The mix of an Irish anthropologist with an interest in pottery, a small southern village in Japan and plenty of sake or rice wine to drink would inevitably produce none other than a great story. It is ...

Japan's century-old Mingei, or folk art, movement celebrates the everyday work of anonymous artists. It stands in contrast to both fine arts and industrially mass-produced goods. And it's having a yet ...

In today's globalized world, it's easy to spot the culture of another nation infused into that of our own. But it's also true that past cultural changes in one country can shape current trends in ours ...

A recent gift to Mingei International Museum of a personal archive and folk art collection from Lucia Ionescu Kanchenian of San Diego inspired the new exhibit “Between East and West — Folk Art ...

Over the past century, the Mingei movement has endured and undergone waves of revival in popularity. Going by a recent flurry of books and exhibitions in Japan and abroad, its ideas appear to be in ...

About 13 feet into the “Mingei of Japan” exhibit, there is a small object, about 3 inches in length, that exemplifies the true spirit of the Mingei International Museum in Balboa Park. Of the more ...

Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter. “People have the perception that Mingei is just brown pots,” says Roisin Inglesby, a curator at the William ...

One of the most important art, design and philosophical movements to come out of Japan is now nearly a hundred years old. It's called Mingei, or folk crafts. It reflects a reaction to modernity and ...