Materials, Skills and Cultural Resources: Onta Folk Art Pottery Revisited
Author: Moeran, Brian
Source: The Journal of Modern Craft, Volume 1, Number 1, March 2008 , pp. 35-54(20)
Publisher: Berg Publishers
Abstract:
This article looks at a variety of issues surrounding the use of skills and materials in the production of Onta pottery, a style of Japanese mingei, or "folk art," whose methods of production have now been designated an Important Intangible Cultural Property by the Japanese Government's Agency for Cultural Affairs. It relates how a fall-off in market demand has threatened the continued manufacture of traditional forms, and, as a consequence, the throwing skills that underpin them. It also describes how various external developments, beyond the potters' control, have affected their access to natural glaze materials, before showing the potential consequences these developments have on Onta pottery's designation as a traditional cultural form. Its particular theoretical concern is with the ways in which cultural resources are appropriated by and negotiated among various actors, including the potters themselves, critics, aesthetes, government officials, marketing agents, and consumers.Keywords: FOLK ART; CULTURAL RESOURCES; POTTERY; SKILLS; MATERIALS; JAPAN
Document Type: Research article
DOI: 10.2752/174967708783389878
Key:
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
- Free Content
- New Content
- Subscribed Content
- Free Trial Content
Click here for Page Help