New Spins On Ancient Artisanal Crafts

The popularity of Japanese culture—anime and manga, kawaii characters, videogames, baseball players, and streetwear brands, to name a few examples—has been expanding globally for years. Lately, a growing number of collaborations involving these IPs, and western IPs as well, have started to integrate nods to traditional Japanese handcrafts and arts in their designs. Most of the efforts are focused on the Japanese market, but some have distribution outside that country as well.

Several factors are likely playing into this trend. Interest in handcrafts of all sorts, both for DIY use and in consumer products, has been on the rise for the past few years. Classic properties are looking for new spins to keep their brands fresh, and pairing with ancient crafts, especially those with which a property has shared cultural roots, is both a new take and one that is a great fit. And the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry supports traditional crafts (kogei), such as through its Living National Treasure and Traditional Crafts of Japan programs, as do local governments. These efforts have taken on increased urgency as sales of traditional crafts and the number of artisans using ancient techniques have both declined. 

Some of the crafts that are increasingly being integrated into collaborative consumer products include: 

• Kimekomi. This month, Musubi Kiln paired with Hello Kitty to create a line of Kimekomi—wooden dolls covered in traditional fabrics—to mark the character’s 50th anniversary. The dolls show kimono-clad Hello Kitty characters in the style of an apprentice geisha, or maiko, during the Edo period. The textiles are in a range of colors and floral patterns, while the wood is paulownia, a hardwood native to East Asia. The dolls are also Maneki-neko figures; these are the lucky or beckoning cats with right paw lifted that are commonly seen around Lunar New Year. The making of Kimekomi dolls is a craft that dates back to the 1700s. 

• Shibori. Shibori is a fabric-dying craft, similar to tie-dye, from the eighth century that most commonly featured indigo dyes, although the modern color range is broader. The craft encompasses 100 different techniques. In May 2024, the British retail brand Cos, owned by H&M and known for its modern, minimalist, and timeless clothing designs, paired with shibori specialist Kazuki Tabata of Kyoto, one of the last artisans to focus on this traditional technique, for a 14-piece limited-edition capsule collection of apparel and accessories for men and women. Separately, in a 2023 example, Nike paired with RIT dyes to offer a shibori tie-dye kit that encouraged customers to transform their Nike shirts and shoes with unique shibori designs they created themselves. 

• Ukiyo-e. These Edo period woodblock prints historically featured subjects such as geishas, kabuki actors, and sumo wrestlers; landscapes and flowers; folk tales and historic scenes; and the like, with Katsushika Hokusai’s “Great Wave off Kanagawa” being one of the most well-known examples in the west. This is one of the most common Japanese arts to appear on merchandise of late, with a number of marketers combining the Ukiyo-e look with IPs ranging from anime to sports. Last month, Disney paired with artist Takumi to create a range of 17 Ukiyo-e-inspired prints featuring characters from across the Star Wars franchise for Star Wars Celebration 2025, to be held in Tokyo in April. (Star Wars was inspired by the films of Japanese master Akira Kurosawa.) In January, New Era partnered with the Tokyo National Museum for a line of 59Fifty caps featuring artwork by Ukiyo-e masters including Kitagawa Utamaro, Hokusai, Ogata Korin, and Kuniyoshi Utagawa. In 2023, Japanese retailer Beams collaborated with AbemaTV, the Japanese Sumo Association, the bestselling sumo-themed manga Bakido, and Ukiyo-e artist Horihiro Mitomoe for a line of t-shirts, sweatshirts, hoodies, and hand towels, as part of its annual Be At Tokyo promotion, held at Beams Fukuoka that year. 

• Kokeshi. These painted peg dolls are small figures with a round head, cylindrical body, and no arms and legs. They are thought to have debuted during the Edo period, using woodcrafting techniques of the time. They are children’s toys but also symbols of hope and good fortune. Usaburo Kokeshi, founded by artisan Usaburo Okamoto in 1950, developed a system of mass production that combines machines and handwork and now sells dolls under a number of licenses. They include Japanese properties including Hello Kitty, Dragon Ball, One Piece, Chibi Maruko-chan, Masked Rider, Ultraman, Bakabon, Rilakkuma, and Monchhichi, as well as western characters that are popular in Japan, including the Disney family of classic characters, Star Wars, and Marvel, along with the likes of Snoopy, Moomin, and Miffy. 

• Kintsugi. The ancient art of repairing broken pottery by preserving cracks, holes, and imperfections and highlighting them with laquer and precious metals to make a unique artwork, has inspired a few collaborations in recent years. In a 2022 example, Singapore streetwear label Charles & Keith paired with Parisian footwear brand Both to create a collaboration that celebrated Kintsugi, combined with punk and streetwear styles, on loafers, Chelsea boots, bucket bags, and baguette shoulder bags. In 2021, watch brand Undone and strap maker Simple Union collaborated on a limited-edition collection of 300 timepieces inspired by Kintsugi. In one design, a dial with the look of Sometsuke blue porcelain pottery featured a crack that gave a glimpse of the gold gears behind and had a strap made of 150-year-old indigo fabrics created using the Katazome stencil-dying technique. Kintsugi got its start in the 1400s. 

• Daruma. These hard, egg-shaped dolls were developed in the 17th century, when they were blessed by monks to bring good fortune, and they are still seen as good luck charms. Over the years, collaborations involving Daruma dolls have included fashion labels such as the Ambush Japanese streetwear brand, which is known for its collaborations with Levi’s and others and drops a traditional Daruma each Lunar New Year, and characters such as Moomin, Miffy, One Piece, and, of course, Hello Kitty (with licensees Usaburo Kokeshi and Garmma). Hello Kitty also offers a variety of licensed products in other categories featuring the Daruma form of the character, including plush, keychains, facial wipes, and a bento box meal in a Daruma-shaped container at the train station in Takasaki. Takasaki is the birthplace of the dolls and the source of 80% of Darumas made today. 

In a current and wide-ranging example of the trend, Expo 2025, a global exposition set to launch in April in the Osaka-Kansai region of Japan, has a product range within its broader licensing program that pairs its mascot Myaku-Myaku with a variety of Japanese artisanal crafts. The range features Myaku-Myaku figures made with traditional techniques involving porcelain, washi paper, glass, and tin. 

In case you missed it, Raugust Communications’ coverage of trends spotted at this year’s New York Toy Fair was recently published. You can read the detailed recap of the show here.