Beauty from Poverty

European food--Every blasted plate

Is round.

From such light senryu poetry, limited to 17 Japanese syllables, and their strictly modular architecture, down to the way farmers bundle hay as if it were a semiprecious material, the Japanese are artists to their fingertips, and their tight little island is a showcase for the crafts.

Early in their history, the Japanese learned to conserve the natural mate rials of their narrow archipelago, and their arts reflect this economy. A rice bowl, a fob (or netsuke), a lantern, kites and kimonos--each became a masterpiece of workmanship. In fact, not until the late 19th century was there even a word for fine arts, as opposed to mingei, or folk skills. As Manhattan's Asia House Gallery currently shows (see opposite page), the roots of Japanese art lie deep in its tradition of anonymous craftsmanship.

Feudalism in old Japan was so strict that lords could even dictate what color and what kind of clothing their serfs could wear. Craftsmen were restricted to certain specialized skills, such as carving, lacquering, throwing clay, screening silk. And during lifetimes of limited expression, they became surpassing experts at their narrow specialty. For example, etna, often painted reliefs of white horses, were Shinto offerings that recall live horses dedicated to the god spirit Kami, who rode a sacred horse while blessing his worshipers. Ema horses were bought for a song and were left in temples; but they were executed with such extraordinary craftsmanship that they are today treasured as works of art.

The high point of mingei came during the Edo period, a time of Japanese prosperity in isolation preceding Admiral Perry's naval foray, which in 1853 opened the door to the West. Folk art was austere, subdued, even restrained in its lack of showy flourish and its casual asymmetry. The anonymous artisan's ideal was shibui, which translates as "astringent" or, as a contemporary mingei potter defines it, "ordered poverty." Mingei is still created in Japan today; the Japan Folk Craft Society has 3,000 members and the government has named 31 craftsmen as living "Intangible Cultural Assets." And though critics deplore the endless stream of lacquerware and transistorized radios sold by Japan to the world, few criticize the elegance of such objects. Even in an age of industrialization, craftsmanship still remains a living tradition as old as Japan.

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