Vue de l'exposition "L'esprit Mingei au Japon"
30 Sep 2008 11 Jan 2009

The spirit of 'Mingei' in Japan

Folk art design

The exhibition encourages the visitor to reflect on the relationship, established during the 20th century, between the rediscovery of certain traditional arts and international modern art through design.

About the exhibition

"This exhibition is based on a specific case-that of the thinker Yanagi Soetsu, promoter of the “Mingei” movement, and his son, Yanagi Sori, who was a premier post-war  designer. The exhibition encourages the visitor to reflect on the relationship, established during the 20th century, between the rediscovery of certain traditional arts and international modern art through design.


This dynamic emerges from a strictly ethnographic and anthropological perception of traditional folk art. Accordingly, it can be inscribed within a specific historical context: that of Japan during the first half of the 20th century (until the end of the 1950’s). It also has to do with an aesthetic, moral and formal perspective that is echoed today by the “original forms” of certain contemporary designers."


The exhibition curator's statement of intention

  • Exhibition curator

    • Germain Viatte

    Assistant curator

    • Akemi Shiraha
  • Place:   Galerie Jardin
  • TimeSlots:  
    From Tuesday 30 September 2008 at Sunday 11 January 2009
  • Closed on monday
    Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday:  10:30 am-07:00 pm
    Thursday:  10:30 am-10:00 pm
  • Public:   All publics
  • Categorie : Exhibitions

The word "Mingei"

The word “Mingei” is an abbreviation for “minshuteki kogeï,” which means “folk art,” or “popular art, created by the people, for the people.”

A thinker and man of action, Yanagi Soetsu campaigned his entire life for the promotion of folk art. He did this through writings, most notably in the monthly publication, “Kogeï (which means “folk art”), through teaching and through exhibitions. He built the "Nihon Mingeikan" in Tokyo in 1936, in the spirit of Mingei and using its traditional techniques.

It is important to state that there is no cause-effect relationship between the development of the Mingei Movement and the rise in Japanese nationalism and imperialism between the two world wars that occurs simultaneously. Already in 1919, Yanagi Soetsu wrote about his disagreement with Japan’s policy of military aggression. Moreover, in 1924, he dedicated the National Folk Art Museum of Korea in Seoul (the first of its kind in Asia) to the “beauty of Korean art,” and transformed it into a personal testimony of his “deep respect and affection for Korea.”