Reigniting the Heat of the Craft Industry | A Rising Star of Japan's "OpenFactory" Events: RENEW

In recent years, the production regions of Japanese "monozukuri (craftsmanship)[ Note1]" have been swept by a craze for "OpenFactory (Open Factory)." Unlike permanent exhibitions set up for tourists, "OpenFactory" throws open the factory gates that normally bar strangers and refuse visitors, within a set period of time, allowing the public to observe the making of craft and industrial products, experience the unadorned production process of the factory,and see the factory's most real and most everyday appearance.

When speaking of Japan's "open factories," one cannot fail to mention the Tsubame-Sanjo "Kouba Matsuri (Factory Festival)" in Niigata Prefecture. Helmed by renowned Japanese creative director Yu Yamada, the Tsubame-Sanjo "Kouba Matsuri," since it was first held in2013, created astonishing buzz and visitor numbers, with participating companies surpassing100and visitors exceeding 50,000, thus whipping up an open-factory craze across production regions in Japan, and earning its reputation as the trendsetter of Japan's open-factory events.

Among them, in recent years another open-factory event has risen abruptly,2015the Fukui Prefecture "RENEW" that began in2017grew explosively, with the number of factories opening their doors and visitor numbers fast approaching the records of the "Kouba Matsuri," making it a rising star in the "open-factory world."

A production-region settlement where seven crafts converge

This rising star was born in Sabae, Fukui Prefecture. Mention the place name and most people probably find it unfamiliar, but if you bring up the well-known Japanese eyewear brand "Kaneko Optical," perhaps it no longer seems so unfamiliar, and this is exactly where Kaneko Optical is produced; more precisely, this is the major production region for Japanese-made eyewear, because as much as96%of Japan-made eyewear is produced here.

Local craftsmen say that because Fukui's winters bring snow and are the slack farming season, side businesses began to develop during the winter slack season. Besides the eyewear industry, these side businesses also included lacquerware. "Hokkaido's snow is powdery, Fukui's snow is wet." The craftsmen say this place has high mist and high humidity, perfectly suited to lacquerware making, so lacquerware production began during the slack farming season. To this day, the Kawada district of Sabae has become an important production region for Japanese lacquerware, accounting for as much as 80 percent of Japan's domestic production of lacquerware for business use.

If the scope is expanded further, drawing a circle with a ten-kilometer radius centered on Sabae brings seven crafts and industries together at once: besides eyewear and lacquerware, there is Echizen washi paper with a history of 1,500 years, Echizen forged blades with a history of 700 years, Echizen tansu (clothing chests) that began in the late Edo period, Echizen ware (pottery), one of Japan's six ancient kilns, and silk textiles and fibers that have developed since the Nara period.

Back toRENEWthe main topic,2015inRENEWthe first edition of22was originally just a "factory tour event" in the Kawada district of Sabae, with only37workshops participating, growing to2017workshops by the second edition, but in85the third edition, in collaboration with Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten, a leading Japanese craft company, the scope was expanded at a stroke, linking the craft workshops within that ten-kilometer radius on a large scale, so the number of participating workshops in the third edition leaped to21and the number of visitors actually multiplied4.2times to2018ten thousand. In110the number of participating workshops climbed further toRENEWmaking

Migrant youth+Local craft craftsmen=An energy-explodingRENEWgrand event

Speaking of the opportunity for holdingRENEWone cannot fail to mention Naohiro Niiyama, the designer who moved to the Kawada district and set up a design office there called "TSUGI." Niiyama says, "Because this is a monozukuri (craftsmanship) production region, if the manufacturing industry has no vitality, the town can't have vitality either," so the design work of "TSUGI" all revolves around the local manufacturing industry, whether it is design work for craft products, or creating a new brand from waste generated in the eyewear manufacturing process, or taking local craft products to exhibitions in various places. And theRENEWevent was a large-scale event planned under the inspiration of the Tsubame-Sanjo "Kouba Matsuri," in order to reignite the vitality of local craftsmen.

The story at the time was that Yasuhiko Taniguchi, head of Taniguchi Optical, an eyewear manufacturer in the Kawada district, and neighboring lacquerware craftsmen set up an organization called "Kawada no Mon," and sought out designer Naohiro Niiyama for discussion. The two shared the same idea of "wanting to share the good things of this place with more people," so they decided to model it on the Tsubame-Sanjo Kouba Matsuri and launch an event with the concept of "open factories." This event idea then gained the support of the craftsmen of "Kawada no Mon," forming the list of participating companies for the first edition, and Yasuhiko Taniguchi also becameRENEWchairman of the executive committee.

In other words, this is a production-region grand event created jointly by migrant youth and local craft craftsmen, with the planning and ideas of the migrant young designers on one side, and the mobilization and support of local craftsmen on the other. And after two years of cooperation between the two sides, in2017an outside partner organization joined——Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten, a leading Japanese craft company, creating astonishing growth and outstanding results.

The event's astonishing performance was not only in astonishing quantitative records, but also produced qualitative changes for the production region. Mr. Uchida, an eighth-generation lacquerware craftsman in the Kawada district, says, "There were once as many as200lacquerware workshops here, but now only about20remain." In such a general environment of decline in the craft industry, local craftsmen originally did not dare to envision the future, and even gradually lost confidence. But the holding ofRENEWnot only made the production region seem to have a glimmer of life, with local craftsmen beginning to regain confidence and vitality, but also, beyond factory operations, ideas of turning toward the tourism industry began to emerge.

For example, Mr. Nishikogori, a lacquerer of Echizen lacquerware, originally thought his remaining ten years in the business would be forced into a "soft landing," that is, gradually declining growth, but because of the stimulation of theRENEWevent, Mr. Nishikogori's thinking underwent a 180-degree change: encouraged by the2017event, he decided that starting in2018he would convert the workshop into a permanently open workshop that could be visited and shopped year-round, with reservation-based hands-on experiences added. Mr. Nishikogori was not the only craftsman to make such a change; over four years, as many as eleven local workshops set up experience and shopping spaces for tourists.

Looking forward to the participation of the Taiwan craft team next year

2019TheRENEWof12-14was held on19in October, but unfortunately coincided with the12typhoon known as "the strongest typhoon in Japanese history"; the event on13-14was forced to be cancelled amid wind and rain and disrupted public transport, while the event on

was held as scheduled at the tail end of the typhoon. Although visitor numbers were lower than in the past due to the weather, enthusiastic craft fans still brought the roads of the Kawada district to a standstill at one point./ひと/The event content also continued past traditions, with tours and hands-on workshops hosted by local workshops, as well as pop-up shops and food stalls, and also invited groups revitalizing localities from various towns and villages in Japan to take part in the "Town, People, Work (machiEXPOshigoto) joint exhibition," along with various "Fukui migration

" lecture events tempting everyone to move to Fukui.RENEWWhat is worth recording is that, through the introduction of Mr. Toru Uchida, a lacquerware craftsman of "Shurindō," Lai Xinyou, a third-generation lacquerware creator from Taiwan, China, was also invited toRENEWthe event to give a talk on the history of lacquerware in Taiwan, China, and RENEW's planner Naohiro Niiyama promised that this was only a beginning, and looked forward to future

Third-generation lacquerware creator from Taiwan, China Lai Xinyou (third from left), fourth-generation ceramic art creator from Taiwan, China Lin Xinjie (fourth from left), local lacquerware craftsman Mr. Toru Uchida (fifth from left)

Opening the factory gates, rediscovering people's closeness to making

Kaori Kai, author of "Making Just the Right Amount (Hodoyoi Ryō o Tsukuru)" (working title), says that in Japan before the 30th year of Showa, in the era of grandmothers and great-grandmothers, Japanese people made all kinds of things in daily life with their own hands: not to mention foodstuffs like rice, vegetables, beans, and tea, but daily utensils were made from wood, bamboo weaving, and so on, clothes were woven by themselves, and houses were built together with craftsmen using timber, so people were not at all unfamiliar with where the things around them came from. But in today's era of mass production and consumption, we are increasingly unfamiliar with the objects around us, increasingly do not understand how objects are made, and increasingly cannot see the "process of making."RENEWWhether it is