On the Phenomenon of Japanese Industrial Design

After the devastation of the Second World War, when the world complied with the austere propositions of European modernists, Japan single-handedly rejected the concept of discontinuing tradition in favour of building new, pragmatic surroundings. Paradoxically, the minimalism generated in the Far-Eastern archipelago not only matched the Central-European one, but also effectively safeguarded traditional craft and all manifestations of national identity in Japanese material culture. Before the global conflict, European and American industrial designers would help the Japanese improve the quality of their production. Currently, it is the West that observes the Land of the Rising Sun in an attempt to understand how to re-establish small craftsmanship production and successfully reactivate small communities. Unmatched anywhere in the world, the phenomenon of the quality typical of the Japanese industrial design is rooted in different perception of simplicity and practicality, which, in turn, result from the social-and-religious order, dominant in this island country since the Middle Ages. Understanding of the sources of Japanese minimalism in design helps to fully comprehend what actually caused the cultural sterilisation of the international style accomplishments and why capitalism so easily harnessed modernism and principles of industrial design to the mechanisms of global, widely growing economy. This article is intended to indicate the essence of issues faced by the contemporary industrial design and global material culture by reference to a different, Japanese path of development of this creative sector. The centre of considerations on the subject of international industrial design will be the need of recording cultural values in designs and manufactured daily products, and the role of strong social relationships in shaping the material fabric of the nation. Keywords: Japanese industrial design, Japanese craft, Japan’s cultural identity, Japan’s material culture, modernism