Ryuji Mitani is a bit of a local handcraft hero in Japan. He set up his own workshop in Matsumoto in 1981 called Persona Studio, specialising in wooden tableware, working with local craftsmen to try and keep traditional handcraft skills alive.
Soon after, he set up the Matsumoto craft fair, with a similar goal in mind to spread and promote handcraft – a small stone against the flood of mass manufacturing increasingly dominating Japanese design.
See more of Mitani's handcrafted designs
His latest venture is a book, ‘Handcraft in Distant Towns’ celebrating all that’s handmade in three Japanese cities (Fukui, Kyoto and Matsumoto) and Sfera in celebration of the book’s release are hosting an exhibition of the things featured.
Mitani scoured the three cities to source the finest ateliers he could find, settling on ten different craftsmen each working with traditional Japanese techniques, including paper, ceramics, wood, metal and lacquer.
With Japanese mass manufacturing being one of the most fast-developing and successful territories around, it’s all too easy to forget about traditional design heritages and move on to what’s happening in the future. It’s against this backdrop that Mitani’s work is so important, not only for keeping traditional craft alive and in the public eye, but for showing where it all began and how it has its own place in the contemporary design world too.
-
Wild sauna, anyone? The ultimate guide to exploring deep heat in the UK outdoors‘Wild Sauna’, a new book exploring the finest outdoor establishments for the ultimate deep-heat experience in the UK, has hit the shelves; we find out more about the growing trend
-
Highlights from the transporting Cruise 2026 showsThe Cruise 2026 season began yesterday with a Chanel show at Lake Como, heralding the start of a series of jet-setting, destination runway shows from fashion’s biggest houses
-
Behind the design of national pavilions in Venice: three studios to knowDesigning the British, Swiss and Mexican national pavilions at the Venice Architecture Biennale 2025 are three outstanding studios to know before you go
-
Designart Tokyo transforms the city into a museum of creativityDesignart Tokyo presents global design highlights through a series of exhibitions involving global creative talent and traditional Japanese craft
-
Celebrating the beauty of Japanese carpentry toolsNow on show at New York's Japan Society, ‘When Practice Becomes Form: Carpentry Tools from Japan' presents an overview of the techniques at the heart of Japanese wooden craftsmanship
-
Designart Tokyo transforms the city into a living, multi-sensory museumThe third edition of the fair (18-27 October) showcases over 100 exhibitions across the Japanese capital
-
London designer Max Lamb takes a shine to the Japanese art of lacquerware -
How Tokyo’s creative universe is evolving at Designart’s second edition -
In the frame: standout designs from around the globe -
Nendo’s minimalist homeware hacks connect human and object at Salone del Mobile -
Isamu Noguchi and Robert Stadler share a fascinating kinship, despite having never met
