Living Traditions: The Past and Future of Kogei

This is a free event. RSVP for free admission to this discussion and reception.

Artisans, especially those who engage in kogei (traditional crafts), construct the essence of Japanese culture. Kogei are handmade items produced from raw materials collected according to traditional practices and manufactured using traditional techniques. Kogei pieces are common items such as baskets, pottery and lacquerware used in daily life, but the artists who create them often devote their lives to honing their skills, and their works are elevated as art and exhibited in galleries and museums around the globe.

However, with changing lifestyles and technologies, it is becoming difficult to maintain kogei culture, and there are fewer and fewer artists who continue their kogei work. Further, on January 1, 2024, a 7.6 magnitude earthquake struck Japan’s Noto Peninsula. The Noto Earthquake devastated the famed traditional lacquer city of Wajima and destroyed more than half of the city’s 300 lacquer studios.

Now, just after the one year anniversary of the Noto Earthquake, Japan Society’s annual Living Traditions series explores kogei and its history, evolution and future through a 60-minute in-depth conversation between noted kogei experts Dr. Monika Bincsik and Dr. Michele Bambling and a rare in-person visit from Keiji Onihira, a kogei artist from Wajima, Japan.

After the discussion, all attendees are encouraged to interact with our panelists in a reception and view a display of kogei art pieces, including kogei from regions impacted by the Noto Earthquake. 

Featuring

Keiji Onihira is an urushi (lacquer) artist who was born in 1973 in Wajima City, Ishikawa Prefecture. He is a member of the Japan Kogei Association and Wajima Lacquerware Techniques Preservation Society, an organization dedicated to preserving Important Intangible Cultural Properties. At the age of 18, Onihira began his apprenticeship under the renowned maki-e (a technique focused on applying metallic power to wet lacquer) master Sadahisa Kumano. After completing the maki-e course at the Ishikawa Prefectural Wajima Lacquer Arts Training Institute, Onihira’s work has been selected multiple times for exhibitions such as the Exhibition of Japanese Traditional Urushi Works and the Japan Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition. Onihira has also taken part in cultural development initiatives organized by the Agency for Cultural Affairs, particularly in the field of maki-e production. In 2023, he became a member of the Wajima Lacquerware Techniques Preservation Society, where he continues to work towards preserving the traditional techniques of maki-e. He has received the Asahi Shimbun Prize at the Exhibition of Japanese Traditional Urushi Works, the Mayor of Kanazawa Award at the Ishikawa Traditional Art Crafts Exhibition, the Public Recognition Prize at the Ishikawa Prefecture Culture Awards and more.

Dr. Monika Bincsik is Diane and Arthur Abbey Curator for Japanese Decorative Arts at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. She has organized numerous exhibitions for the museum, notably Kimono Style: The John C. Weber Collection (2022); Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination (2019); Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection (2017); and Discovering Japanese Art: American Collectors and the Met (2015). She has published extensively on Japanese decorative arts and collecting history, recently in Kimono Style: Edo Traditions to Modern Design (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2022) and The Tale of Genji: A Japanese Classic Illuminated (The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 2019).

Dr. Michele Bambling, Senior Director of the Japan Society Gallery, holds Ph.D., M.Phil. and M.A. degrees from Columbia University in art history, specializing in Japanese art. She received a post-doctorate Jane and Morgan Whitney Fellowship from The Metropolitan Museum of Art where she also worked as a researcher in the Department of Asian Art. Dr. Bambling was an Associate Professor of Art History at Zayed University and New York University Abu Dhabi before joining Japan Society. Dr. Bambling has more than three decades of expertise with Japanese art as well as extensive international curatorial experience, including curator of the UAE National Pavilion at the Venice Architecture Biennale (2014) and co-curator of the UAE Pavilion at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival (2022).

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The Living Traditions series is co-presented with the Japan Institute of Portland Japanese Garden and supported by the Government of Japan.

Japan Society programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature. Additional support for cultural programs is provided by an anonymous donor and the Sandy Heck Lecture Fund.