Within the coronary heart of Tokyo’s bohemian neighborhood of Koenji, Mogi People Artwork has carved out an area the place custom and up to date design collide. Opened in 2022 by Keiko Kitamura and Terry Ellis, the shop is described as an homage to mingei, Japan’s folks craft motion that champions the sweetness present in on a regular basis handmade objects of use. Since opening, Mogi People Artwork has gained a world following for its distinctive choice of furnishings, homewares and clothes, that are introduced collectively beneath the discerning eye of its homeowners.
Ellis is a famend determine within the Japanese design and craft scene, and Kitamura is a seasoned purchaser with a honed eye for the missed. Collectively, the couple affords a philosophy that craft ought to be alive, not archival. The shop embodies the pair’s decades-long work on this world; to look again at their joint profession is actually to plot the resurgence of mingei, so paramount have they been to its present revitalization.
It was a path affected by obstacles at the beginning. The pair started working as consumers for the life-style large Beams within the 90s, the place they first started to introduce Japanese craft items into the rotation throughout the early 2000s. Nevertheless, as Ellis recollects, the objects at the moment have been seen as so old style that the press “wouldn’t even have a look at them.”
From Okinawa to Tokyo: The Mingei Revivalists
Mingei, which interprets as “folks craft” in English, was a motion born within the late Twenties as a response to the rise of mass manufacturing. Led by artwork critic and thinker Soetsu Yanagi and potters Shoji Hamada and Kanjiro Kawai, the motion sought to raise the handmade crafts of unusual folks — ceramics, textiles, woodwork — as objects of magnificence and cultural worth. Although it grew to become a defining aesthetic in mid-century Japan, the motion ultimately receded from public consideration as shopper tastes shifted.
It was Soetsu Yanagi’s son — the legendary industrial designer Sori Yanagi — who first taught Ellis and Kitamura the enjoyment of folks crafts. Practically three a long time in the past, he recommended they make a journey to Okinawa to pursue this curiosity. “On the time, nobody was going,” Kitamura recollects. “It was cheaper to fly to Hawaii.”
The couple’s first journey in 1997 was a revelation. Okinawan ceramics — recognized for his or her earthy palettes, strong nature and daring summary patterns — have been not like something they’d seen in Japan, and actually spoke to the pair. However after they started introducing items at Beams, they acquired little consideration. “Craft wasn’t stylish,” Ellis says, laughing. Okinawa itself nonetheless carried postwar baggage: Newspapers largely reported on American army antics, not artisanship.
But slowly, by repeat journeys (now over 100 and counting) and Beams’ cult affect, Okinawan pottery would shed its provincial picture. Kitamura and Ellis started by introducing easy plates with no ornament, earlier than fastidiously transferring into bolder colourful items, progressively bridging Okinawa’s craft traditions with Tokyo’s design-conscious viewers.
By the 2010s, what was as soon as dismissed as “old style” had turn out to be coveted, and Japanese craft had discovered a everlasting place inside Beams by the 2003 launch of its in-house model Fennica, presided over by Ellis and Kitamura.
The Worldwide Language of Mingei
The historical past of mingei follows an analogous path of bridging cultures. “The founders of mingei seemed westwards,” Ellis notes, “first from China and Korea, then to Europe and America. Mingei was at all times internationally minded.” As we speak, Mogi People Artwork’s cabinets replicate this: African masks sit beside Mashiko stoneware; Tottori plates share house with indigo-dyed materials, altogether creating an area that feels eclectic but coherent. The commonality? The mark of the hand — a top quality Ellis values over mere magnificence.
Regardless of this, Ellis notes the early mingei motion was Eurocentric in its affect, starting to hunt inspiration from Africa and South America solely within the Sixties. Mogi affords a choice of African artwork items, which Ellis sees as having an affinity with Japanese craft. “There’s a typical perception that mingei shares its sensibilities with Scandinavian design, however I’m skeptical of that. Certain, there’s a shared emphasis on performance, however I see extra kinship between Japanese and African artwork.” The parallels, he argues, lie not solely in aesthetics however a religious utility — objects performing as vessels for ritual, not simply ornament. Japan’s masks, costumes and non secular icons echo West African sculpture and textiles of their embodiment of spirits and unseen forces. “It’s not artwork for artwork’s sake.”
The Future: Crafting Continuity
Ellis has at all times recognized his function lies in choice slightly than creation. “I attempted my hand at ceramics in Okinawa,” he admits, “however realized I didn’t have the expertise for it. I do know I’m good at choosing — that’s the place my power lies.” This readability of objective defines Mogi People Artwork and pushes it ahead — Ellis’ curatorial intuition pairs with Kitamura’s nuanced method to maker relationships. “My mission is discovering the center floor between our commissions and the specialisms of native makers,” she explains.
Their philosophy extends to Mogi’s clothes line, which the pair designs solely in-house. Rejecting the dilution that plagues many small or avant-garde manufacturers (Ellis: “Designers usually begin with one thing nice, then need to water it down on account of time and price”), they select to deal with easy, elemental items: smocks, T-shirts, sneakers, and shortly, jackets. The palettes — indigo, khaki, beige — mirror the earthy tones of their objects, as if translating folks artwork’s materiality into wearable kind. Every garment is produced by longtime Beams connections, utilizing materials chosen for his or her high quality and longevity over development, and the result’s clothes that exudes a quiet confidence.
Final yr, Ellis and Kitamura expanded their imaginative and prescient additional with a brand new devoted gallery house a number of doorways down. Open on Saturday, Sunday and Monday, Mogi & Mogi Gallery Store serves as a showcase for one-off, standout items, and infrequently spotlights missed voices: ladies artists sidelined by Japan’s male-dominated craft historical past, and older makers with missed archives. Regardless of gathering for therefore a few years, Ellis fondly recollects the primary masterwork he obtained — a bowl by the famend mingei potter Shoji Hamada. “I had encountered mingei objects earlier than, however this was one thing else. It was the primary time I believed, ‘If I don’t purchase this, I gained’t be capable of sleep!’”
At its core, Ellis and Kitamura stay pushed by their mission to create areas the place others would possibly really feel this identical spark, proving by the quiet energy of choice that when an object speaks for itself, it wants no rationalization.
Extra Data
Mogi People Artwork is open every week from Thursday to Monday.
Mogi & Mogi Gallery Store is open on Saturday, Sunday and Monday or by appointment.
For extra data, go to their website or discover them on Instagram at @mogi_folk_art and @mogi_and_mogi.
