Sixth edition

NPO Syuto Kanazawa opened the sixth edition of GO FOR KOGEI (Artistic Director: Yuji Akimoto) on September 13, 2025. Held across Kanazawa and Toyama—cities with a long-standing tradition of craftsmanship—the art festival will run for 37 days until October 19. GO FOR KOGEI 2025 features 18 artists and groups from 15 cities in Japan and abroad, including 12 first-time participants.

Under the theme “The Attributes of Kogei: How Can We Reframe Craft?,” GO FOR KOGEI 2025 explores the diverse ways of living shaped by the various practices of artists and craftspeople as they engage with materials and techniques. The theme draws inspiration from the words of Soetsu Yanagi, the pioneering philosopher who founded the mingei (folk craft) movement about a century ago. For Yanagi, “craft-like attributes” were not about personal artistic expression but rather something rooted in an aesthetic or style shared by society as a whole—where beauty and value are imbued. Building on these values, contemporary artists and craftspeople continue to explore materials and techniques offering diverse proposals that enrich everyday life. Visitors are invited to explore these works and experience them firsthand, offering a fresh opportunity to reflect on the role of craft and art in everyday life and society, as well as their potential for the future.

The framework of kogei (craft), which rose to prominence during Japan's modernization, is reexamined in GO FOR KOGEI, which cuts across historically prescribed genres by proposing alternative criteria of evaluation. By reevaluating craft attributes and traversing adjacent genres of art, design, architecture, and so on, the curated festival offers a new perspective on our values and daily lives. Artworks and experience-based programs—such as A New Style of Soba Dining with Artist-Made Tableware by Takuro Kuwata and Kuchi Iwa or the Tea Ceremony at Studio “A” held in a teahouse created by Shuji Nakagawa and Ikuya Sagara—address contemporary questions while remaining firmly grounded in material and technique, inspiring new insights and discoveries.
See the full list of events.

Participating artists include: Ari Bayuaji (born in Mojokerto, Indonesia), Atelier Yamanami (Shiga), Collective Action (Shinichiro Yoshida: Kyoto / Yuji Akimoto: Tokyo), Yuki Hayama (Saga), Keigo Kamide (Ishikawa), Takuro Kuwata (Hiroshima), Yuma Matsumoto (Gunma), Miura Shiro & En-Kai Project (Kyoto), Shuji Nakagawa (Kyoto), Saeborg (Toyama), Ikuya Sagara (Hyogo), Kai Sakamoto (Nagasaki), Chiaki Shimizu (Shiga), Tokuko Shimizu & Miho Shimizu & Øyvind Renberg (Tokyo, except Øyvind Renberg from Oslo, Norway), Tomoko Taka (Ishikawa), Noritaka Tatehana (Tokyo), Kie Terasawa (Shizuoka), Ayano Yoshizumi (Aichi) (Cities without a country specified are in Japan).

Notes
GO FOR KOGEI is a project dedicated to promoting new perspectives on craft from Hokuriku, a region with a long history of craftsmanship. Since its inception in 2020, the project has organized exhibitions and events at shrines, temples, and in areas that embody the region’s history and climate, as well as conferences to enrich the discourse on today’s issues and possibilities surrounding craft.

The term kogei (pronounced ko-gay), which could be translated as “craft” or “applied arts,” emerged in Japan in the late nineteenth century during its modernization and Westernization. Before that period, Japanese culture did not distinguish between “fine art” and “craft.” Rather, aesthetic objects and the practices of making them were understood as part of a single, broader tradition.

GO FOR KOGEI Goes Global
In addition to the annual art festival in Japan, GO FOR KOGEI is broadening the scope of its activities overseas this year. An international symposium was held in collaboration with the Victoria & Albert Museum in London in July, and a special exhibition is scheduled to be held from October, 2025 in response to an invitation from the Tainan City Art Museum in Taiwan.

Press inquiries: info@goforkogei.com.