Steve Beimel is deeply devoted to preserving and revitalizing traditional Japanese crafts. With a long standing residency in Japan off and on since the early 1970s, and a passion for Japanese culture, Steve has been a significant figure in promoting mutual understanding and exchange between Asia and the rest of the world. Armed with an M.A. in Applied Counselling Psychology, Steve has not only been involved in the world of travel and tourism through his company, Esprit Travel & Tours, but also runs A to B Seminars, helping individuals clarify and achieve their goals. Steve’s most notable venture, JapanCraft21 (JC21), was established to combat the rapid decline of traditional Japanese crafts (dentou kougei). The initiative aims to breathe new life into these crafts by identifying the challenges artisans face and implementing modern solutions suitable for the 21st century. To achieve this, JC21 organizes annual Japan Traditional Craft Revitalization contests, which seek exceptional project ideas from talented individuals with a deep passion for preserving traditional crafts.

To further support this cause,  Steve co-founded the School of  Traditional Building Arts (Shin Machiya Juku) in Kyoto. The school’s  intensive 12- to 18-month-long courses,  accommodating young working  tradespeople, offer expertise ranging  from joinery to carpentry, bamboo  mud wall construction to plastering,  and advanced garden building to  Japanese gardening.  

With a firm commitment to  preserving Japan’s rich cultural  heritage and traditional crafts,  JapanCraft21 continues to make  significant progress in fostering a new  generation of artisans and promoting  the appreciation of these priceless  crafts worldwide. 

What originally attracted you to Japan? How did it become so  essential to your life?  

I first arrived in Japan as a young  man, fresh out of school in search of  a new adventure. I felt a very strong  connection to Japan from the very  beginning and felt like I had entered a  parallel universe in comparison to my  hometown in California, and I wanted  to stay. 

Can you give us an overall picture of  the state, or landscape, of Japanese  crafts today and how it has changed  since WWII? 

I can speak about crafts from the early  1970s, from my personal experience.  When I first came to Japan, traditional  crafts were more a part of people’s  everyday lives than what you see  today. About forty years ago there were  

whom are at or beyond retirement  age. Men wore wooden geta, and fish  shops wrapped fresh fish in kyogi,  wood sliced as thin as paper. Many  women wore kimono as their everyday  clothing. Up until the 1970s, successful  merchants and the heads of small and  middle-sized businesses were mentors  in society. They often studied tea, built  tea houses and were patrons of the  crafts world. This began to disappear  when golf became popular. There were  thousands of craftspeople living in the  neighbourhoods of Kyoto—masters  working with bamboo or lacquer,  potters, and those involved in the  highly collaborative kimono-producing  world. In my own neighbourhood  there remain weavers, yuzen dyers, a  miya daiku (shrine) carpenter and a  Buddhist altar maker, though most are  retired now. 

Can you briefly describe the  “ecology” of one craft in Kyoto?  In your opinion, what makes  Japanese crafts unique and distinct  from other forms of craftsmanship  around the world? 

When I first came to  Japan, traditional crafts  were more a part of  people’s everyday  lives than what you  see today. About forty  years ago there were  300,000 working Master  craftspeople in Japan,  whereas today there  are between 50,000 to  60,000. 


Traditional wooden house frame with joinery and no nails, by Gion Naito Komuten

Carrying bag made with leather yarn woven on traditional wooden Tango chirimen loom  by Kuska Fabric

Our approach and our main work is simple— to identify one problem at a time, create a  suitable strategy for solving that problem and  then put it into action. 

When I speak about crafts, I’m  specifically referring to master crafts,  based on methodology that has been  passed down for hundreds of years  and in some cases, over 1,000 years,  with skills that have been relentlessly  honed and refined generation to  generation. Beyond the discussion of  the crafts themselves, it is important  to understand the source of the  craftsmanship. In Japan it is called the  Takumi spirit, a philosophy based on  intense focus, cooperation with nature,  learning through trial and error,  constant innovation, uncompromising  quality, and reaching for an elusive  perfection just beyond one’s reach.  This often-untold description can be  felt by touching and using a master  craft item, so the crafts actually speak  for themselves. We see examples of  this kind of commitment to excellence  throughout the world, but I venture to  say that few places if any can compare  to Japan in scope, with possibly 1,300  craft genres within the culture. 

 I find the Japanese approach to  crafts-making fascinating. Generally  speaking, the master does not directly  teach an apprentice, but rather the  apprentice learns to master skills  through observation and imitation. If  apprentices were taught exactly what  to do instead of learning by trial and  error, their abilities would be very  limited because they wouldn’t have  had the opportunity to learn from  their mistakes. Even though it takes  much longer to learn by trial and error,  the skill level of such an apprentice is  infinitely greater than one who was  taught directly. This fairly consistent  training method has produced  legendary craftspeople in Japan for  centuries. 

Japanese crafts often require the collaboration of numerous independent workshops to create one finished work and the number of  workshops involved increases with the  complexity of the piece. For example,  unlike the flat weaving commonly  found around the world, highly  complex Japanese obi sash weaving  is 3-dimensional, with layers of  weave overlapping others. From the  designers’ drawing, a specialist creates  a zuan (design plan) to configure a  Jacquard loom for different colored  threads to be placed by a weaver. A  craftsman’s custom hand-dyed yarn  is threaded onto the loom by another  specialist. The weft threads are often  washi paper affixed with gold leaf and  urushi lacquer in patterns made by  another craftsperson, to be sliced into  1/64 inch strips by a specialist cutter.  Embroidery may be added before it is  tailored into a finished garment by yet  another person. 

What inspired you to create  Japancraft21 and establish  an online platform dedicated to  promoting Japanese crafts and culture?

Having had intimate experiences with  crafts and craft culture in Japan my  entire adult life, I found it very difficult  to watch it disappear so rapidly. I  needed to do something, so I gathered  likeminded friends together and we  created JapanCraft21. Our approach  and our main work is simple—to  identify one problem at a time, create  a suitable strategy for solving that  problem and then put it into action. For  example, when we learned that young  carpenters were no longer taught  Japanese master joinery, we started a  school to train them. When aging silk   dyers in their 70s, 80s, and even 90s  had no one to take over and learn some  of the world’s most rarefied techniques  because they couldn’t afford to support  apprentices, we created a program  to cover apprentice living expenses  while they trained, funded completely  by private donations, mostly from  Japanophiles living abroad. We also  created an educational program to  promote Japanese crafts and culture  online, because the world must be told  that this extraordinary powerhouse of  master craftsmanship, this pinnacle of  achievement of the human hand which  is a treasure for everyone on earth, is  about to disappear. 

Can you provide insights into your  Craft Revitalization Contest? What  criteria are used when curating  the artisans and crafts featured on  Japancraft21’s platform? 

We feel that it takes more than the  ability to create beautiful things to  revitalize a craft genre. Therefore,  we decided to hold an idea contest  instead of a craft contest. The winner  must be involved with traditional  Japanese methodolog y, have  excellent fabrication skills, and have  a clear strategy for revitalization.  Their crafts must be relevant to  our lives and thus hold promise for  future development. They must be  functional crafts. Our judges pay  particular attention to the design  appeal and saleability of the work. 

Hand-planed wooden chair; cushions made from crocheted washi yarn, coated in sumi ink. Tokunaga Furniture Workshop

I often say that Japan’s best kept secret is Japan,  itself, in that most of the world, including most  Japanese, do not sufficiently grasp the genius  of the crafts in our midst. We believe that simply awarding  a prize is not enough to ensure  revitalization of a craft, so following  the award ceremony, we focus our  energy on supporting and promoting  our Craft Leaders (contest finalists).  We introduce these leaders to potential  clients, provide opportunities for  exhibiting and will soon begin  promoting them on a special site aimed  at designers, architects, curators, and  gallerists around the world. 

Can you share a success story  or memorable experience that exemplifies the positive influence  Japancraft21 has had on an artisan  or a community?  

We chose kimono designer and producer Asako Takemi as one of our 2021 Craft Leaders. The near  meltdown of Kyoto’s once booming  kimono industry over the past twenty  years has seen the disappearance  of world class dyers from the job  market. Working with Takemi-san, we  assisted her in creating an apprentice  program where the rarefied skills  of ten of Kyoto’s most highly skilled  dyers are being passed on to three  highly motivated dyers in their 30s.  By choosing three apprentices who  already have extensive dye work  experience, the required training time  is greatly reduced. By guaranteeing  their living expenses, they were able  to quit their unrelated day jobs so as to  concentrate full time on training their  way to mastership.  

Although the dye apprentice  program is still new, we are  promoting Takemi-san’s designs for  both kimono and Western clothes  through exhibitions and personal  introductions. Her work has been  very well received, and the prospects  of providing work for the three  apprentices in training are excellent. 

What challenges have you faced in  bridging the gap between Japanese  artisans and a global audience?  How have you worked to overcome  these challenges? 

I often say that Japan’s best kept  secret is Japan, itself, in that most of  the world, including most Japanese  do not sufficiently grasp the genius of  the crafts in our midst. Whereas most  people in the global audience assume  that Japanese lacquer is a cheap paint  from the hardware store, it is our job  to teach them that urushi is a natural  sap and each tree only produces 200  grams of the precious material, and  that it is applied layer upon layer in  a painstaking process that can take  months to complete and results in a  deeper and harder gloss finish than  the finest auto finishes available. Until  they grasp the value, exquisite urushi  lacquer ware has to compete with low priced items which require minimal  skill level to produce. Considering the  large number of craft genres in Japan,  there is a steep learning curve for the  global audience. 

Looking ahead, what are your future  plans and aspirations? 

Future plans include many more  funded apprenticeships. We have nine  this year, but I know that number  needs to be exponentially higher.  We want to expand our training of  young carpenters in advanced wood  joinery. Our affiliate Gion Naito Komuten is currently building the  first authentic wooden, nail-less  machiya in ninety years, with eco friendly modern conveniences. We  hope that one day, Kyoto will again  be known as a handcrafted wooden  city. We hope our Craft Leaders group  of twenty will grow to one hundred,  with each one sharing the spirit of  hand craftsmanship appropriate for  modern living. 

Let us continue to remember that  masterfully crafted functional works  connect us both to nature as well as  to the people who made them and  bring us great fulfillment through use. They are the perfect answer to  sterile, AI produced goods. We hope  that careers in master craftsmanship  will once again hold great promise  and appeal to talented young people.  We also hope that our efforts will give  attention to people who are geniuses  with their hands and give them all the  admiration accordingly deserved.  

Sliding washi paper panel  

Images:

1. Bench made with Yoshino cedar by Kenta Hirai

2. Gold leaf applied to silk kimono by Itoko Silk Company

3. Carpentry joinery by Gion-Naito Company4. Hand-woven leather and silk bag by Kuska Fabric5. Hand-dyed silk – banana leaf motif with oyster shell dye — Takemi Asako 6. Hand-planed wooden chair by Tokunaga Furniture Studio7. 

Hand-planed wooden chair and crocheted paper cushions dyed in natural calligraphy ink by Tokunaga Furniture Studio

8. Wooden surfboard coated with Japanese Urushi lacquer by Siita Surfboards

9. Bench made with Yoshino cedar by Kenta Hirai

10. Natural washi sliding doors by mounter Toshihiko Inoue


The article was produced by the Kyoto Journal, a non-profit magazine offering insights from Kyoto, Japan, and Asia. The article was written by Creole J. Wihongi.