, English description, and location map for each of the 1000 genres.
