Three official bodies recognize artisanal heritage in the World: the Living National Treasure Certification in Japan; the Institut National Mêtiers d’Art in France; and the international UNESCO awarded status
Living National Treasure in Japan
In Japan, craftsmen must be supported so as not to lose the crafts themselves. The designation of Ningen Kokuhō (Living National Treasure) entered the national vocabulary in 1950 and dovetailed with a mission of providing financial support to artisans so that they could continue their trade. The designation itself is an informal term, deriving from the status of Preservers of Intangible Cultural Properties (Jūyō Mukei Bunkazai Hojisha) 1950, the Law for the Protection of Cultural Properties (Bunkazai Hogohō) gave rise to a financial support system to prevent the dissolution of these Cultural Properties. The initiative developed with government backing from the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and in turn has ensured its perseverance for the following seven decades.
Nanjyo Atelier in Japan produces handmade Sahari bells, using the traditional metal cast- ing process of baking with firewood that their atelier has passed on for 190 years and for which formula they are the sole custodians. Master umbrella maker, Shigeki Matsuda, pointed out that only two facilities remain for making the parts necessary to construct the traditional Japanese umbrellas known as Wagasa.
The Japanese Legal Articles initiative
Developing from the Japanese Legal Articles is an initiative that has now assumed a more formalized governing system in which ¥232,000,000 are now distributed annually to 116 chosen members. This equates to the sum of ¥2,000,000 per artisan – which is around €14,600 per year. The selection of these artisans follows their division into both Performing Arts and Crafts with the latter having eight categories: pottery, textiles, lacquerware, metalworking, dollmaking, woodworking, papermaking and other, with subsequent subcategories. This affiliation can be awarded either to an individual, a collective such as a workshop or for the preservation of an entire trade.
Selection of the designated 116 titularies of Ningen Kokuhō is not an arbitrary choice: membership is for life. The title is correspondingly a recognition for a technical knowhow that has been accrued over a lifetime of work. Certain artists have been members for decades. Toshiko Taira is now 101 years old and joined the qualification list back in 1974 in recognition for her skill in the production of the cloth made from Japanese fiber banana known as Kijōka-Bashōfu. This recognition equates to almost half a century of mastery of her craft. Masami Isoi, an expert in lacquerware, saw him recognized as a Living National Treasure in 1985.
The difficulty in recognizing young artists’ skills
There is one caveat to this Japanese system; it does not facilitate the recognition of younger artists’ skills. In an epoch of ever longer life expectancies, this has the potential impact of discouraging younger artisans for the lack of financial support. Steps have been made in Japan to mediate this with the Japan Kōgei Association. Yet at the same time, there is the question of recognition: for an artisan to establish themselves in the market, they must gain renown to attract commissions in order to generate income. By restricting entry to the List of Living National Treasures by virtue of lifespan is to run the risk of dissuading upcoming artisans from committing to a lifetime pursuing their discipline.
The initiative had a transformational impact on the status of artisans worldwide. In 1993, motions were made within UNESCO to estab- lish a similar program of recognition at the encouragement of the government of South Korea. The terminology adopted was Living Human Treasures as opposed to Living National Treasure in respect to the fact that the award was pancultural.
2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage
A decade later, this UNESCO award was further formalized in the 2003 Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage. More explicitly grounded within Human Rights principles, the General Provisions codified a means for defining an artisan and their relationship to their nation. In Article 2, the definition for intangible cultural heritage was given as practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artifacts and cultural spaces associated therewith – that communities, groups and, in some cases, individuals recognize as part of their cultural heritage.
In Italy, the UNESCO Convention compensated for the lack of a national governing body for cultural heritage. In 2008, the Sicilian puppet theater known as the Opera dei Pupi was the first Italian discipline to be added to the UNESCO list of Intangible Heritage. Though the certification pertains more to the performative element of puppetry, it is also embedded within the craft of making the characters and the staging within which the shows are performed.
According to UNESCO, the necessity to protect this art was driven by current economic difficulties which mean that puppeteers can no longer make a living from their art. This interplay between economic change and the preservation of crafts can be similarly observed in the Italian trades that have achieved UNESCO protection in the following years and which range from violin craftsmanship in Cremona (2014) to Neapolitan Pizzaiuoli (2017) to glass bead manufacture (2020).
Platimiro Fiorenza the last master corallaio
On the first occasion, an individual Italian artisan achieved recognition in the same respect as the members of the Ningen Kokukō, master corallaio or coral worker active in Trapani, Sicily, Platimiro Fiorenza; he is the last Sicilian artisan to uphold this craft. Fusing with his training in Milan in the Sixties and Seventies with the sculptor Giò Pomodoro and his goldsmith training, his background derives from his upbringing with his father, Pasquale Fiorenza, who was also a goldsmith and coral cutter. In the following decades and after his return to Trapani, Fiorenza opened his own workshop that also came to function as a school for students from across Sicily who wanted to learn the craft of coral cutting, or curadurru.
The merits for this contribution to Sicily’s history walks hand in hand with his UNESCO recognition and in turn with Fiorenza’s subsequent projects.
Italy – no recognition systems for master craftsmen until 2016
Yet until 2016, the issue in Italy was that there was no formalized recognition system for master craftsmen that compared with that established in Japan in 1950. This changed somewhat under the vision of Fondazione Cologni who inaugurated MAM – the Maestro d’Arte e Mestiere in collaboration with ALMA, the International School of Italian Cuisine. With a goal to protect and promote the time-honed artisanal practices that are key to Italian heritage, it cites as its direct inspiration the Japanese living treasures.
A biennial Libro d’Oro provides a directory of the country’s maestri d’arte e mestieri. There are plans to expand the number of members year on year, and in 2020, 65 new craftsmen joined the book.
Italy does not have a central governing body recognized by law akin to that which exists in France. This is namely the Institut National Mêtiers d’Art (INMA), founded in 2010, it is recognized by the French state in a develop- ment from the Fondation de la Société d’encouragement aux arts et à l’industrie that was founded in 1889. Its overarching mission is to support the development of the French craft industries and this has been formally accepted within the country’s public sector. In a development over the span of twelve years, the INMA now recognizes some 281 trades. Compared to the Japanese categories for Living National Treasures, the French sys- tem is more precise, because the legislation walks hand in hand with the Legal Framework which in turn demands a categoric specificity.
The respect for the triad of time, materials and quality
There is one key factor that unites crafts and craftsmanship across nations: the respect for the triad of time, materials and quality. The process of dying to produce the Kimono fabric of Chiso-Yuzon consists of twenty dis- tinct phases, while to weave a single meter of Bevilacqua fabric on Eighteenth century Venetian looms can take three months, and it is an equally arduous process to produce the silk jacquards and brocades at Prelle
et Cie, the oldest silk manufacturer in Lyon. Upholding the traditional labor-intensive methods demands an acceptance of lead times.
This respect is tied to an inherent value placed on the raw materials and their prove- nance. This, when combined with non- intrusive techniques, means that supporting craftsmen can also be an ecological consideration. Toshiko Taira is a Preserver of Intangible Cultural Properties: she revitalized the Japanese banana trees fundamental to the art of Kijoka-Bashoju. On Italian soil, the Lou Dzeut Cooperative has revitalized the centu- ries old practice of hand-weaving hemp fibers naturally cultivated in Valle d’Aosta.
Homo Faber Living Treasures of Europe and Japan
A confluence between Japanese and Italian, and European more broadly, attitudes towards the value of craftsmanship has not gone unrecognized, as demonstrated at the 2021 and 2022 editions of Homo Faber Living Treasures of Europe and Japan. When the first iteration of Homo Faber took place at the Fondazione Cini on San Giorgio Maggiore in 2018, the array of artisans involved under the direction of Alberto Cavalli was a reflection of the founding manifesto of the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship to support handcrafting of objects of true excellence.
Taking the Renaissance polyglot as the namesake and inspiration, the non-profit organization has thus far sup- ported artisans through a variety of Actions including Trainee Programs, Collaboration and a digital platform known as the Homo Faber Guide. In its initial concept, this latter initiative served as a register of Europe’s master artisans who had exhibited in Venice at Homo Faber.
Japanese and European craftsmanship
It was with the introduction of Japanese artisans to Homo Faber in 2021 that saw the digital platform’s expansion to a global purview and brought Japanese artisans – and the Japanese official certification system – to the global scene. This was reiterated in the 2022 exhibition which saw the involvement of Japanese curators and designers who, together with their European colleagues, created displays that both showcased Japanese craftsmanship and explored the legacy that the country’s artisanal traditions have had on European crafts. 12 Stone Garden curated by Tokugo Uchida and Naoto Fukasawa exhibited the work of twelve Living National Treasures.
It was complemented by Rinko Kawaucki’s photography display The Atelier of Wonders with its inside view of these artisans’ working methods. This Japanese emphasis was balanced by exhibitions that considered the crosscurrents between Japanese and European craftsmanship as in Magnae Chartae which looked at the working of paper, Details: Genealogies of Ornament with its focus methods on embellishing fabric, and Porcelain Virtuosity which considered the delicacy of the Italian and Japanese objects produced in this medium.
What does it mean to uphold an intangible trade when the artisans themselves are tangible, living human beings? This might be encapsulated by the rationale given for awarding UNESCO status to the manufacturers of glass beads: bearers and practitioners recognize themselves in a collective identity made up of shared memories and spaces. Whether that is knowledge passed down informally in workshops or honed through years of practice, the creation of tangible works demands experiment, observation and patience.
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture.
