Mishima
Okuaizu Woven Craft
Three weaving traditions using mountain vines and grasses, kept alive as winter handwork.
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IbarakiArt & CraftsKasama
Kasama Ware
A pottery town with no house style: over 300 potters live here, each working their own way.
IbarakiArt & CraftsYuki
Yuki Tsumugi
Silk floss drawn into thread by hand without twisting, then woven on a back-strap loom; UNESCO Intangible Heritage.
IbarakiArt & CraftsSakuragawa
Makabe Stone Lanterns
Lanterns cut from Tsukuba granite by a town of stonemasons working since the Edo period.
IbarakiArt & CraftsHitachiōmiya
Nishinouchi Washi
Paper so strong it was used for ledgers and firemen's coats, once reserved for the Mito domain.
Hitachiōmiya
Nishinouchi Papermaking
Paper is still made in midwinter, when cold water makes the fibres bind best.
TochigiArt & CraftsNikko
Nikko Woodcarving
Begun by the craftsmen who built Toshogu, using a hooked blade that draws curves by dragging.
TochigiArt & CraftsMashiko
Mashiko Ware
Heavy everyday ware that became the face of mingei once Shoji Hamada settled here; nearly 400 kilns remain.
TochigiArt & CraftsKanuma
Kanuma Kumiko Woodwork
Geometric lattices assembled without a single nail, a trade descended from the Toshogu craftsmen.
TochigiArt & CraftsMoka
Mooka Cotton
In Edo, cotton meant Mooka; the trade died out and was revived from hand-spinning up.
TochigiArt & CraftsSano
Tenmyo Ironware
A thousand years of casting; tea masters ranked its kettles second only to Ashiya in the west.
TochigiArt & CraftsNasukarasuyama
Karasuyama Washi
Thick Hodomura paper, used for mounting scrolls and formal certificates.
TochigiArt & CraftsNasu
Craft Studios of Nasu
Not a craft district but a scattering of individual studios, built up by artists who moved here.
Sano
Bell Casting of Sano
Casters here supplied temple bells across Japan; the inscriptions let their lineage be traced.
GunmaArt & CraftsKiryu
Kiryu Textiles
Ranked with Nishijin as Japan's other great weaving city; seven of its techniques are designated together.
GunmaArt & CraftsTakasaki
Takasaki Daruma and Shorinzan
Eight in ten of Japan's daruma dolls are made here, their brows drawn as cranes and beards as tortoises.
GunmaArt & CraftsIsesaki
Isesaki Kasuri
Threads tied and dyed before weaving; as meisen it clothed a generation of Japanese women.
SaitamaArt & CraftsChichibu
Chichibu Meisen
Dye is printed straight onto the warp, so the pattern reads identically on both faces of the cloth.
SaitamaArt & CraftsOgawa
Ogawa Washi and Hosokawa Paper
Paper made from kozo alone, supplying Edo for centuries; the technique is UNESCO Intangible Heritage.
SaitamaArt & CraftsHigashichichibu
Higashichichibu Washi Village
Where Hosokawa paper is made, showing the whole process from boiling the bark to drying the sheet.
SaitamaArt & CraftsKawaguchi
Kawaguchi Ironware
Casting everything from Toshogu lanterns to cooking pots; its forest of cupola furnaces became a film subject.
SaitamaArt & CraftsKasukabe
Kasukabe Paulownia Chests
Said to have begun when craftsmen who came to build Nikko Toshogu started production in Kasukabe, a paulownia-growing area. A national traditional craft.
SaitamaArt & CraftsSaitama
Iwatsuki Dolls
Faces built up in layers of shell white over paulownia paste, a trade traced to the Toshogu craftsmen.
Kumagaya
Kumagaya Dyeing
Dyeing that grew on the Arakawa river, keeping both stencil work and hand-painted yuzen.