Do we take craft for granted?

From the May 2025 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.

In the UK, when someone mentions a national treasure it is more often than not in reference to an actor such as Judi Dench or Joanna Lumley – a figure whose public persona has outstripped their strictly professional role and of whom we tend to think fondly. In Japan, as with so much else, it is a different prospect.

The National Treasures of Japan are officially recognised by the government-run Agency for Cultural Affairs. The laws for rendering ‘tangible objects’ as National Treasures date back to the mid 19th century as a way of preserving fragile and ancient structures in the country, not unlike listing buildings in the UK. In 1949, in the aftermath of the Second World War, Japan’s anxiety about preserving its culture took on an added urgency. The focus of the law shifted to cover not only buildings but also a wide range of objects and examples of crafts.

Perhaps more evocatively, a parallel scheme was developed to encompass ‘living national treasures’ – individual artisans. Supported by the government with an annual subsidy of ¥2m (about £10,000), these craftspeople are considered preservers of national cultural heritage. There is, in an excellently contrived piece of legislation, a limit on how many living national treasures there might be set by the budget. The government sets a budget of ¥232m for the programme and so – with the fixed subsidy of ¥2m – there can be only 116 living treasures at any one time.

Kokeshi artisan Okazaki Ikuo at his studio in Zao Onsen, Yamagata Prefecture. © Okazaki Manami

Some of the crafts that these national treasures specialise in may not readily occur to many Westerners. Ceramics, woodwork, metalwork and textiles fit easily into almost any category of craft. Lacquerware is, similarly, not too much of a stretch and it’s a skill so closely associated with Japan that its inclusion seems obvious. Papermaking, however, might be read as surprisingly esoteric, while dollmaking – for which there are two living national treasures – could be construed as an act of chutzpah. Yet there is something reassuring about a major country bothering to seek out two dollmakers and deem them worthy of governmental support. It speaks of confidence.

Preservation is an increasingly important part of cultural governance. In 2022, UNESCO estimated that globally, the national public and private combined expenditure on cultural heritage for 2020–21 was $89.10 per capita. That’s a significant sum, so it is easy to see how a nation like Japan, which places great importance on cultural heritage, would look for direct intervention to preserve the crafts that it deems essential to its identity. Indeed, such intervention seems welcome.

Right now, there is a curious experiment with tariffs taking place in the United States. At the time of writing, art objects could be exempt. But equally, they could not. Should such a limiting economic policy be introduced it will be interesting to see if the US government proves as supportive of its national treasures – living or otherwise – as Japan has been of its own.

From the May 2025 issue of Apollo. Preview and subscribe here.