Mingei - Lidové umění a řemeslo v Japonsku

The book introduces products characteristic for all the regions of the Japanese archipelago, and focuses on individual types of handicraft from ceramics, textile, wood, bamboo, straw and reeds to handmade paper, lacquer products and folk architecture. Last but not least, it also deals with the influence of mingei on life in modern Japan.

Vlasta Winkelhöferová (1932–2022) was one of the most important Czech Japanologists. In addition to her translations, she also focused on the history of Japanese literature, culture and folklore. As with her other books, the book Mingei – Folk Art and Craft in Japan arose in response to several long-term stays she had the opportunity to experience in Japan. She first traveled there in the late 1950s when old customs, traditions and crafts were still a living part of Japanese daily life. With her own eyes, she experienced the atmosphere of the environment in which folk handicrafts were created. She met folk artists at work in their workshops, spoke to them and collected their work. A large share of her collections thus created later became part of the Asian collection in the Náprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures in Prague.