LUGANO, SWITZERLAND –

One Japanese writer and philosopher noted for his ability to explain his country's aesthetic ideals intelligibly to Westerners was Muneyoshi Yanagi (1889-1961). He analyzed the beauty of handmade arts in the book "The Unknown Craftsman" (Kodansha International, 1972).

Modern masters: Works by leading 20th-century mingei master potters are arranged on the grass in Jeffrey Montgomery's garden. Clockwise from the tall bottle by Bernard Leach (photo center back) are a bottle made by Tatsuzo Shimaoka; a shallow dish with an abstract 'two fishes' design by Shoji Hamada (1894-1978); and a dish and bottle with raised floral designs by Kanjiro Kawai. | HIROSHI ABE
Modern masters: Works by leading 20th-century mingei master potters are arranged on the grass in Jeffrey Montgomery's garden. Clockwise from the tall bottle by Bernard Leach (photo center back) are a bottle made by Tatsuzo Shimaoka; a shallow dish with an abstract 'two fishes' design by Shoji Hamada (1894-1978); and a dish and bottle with raised floral designs by Kanjiro Kawai. | HIROSHI ABE

In this seminal work, Yanagi demonstrated that extraordinary beauty can be found in items made for everyday use. He espoused that objects created by honest craftsmen are often of a high aesthetic order while artists' attempts to make something beautiful usually fail. Of course, we have to see this in the context of history since almost everything before the modern period was made of natural materials that became more beautiful with use and age, compared with modern, synthetic materials that can look and feel unpleasant when new and rapidly worsen.