NEW TRADITIONAL Project
NEW TRADITIONAL Project started in 2019 by
Tanpopo-no-ye Foundation, a Nara-based nonproﬁto r g a n i z a t i o n i n J a p a n . Fo c u s i n g o n t h e n e w
possibilities that arise when people in the welfare
ﬁeld, including people with disabilities, meettraditional craftsmanship, we have carried out various
activities that link communities, welfare and arts andc ra f t s , s u c h a s c o l l a b o ra t i v e p r o d u c t i o n a n de x h i b i t i o n s b e t w e e n w e lf a re i n s t i t u t i o n s a n d
designers, research trips to materials and production
areas, and technical exchanges between craftspeople
and people with disabilities.
In 2002, we launched the “NEW TRADITIONAL School”,
a series of public lectures where participants can learn
from each other about the values, processes andmethods of craftsmanship/manufacturing and related
issues.

About this Booklet
This booklet tells you the stories of the funexperiments and practices that took place during the
NEW TRADITIONAL project. Paying attention to thephysical sensations of touching materials and the
movements when making things, we bring together
our thoughts and the inspiration we have encountered
while working with our hands.

15 Memorandum on New Traditional ProjectThroughout the New Traditional Project, we have gained a lot of insight and inspiration from thehandiworks and learned from the people we have met in different local communities of Japan.
The following is a memorandum of 15 things that are important in creative handicraft making.

1. Handicraft Making with Love and Player'Traditional craftsmanship is ﬁlled with peopleʼs love and prayer.'
Yasuo Harima, the founder of the Tanpopo-no-ye Foundation said. Instead of the selﬁshness ofmass-production, he wishes to review what is already there and revalue the life and culture
behind each product. We often remembered the words throughout the project.
One day, when we tackled to make products out of dead forest trees on the grounds of the
Kasuga Taisha Shrine in Nara, the owner of a pottery gallery, “Soramitsu”, Asuka Goi, suggested
we could make candleholders. Even on busy days, having time to light a candle can lead to apeaceful, relaxing moment. We were struck by this simple fact, and at the same time realized that
we could also present the importance of such quality time through products.

2. Love the Presence Itself
Kokeshi, wooden dolls, are folk toys traditionally made in the Tohoku, the northern part ofJapan. It is said that kokeshi dolls were ﬁrst made as souvenirs for children by woodworkers who
produced bowls and other items out of wood in the mountains. In recent years, many people
display these local toys at home and enjoy the presence. Any object has not only the function of
fulﬁlling a speciﬁc purpose, but also the unique presence that attracts certain people. Kokeshi
dolls also may be one of the objects that give people a sense of such 'internal value'.
Whenever we saw some people picking up local toys made by people with disabilities working in
local welfare facilities and heard them say that they were “fun”, “lovely” or “somehow attractive”, we realized that people are drawn to the products that have an appeal that goes beyond
their use.
Sometimes people pray for the health of children, or wish for someone elseʼs happiness.
What are called folk toys imbued with familiarity, attractiveness, and meanings that cannot be
logically explained.

3. Be a Maker From a User
On one occasion, we were preparing a green tea ceremony and asked Satoe Moriya who organizes
a bakery shop and salon, ippo plus, in Nara, to be the tea master. However, she suggested otherway, stating, “Wouldnʼt it be so fun if someone with disabilities took over the tea master role?”
Then, Ryusuke Hanatani who worked at the Good Job! Center, a welfare facility for people withdisabilities took the role instead. Mr. Hanatani practiced with Ms. Morita on each of the tea utensils, prepared seasonal sweets and shared the teatime with the guests that day. Not only did weenjoy a place that had already been prepared forus, but we also prepared the hospitality and created the place for the guests with our own hands,
which gave us the certainty that we were able tointeract more deeply with the visitors.
Whenever we try to make something new, we haveto go out to prepare the materials or ask someone
what we donʼt know. The process brings joy andencounters. By making something of ourselves, we
can see the potential for building new local communities, socially including people with disabilities.

4. Anyone Can Build, Anyone Can Fix
In Nara, there is an ancient road (Yamanobe no Michi) that connects the north and south of the
Nara Basin, which is mentioned in Japan's oldest history book, the Kojiki, which was publishedaround 1300 years ago. Maki Takahashi and Tsukasa Isomura who work at the INAX Live
Museum, a museum specializing in clay and ceramics were involved in the publication of a bookon the existing buildings made of mud in the area. When we visited the area together, we were
surprised to ﬁnd that many huts made of rustic mud walls still remain after a long time. The mud
walls, which are made up of layers of various stones and soils in sizes told us that the people who
lived there had continued to repair the walls with great care whenever they collapsed.
On another occasion, an architect, Kazuya Morita, showed us a clay wall on the grounds of the
Daitokuji Temple in Kyoto. The clay walls were made from the soil of the ground there. Craftsmen
and residents at different times seem to have been repaired the weathered parts.
When an object has a simple structure and is made from readily available materials, it can beeasily used and reconstructed by anyone. Making and repairing products by yourself helps you
understand the basic structure and system, and deepens your relationship with them.

5. Product-Making That Embraces Naturally Occurring Variability
and Playfulness
In product development, expected standards are often set for “no variation from one product toanother”, judging as right or wrong, within or outside the standard. This is no exception even for
handmade products made in local welfare facilities.
When a graphic designer, Katsunobu Yoshida, a traditional hand-woven rug workshop Yonezawa
Dantsu, Takizawa Kobo, and three Yamagata-based welfare institutions where people withdisabilities worked together to create new types of traditional rugs, they set only minimal rules
such as using small geometric ﬁgures (e.g. dots and crosses etc.) to draw the patterns and the
traditional weaving technique to insert the wool pile. While these minimum rules were set up,each maker was able free to decide how to draw the patterns by themselves.
By keeping the rules to a minimum, individual uniqueness and playfulness occurred with a senseof humor and some digressions. As a result, many other people with disabilities were able toparticipate in the project. Such a non-judgmental atmosphere helps each personʼs creativity,
expression and uniqueness. Perhaps, by ﬁrst creating such a system that can cultivate individual
creativity, new creative things can emerge.

6. Products Made by Anonymous People/ Products Made by an Identiﬁable Person
When creating products, the actions and involvement of a maker will appear as an attractive result,and division of the work among several people will also induce such an attractive outcome.
There is a work titled “miamoo“, created by Sachiko Fukuoka,
an artist who works in hand weaving at the open studio of Tanpopo-no-ye. The bold tangles and fraying of the threads show
traces of her weaving with only her left hand.
Meanwhile, there is one initiative we had developed to create morejobs for more people with disabilities to work. At the Tanpopo-no-ye,
clay objects named "Yakuyoke Oni,", which had been madeentirely by hand for 20 years, was changed to a casting method
using plaster molds. This new method has created a clear divisionof each task: pouring clay into plaster molds, baking the dough,ﬁring, and painting, allowing each person to work in their own
area of expertise.

There are products made by hand, where the traces of the person who made them remain, andthose made through the division of labor, where many people are involved. Both have their own
unique charm, and both are great.

7. Appreciate the Joy of the Creation Process
A product designer, Fumi Kawasaki, is willing to stick to a traditional method of using aseaweed-based glue in papier-mâché making. One of the reasons for this is the pleasant touch of
the glue when it is applied to the paper.
In a Washi-paper-making project, Kawasaki co-worked with people with disabilities who had
attended a community workshop in Tottori, Art Space Colorful, and came up with a number of new
ways to make Washi rice paper in order to let them know how good it feels and how much fun it
is. She made molds that could be used to make paper in the shape of character (that was drawn
by a person with disabilities) by scooping pulp material into the hollows of the molds. They also
made paper with a galaxy-like pattern using many small balls rolled up by hand. The cooperative
works made in a novel way far removed from the conventional washi paper making method, also
conveyed the "joy of making" to the viewer too.
It takes time to make things by hand. But the process also brings us joys, such as the comfort oftouching the natural materials and the increasing attachment to the homemade product. Sharing
these feelings and sensations, which are difﬁcult to verbalize or quantify, while actually working
with our hands may be one of the ways to feel closer to traditional craftsmanship.

8. Use What Is in Front of You and at Your Feet as Material“There are opportunities to create things close at hand.”
These words comes from Koji Takahashi, a product designer in Tokoname, one of Japanʼs famous
pottery towns. One day, he was digging in the ground to build a fence at a welfare facility, Work
Center Kajima, where he also did some contract design work. As he dug deeper into the ground,
he found a clay layer that seemed to be in common with the soil used in the Tokoname ceramicindustry, that he realized. Then, he started a mud dyeing project based on the soil.
Without procuring special materials from somewhere far away, what is at hand sometimes infront of you or at your feet can be used as materials for making things. The materials can provide
clues to make you think about local industry and history, and bring you more attachment and
pride in what you have made with your own hands. Of course, one convenient way is using materials
that can be easily purchased at stores. However, there must be aspects of making products thatcan only be passed on by using local materials and that can be born out of the culture and climateof the area.

9. Discover a New Way of Making with Familiar Material as a New Tool
Generally, making wood products requires bulky power tools and hand tools such as knives. So awoodworker, Yoshio Sakai, and we wondered if there was another easier way for people withdisabilities to work on wood. Then, we came up
with a simple method of hammering the wood
surfaces ‒ just like hammering a metal pot- tocreate an uneven pattern, and ﬁnishing by polishing.
This method can be used anyone who likes torepeat the same process or who are not good atengaging in detailed tasks can also work on it. We
hope that this will invite those who normally ﬁnd it
difﬁcult to participate in the work, to create someattractive things.
As Nara is a wood-production area, including
Yoshino Cedar, there are wood workshops andshops dealing in rare natural woods. From there, we were able to purchase surplus lumber, leftover
products after making building and tableware. In the beginning, we used a round hammer for wood
surfaces, but one day, on the way to purchase wood, we noticed some stones on the river bank.
What kind of patterns we would make if we used stones like ancient stone tools? Out of curiosity,
we decided to give it a try.
When we actually tried it, we found that the stones were easy to handle, and anyone could easily
participate in creating the surface with a different texture. Each “maker” chose a stone that had ashape they liked or that ﬁtted well in their hand, and created their own unique pattern by hammering.
Whatever we make, there may be various alternative ways of doing that are different from what we
think we should do based on the past knowledge and experience. We may also discover new waysof making by going back to ancient or traditional ways rooted in our local culture.
Stones can also be picked up and returned to the riverbank when we have ﬁnished using them.
if we can use tools for a long time but give them away when they are no longer needed. Not only
materials but also tools can be circulated again- such usage is refreshing and pleasant.

10. Handicraft with Nature
We have raised silkworms every spring at the Good Job! Center
since a textile artist, Mayumi Terakawa, suggested us. After thesilkworm, a living creature, came to our welfare facility, we havechanged the way we use space and perceive time. While silkworm
farmers raise silkworms four to ﬁve times until autumn, we take careof them from egg to become cocoon in a month by continuing topick mulberry leaves, their staple food, from farms, feeding themand watching them grow.
Traditional craftsmanship is born from nature such as soil,stones, wood, and plants with the blessings of nature. From a tiny
egg, silkworms grow up and make cocoons.
Then, we extract the silk thread from them and make products.
Raising silkworms has made us to realize the origin of craftsmanshipand the fact that we all live in nature.

11. Inheriting the Five Senses
through the Body
Making something in a particular local place seems
to mean inheriting the culture, human relationships,
and physical senses that have been cultivated there
over a long period of time in the community. Today,
we can do so many things just by pressing a button,
and our physical senses are different from those of
the past. The evolution of tools has had a great
impact on our physicality.
Ryuichiro Ando, a dying artist who has been working
to recover the physicality that human originally had by reviewing how we use our bodies in relation
to the objects and tools around us. For example, he traces the body movements when using the
traditional folk tools that people have used in their lives in order to explore a completely different
way of using our bodies than usual.
Tracing the movement with the body without thinking with the mind. This does not necessarilymean that the movements are inherited exactly as they are since they are constantly changing
reﬂecting the personality and movements of the person who is tracing the behavior, as well as thecircumstances of the time.

Culture and art are inherited from the past and passed on to the next generation, while maintaining
a connection to the local community and a real sense of life of the people of the time. We would
like to value the importance of passing on not only techniques, but also sensibilities of the body.

12. Be Flexible in Incorporating Technology
There are many instances where production stops because some essential materials or tools are
no longer available. However, it may be possible to continue making the products by redesigning
the process with alternative ideas and materials. If digital fabrication tools had been available in
Edo period (1603-1867), when real Samurai lived, some craftsmen would have used the tools. We
believe that focusing on what needs to be made and incorporating the most appropriate technology
will lead to sustainable manufacturing.
There is a series of papier-mâché products created at the Good Job! Center. At ﬁrst glance, itappears to be an ordinary folk toy made in a traditional method. However, the process involves a
3D printer, from which, resin was ﬁrst outputted as a mold, then pieces of rice paper and newspaper
were layered alternately. After that, Gofun paint (white paint made from the shells for the undercoat
which are usually used in Japanese painting)and colored paint are applied.
Originally, it started in response to the shortage of craftsmen who could make wooden molds. The useof 3D printers has made it possible to create papier-mâché toys with greater freedom and complexity
now.

13. Thinking Beyond "Make" and "Use”
We have been used a large amount of PLA resin (thermoplastic resin derived from vegetable
matter) to make papier-mâché products at the Good Job! Center since its opening in 2016.
In the process, we have sometimes produced failed products and scrap materials that have become waste.
When we started to think about whether we could utilize the waste material and learn about an
initiative to reuse plastic, we learned about an online open source community for plastic waste to berecycled, Precious Plastic. They share the process of transforming plastic waste into new products
by breaking it into small pieces and applying heat. The information has been shared with many
people on YouTube and other social media.
According to Kazutoshi Tsuda, who has been involved in bio-research and FabLab network, "Products,
like people, have a lifespan, and how people can be involved in that lifespan is crucial”. Instead ofthrowing away materials, we can use materials for a long time, recycle them, and consider theenergy consumption for recycling, the production scale, and the distribution system. For the futureof manufacturing, it is also necessary for welfare institutions to have a greater awareness of theresource circulation beyond just “making” and “using”,

14. Have a Sense of Delivery
A product buyer, Yu Yamada, said that there are three important things to do before selling products:
ﬁrst communicate the value of the product, get people interested in it, and leave a lasting impression.
In a historic metalworking production area for stainless steel products in Tsubame-Sanjo, northern
Japan, he directs an annual event to communicate the product value by inviting buyers and users to
the factories and the sites of manufacturing so that the visitors can see the manufacturing process
and the art of craftsmanship.
By directly visiting the local production site, visitors will buy and use products that are made inthat community. it will lead them to respect the products, the manufacturing process, and thecommunity. Therefore, the purchase of the products is just as important as their production. Thismeans increasing the number of supporters who share the value of the products. Today individual
values are diversifying, the awareness of increasing the number of supporters and friends by delivering
what we make will, in turn, help us to be in a situation where we can continue to make products.

15. The Beauty of Uneven and Feel-a-bit-uneasy Things“When we think about the circulation of products, the use of garbage and waste, we should not
only be concerned with creating products with the same quality. I believe that something thatfeels a bit uncomfortable, uneven, imperfect is more likely to beloved.”
During a meeting, we were struck by the words from Daijiro Mizuno, a design researcher, especially
his affection for the unevenness and irregularities of handmade products. It also made us think
about our future issues and goals, including manufacturing that considers the future circulationof materials, treating the waste as a valuable resource to be recycled/upcycled.
By reusing what have been discarded in the process of manufacturing, any irregularity became
the productʼs attraction. Unique things can be born if we allow ourselves to enjoy and embrace
the irregularity.
After the Great East Japan Earthquake, a design unit, HUMORABO and the Nozomi Welfare
Workshop in Minamisanriku, the affected area, began collaborating to make Washi paper frommilk cartons, newspapers, and paper decorations which had
used in a town festival. Typically, when making paper, theuneven edges had been cut into straight lines, but they leftthem in their "NOZOMI PAPER" series.
They also sell some papers that are warped or not suitable forprinting which are normally considered to be defects as they
are, and named them as “Wild”.
Interestingly, some people became fans of the imperfect characteristics of these papers and bought them. We don't have tostrive for beautifully aligned products, but must have a senseof appreciation for the beauty of uneven, imperfect nature.

Throughout the practices of this New Traditional project, we discovered the fun and the breadthof making. At the same time, we have come to realize that "making” makes us to think about ourown lives and the future.
The system of circulating the right amount of products, which is not possible in mass
production/consumption/disposal, the value that cannot only be measured by efﬁciency, and theattitude of re-examining the culture and materials around us- these are what traditional
craftsmanship has always valued.
Welfare institutions will become great potential places for such a craftsmanship. The more suchplaces can be created in many local areas where people can think about and practice working andliving with quality of life, local tradition and circulation, the more each place can be comfortable
place to live for many more people in our community.

Tanpopo-no-ye Foundation
Tanpopo-no-ye Foundation is a Nara-based nonproﬁtorganization to run the community art center andwelfare facilities. It has conducted various programs
related to “arts” and “care”, creating a network ofother organizations both within and outside Japan inorder to contribute to the society where anyone canengage in highly expressive, creative self-expression
regardless of disabilities.
https://tanpoponoye.org/

Good job! Project
Good job! Project was initiated by Tanpopo-no-ye
Foundation in 2012. Based in the Good Job! Center
Kashiba in Kashiba City, Nara, new working styles andjobs when collaborating with people with lived
experience of disabilities have been proposed. “New
Traditional” Project was started in 2019 as a part of
the Good job! Project.
https://www.goodjobproject.com/