Publisher's Synopsis
The founder of the folkcraft movement in Japan, Soetsu Yanagi, examines Japanese folk art as a manifestation of the essential world from which art, philosophy and religion arise, and in which the barriers between them disappear. This book challenges the conventional ideas of art and beauty. What is the value of things made by an anonymous craftsman working in a set tradition for a lifetime? What is the value of handwork? Why should even the roughly lacquered rice bowl of a Japanese farmer be thought beautiful? The late Soetsu Yanagi was the first to fully explore the
