MINGEI
“Nothing should be made by man’s labour which is not worth making, or which must be made by labour degrading to the makers.” William Morris
Influenced by the Arts and Crafts movement, the Mingei (‘art of the people’) philosophy was founded in 1926 by Soetsu Yanagi and potters Bernard Leach, Hamada Shoji, Tomimoto Kenkichi to reinstate the human touch and spirit in everyday articles of use.
“…A building should consume its own waste, maintain itself, match nature’s pace, provide wildlife habitat, moderate climate and weather and be beautiful. That’s a series of pass/fail evaluation criteria….” Malcolm Wells
Originally related to pottery (as it was originally), Mingei has been applied to surfboard design (Richard Kenvin’s show at the Mingei International Museum. You even could find echoes in green building design, Mingei is about beautiful, quality, anonymous, highly functional objects that are made by hand.
“Take heed of the humble; be what you are by birthright; there is no room for arrogance.” Soetsu Yanagi
warofnature 