Crafting Life:
Stories from the Japanese Studio

The Project

Crafting Life: Stories from the Japanese Studio was an exhibition that explored Japanese craft from a fresh perspective, highlighting its dynamism and resilience. Far from static, Japanese craft practices have always adapted to a network of variables, including access to materials, shifting patronage, intergenerational learning, and environmental challenges, including natural disasters. The ability of craft practitioners to innovate while valuing the tacit knowledge underpinning their traditions has ensured their continued relevance in contemporary Japan, and their esteem worldwide.

This exhibition showcased three craft practices from different regions of Japan, including a ceramic artist from Karatsu (Yukiko Tsuchiya), a maki-e lacquerware company originally from Wajima, now based in Kanazawa (Hikoju Maki-e Co. Ltd.), and a sashiko needlework collective turned ‘brand’ from Ōtsuchi (Ōtsuchi Sashiko).

Their distinct practices and stories reflect the diverse contexts through which Japanese craft traditions are expressed today, in objects of rare mastery, prized for their precious materials and technical expertise, through to garments or vessels of everyday functional beauty, by those new to craft practice, developing craft traditions in fresh and meaningful ways.

Historically close to special patronage networks, these practices are now finding fresh collaborations with markets that value the handmade, including bespoke fashion and fine dining. In this way, Crafting Life foregrounded the stories of these makers, highlighting their distinct yet complementary concerns, and inviting reflection on the role of creative adaptation in maintaining the currency of craft practices, in Japan and beyond.

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The Artists

Yukiko Tsuchiya 土屋由紀子

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Yukiko Tsuchiya (b.1971) is a potter born in the coastal city of Karatsu on the south island of Kyushu, a location famous for ceramic production since the late 16th century. Encouraged since childhood by her father, Yukiko had an early interest in ceramics but only pursued it in earnest after graduating from Kyushu Industrial University with a degree in design. Reluctant to leave her hometown to pursue a career in fashion, she decided on ceramics. After training in the renowned Nakazato kiln, she established ‘Yukiko kiln’ in 2002 and began exhibiting in galleries around the country. She is now considered one of the most exciting young Karatsu ceramicists.

Hikoju Makie 彦十蒔絵

Hikoju Maki-e was founded in Wajima by Takashi Wakamiya, who led this renowned lacquer art group for over twenty years before recently handing over responsibility to the next generation due to illness. Now based in Kanazawa, Hikoju Maki-e Co. Ltd. has inherited Mr. Wakamiya’s spirit and commitment to the specialist craft technique of maki-e: a unique process in lacquer art which involves the sprinkling of fine gold granules onto urushi resin to create lustrous designs on the sculpted lacquer surface. In this new chapter, Hikoju Maki-e Co. Ltd. is now led by Teiren Taka and business partner Banjo Yamauchi, of the Yamauchi Family Office.

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Ōtsuchi Sashiko 大槌刺し子

Ōtsuchi Sashiko 大槌刺し子 is a craft collective created in May 2011, only months after the Great East Japan Earthquake of March that year. It was first established as a recovery project to support women through sashiko, a traditional needlepoint technique used to mend and bolster garments which developed into a decorative craft. In 2021 the project transitioned into a self-sustaining brand, which remains committed to supporting its hometown, celebrating handmade craft, empowering makers, ongoing refinement of technique and fostering community connections. Comprising 15 makers, connected to a network of collaborators and clients in Japan and overseas, it has become a source of income, healing and pride, revitalising its community.
 

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Related Events

Ceramic Workshops with Yukiko Tsuchiya

Saturday 23 August 2025
Exhibiting Karatsu ceramicist Yukiko Tsuchiya was invited to Sydney by The Japan Foundation. She led a day of hands-on making workshops with local ceramicists in the teaching studios of the Ceramics Department at the National Art School (NAS).

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Yukiko led a wheel-throwing masterclass designed for participants with prior experience, where attendees observed her refined techniques and then created their own works under her guidance. She also gave a hand-coiling workshop for beginners, exploring organic and expressive forms using traditional methods adapted from Karatsu’s ceramic heritage.

The workshops were facilitated and hosted by Dr Louise Boscacci (Head of Ceramics), and Machiko Motoi (Ceramics Studio Technician) of the National Art School.