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.
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.
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.